I'm going to go in the order that we booked.
Venue: The Cincinnati Club=A
We wanted to have our ceremony and reception in the same place in a downtown location that would be convenient for our many out-of-town guests. We when saw the Cincinnati Club's spaces, we knew it was the place for us. We got a discount on the room fees because we booked a date before Easter. Davis Catering is the only food available, but we were actually pleasantly surprised with the taste and plating of the food at the reception because it was vastly superior to what was offered at the tastings. If you book here, I would definitely recommend going with plated food as opposed to buffet. Beth and Diane were both very easy to work with and made everything went smoothly on the day of. We got many compliments on the space and food, the convenience factor. The appetizers were also a big hit. Don't let their marketing materials confuse you: it's a classy place.
Photographer: Stacey Downey: A+
Stacey's work is just amazing. Stacey did our engagement shoot, a photo guest book, a photo booth/station at the reception, and we had two photographers for the whole day at the wedding. We're now starting to work on our wedding book. Everything has been beautiful and amazing. I think our friends and family have been rather shocked by how great we look in the photos.
We wanted a photographer who excelled at artsy shots as opposed to focusing on posed stuff. Though the posed shots came out great, she makes everything look like it isn't forced. She'll give you a few pointers here and there, but she doesn't say things like, "hold your hands this way" or "pose like this." We do not like the tilted head/closed eye and longing gazing photos. Again, she can do those, but it wasn't our thing. We look like we're just hanging out in our photos.
Our reception shots were just bananas. There are so many awesome shots of our friends and family dancing. On a personal level, Stacey's just a cool person. She helped us relax and look like ourselves (except better looking than usual). I don't have enough glowing accolades for her.
Make-up: Heidi McKenna=A
Awesome! She's just so awesome. Also so affordable. I wanted to look like me at my wedding and I did. She did my test on the day of our engagement photo shoot and I looked great for that as well. Heidi is a wonderful make-up artist and also an interesting person. She's really easy to talk to. Everyone, including the moms and the bridesmaids, loved how they looked. Because of her affordable prices, I was able to spring for everyone's make up.
Florist: Erica Younger at Newport Kroger=A
Erica's quote was 1/3 of the other florists from whom we got quotes. She was also really accessible. She did a fantastic job with our simple arrangements of tulips and bear grass, the bouquets (also tulips), and some arrangements for the ceremony. Kroger doesn't deliver, so our parents picked up the flowers on the day of and put them in place. This really wasn't a big deal. Erica didn't like how a few of the bouqets were looking, so she made two extras so we could choose between them and didn't charge us extra. She also allowed us to buy our own vases: this allowed us to save even more money. They held up really well; we took one arrangement home and it looked great until the next weekend. She's great.
Invitations: Ruff House Art (etsy)=B
Our invitations looked amazing and were very reasonably priced. The vendor didn't warn us the irregularly-sized postcards needed a full postage stamp. The post office held the responses at the post office until we went and paid the difference. This got to be annoying. We were very pleased with how they looked, but annoyed by that situation.
Hotel: The Garfield Suites=D
We booked a block in the Garfield for the affordability and convenience factor. It was then really hard to get a hold of the sales rep, Mick. They shut down our block a month early even though it wasn't full and it took 3 emails and 2 voicemails before he called me back. It turned out that they overbooked themselves. A week before the wedding, he asked us to call our guests to see if they would be willing to move to a different hotel if the room was comped. We did that, so it created an expectation of free rooms. A few days before the wedding, he informed us that they had enough space so no one would move. Our guests were all very understanding about this, but it was certainly a hassle and stress we didn't need during the planning process. To compensate, they gave us an extra night in the honeymoon suite and covered my in-laws' room. But, it doesn't really make up for the fact that they didn't live up to their obligations to us or our guests. There were a few people who were really hoping to book in a less expensive hotel. The honeymoon suite did come in handy although it was a really weird space, so I'll give them a barely-passing D.
Hotel: The Cincinnatian=A
We booked a block of rooms here for our guests who wanted to splurge a bit. Everything was managed beautifully. The staff was very responsive and friendly. My dad sprung for the honeymoon suite on the night of the wedding. OMG. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Rehearsal Dinner: The Wine Cellar=A
We initially looked here because it's so convenient to our venue. We booked there because we'd have access to fancy beer and wine and yummy pizza. We comfortably fit 40-ish people in. The staff was great. The food was great. The drinks were great. We were under our budget for this one.
Cake & Cupcakes: Three Tiers Bakery=A
Again, on a personal level, Angela is really cool. I kept meeting these awesome women who I would be friends with in real life! We booked Angela during our tasting with her because the cake was so good. Because we booked in January, the delivery was free. She's got a huge stand to put the cupcakes on and it looked delicious at the reception. The cake and cupcakes tasting amazing. People basically stampeded to get to them; our venue said they'd never seen anything like it. We had three different flavor pairings in the cupcakes and they were all awesome. I also loved that she made a follow-up call to make sure everything went ok. Angela cares about her business/work and her clients.
Hair: Amanda Rey from Bella Rey=A
Amanda's fast and good. My bridesmaids loved how their hair looked too. Amanda is also willing to travel for free if you're getting ready in the Cincinnati area. This was a huge help in terms of the logistics of the day.
Videography: Dan Dugan=A
I work with Dan at our full-time jobs, so when he offered up his services I jumped at the chance. He's a sweet and reliable guy...super-duper calm. He shot everything in HD, so we now have Blu-Rays of our wedding reception and ceremony. Fun! He also did a great job with our "music video"...it really matches the mood of the day. We weren't going to have a videographer, but now we're so glad we did. Our toasts were wonderful and now we have a record of them, plus the record of the ceremony. My fella and I teared up when we watched the ceremony.
Blurb: Ceremony Book=A
We wrote our ceremony with the help of our officiant and then used blurb to make a hard cover book with the text and engagement photos. We accidentally inserted an extra page and thought it was their fault. They explained that it was our fault, but gave us a $50 credit anyway. By the way, they were right: it was our fault.
Our officiant had our entire wedding party sign the book and then he used it during the ceremony. We're really glad we did this and I would recommend it to anyone.
Prestige AV: Sound Equipment=F
We did an iPod reception and I talked to Prestige about 5 months out from the wedding. 2 weeks before the wedding, the rental guy informed me that we couldn't rent from them because we were using the speakers for a wedding reception. (I explained this to him on 4 different occasions prior to that day.) He was really condescending during that last conversation. Quite a jerk.
ICB Audio: Sound Equipment=A
ICB was able to rent us the right equiment and even gave us a diagram after Prestige bailed on me. It was easy to set up and easy to pick up and return. I would highly recommend them and have since used them for another event. They're very reasonable. If you do an iPod reception, I'd recommend getting an iPod mini because it allows you to do the DJ mix where the songs overlap.
I think that's it! Congrats if you made it this far.