7/24 Vendor Reviews
Ceremony Site: St. Aloysius Orphanage-A
I’m so happy with choosing St. Al’s. We found it really difficult to find a pretty church
at a reasonable price. There are tons of beautiful churches in Cincinnati but most were
either too expensive or require you to be a member or to use their officiant. St. Al’s is
definitely a little gem. It’s a beautiful church and we could use our own pastor which
was really important to us. I loved that they include a day of coordinator with the rental
fee. It helped everything to go smoothly and we didn’t have to worry about setting up
the church ourselves. Kelly was really helpful during the planning process as she always
answered my questions quickly and made sure everything went the way we wanted. The
only qualm I have is that I wish we would’ve gotten the space for more than 3 hours. It
made it hard to pick a ceremony time and also have time to do pictures. But, overall we
had a great experience and I highly recommend checking it out. They offer a great service
in a great space at a great price.
Reception Venue: Wetherington Country Club-A
I am very happy with our decision to have our reception at Wetherington. They have
the best customer service I experience while searching for a venue. Sean was really
welcoming and accommodating of everything we wanted. The food was awesome and
everything was reasonably priced. During the reception, the wait staff was really on top
of everything. They also gave the bridal party a complimentary bottle of champagne.
They did all the decorating for us so we didn’t have to worry about setting up anything. I
definitely recommend Wetherington.
DJ: Lewis Connell DJ Butlers-C
I struggled over the rating for DJ Butlers. We had a bunch of problems leading up to
the wedding but the actual reception went well. If I could rate Lewis just based on
performance at the reception, I would give him an A. However, it was really difficult
to set up a meeting time with him. We ended up doing it over the phone the week of
the wedding. There was some really poor communication on the part of DJ Butler’s
management. Overall, my recommendation would be to go with another agency.
Cake: Flying Buttercream-A+
Tiffany was awesome to work with. I changed my mind on what I wanted several times
through the planning process. She was very accommodating. The cake tasted amazing.
I had a hard time finding a baker whose cake didn’t taste like a cake mix. Her cake
was perfect. I got chocolate cake with fudge and raspberry filling and white cake with
white buttercream. Both were very moist and were made from scratch. Her prices were
also the most reasonable I found in the area. I definitely recommend her to anyone!
Photographer: Dolce Vita Photography-A++
I cannot say enough good things about Kristie. I haven’t gotten pictures back from her
yet but I know they will be awesome. Her and her assistant, Maria, really went above and
beyond for us. They stayed late at the reception to make sure they got everything. They
were a blast to work with and really made us feel comfortable in front of the camera. I
highly recommend her.
Flowers:
Sam’s Club-F
Fifty Flowers-A
Oberer’s-A+
Flower’s by Dawn-B
Ok, so there’s a long story behind my flowers. Here’s the short version. I decided
to do flowers myself and order them online. I ordered garden roses for my personal
bouquet from fiftyflowers.com. I ordered regular white roses for everything else
from samsclub.com. I decided I didn’t want to make the corsages and boutonnieres
myself so I had those delivered to the church by Flowers by Dawn in Norwood.
The flowers from Fifty Flowers and Sam’s Club were to be delivered the Thursday
before the wedding. I got an email at 1am on Thursday morning from Sam’s Club saying
my 125 white roses could not be delivered for some reason. After some panicking and
lots of phone calls, I ended up driving from Covington (parent’s house) to Oberer’s in
West Chester. They happened to have 125 white roses in stock that I could purchase
wholesale. I got there and they had the flowers waiting for me plus an extra 25 incase
any bruised. I should’ve just bought them there in the first place! I got my roses home
and they were beautiful. They had HUGE flowers heads and were a beautiful ivory color.
10 minutes after I got them home, FedEx came to the door with a delivery. It was the
flowers from Sam’s! I called Sam’s and they said it was a mistake. They never charged
my credit card and they wanted me to return them! How does one go about returning
fresh flowers?! After 2 hours on the phone with them, they finally told me I could just
throw them out. I said I would happily throw them out after I was done using them. So,
we ended up with twice as many flowers as planned!
The ones from Fifty Flowers came and were gorgeous. They were supposed to be blush
pink but were really more of a peach color. That was OK with me. They opened up
beautifully and were really fragrant.
I was originally going to make the boutonnieres myself but got quickly overwhelmed.
2 weeks before the wedding I called Flowers by Dawn to order them. It came to a total
of just over $100 for 10 boutonnieres and 3 corsages including delivery! She was really
flexible as to what I could have in terms of colors and style. However, when we got them,
the flowers were really dinky looking. A bunch of them fell apart also, but they help up
long enough for pictures. You get what you pay for I guess.
Dresses: Bridal and Formal-A
I know people have mixed feelings about Bridal and Formal. I did feel like just a number
when I was in there. But, other salons didn’t have many dresses in my price range (about
$1000). I found an amazing dress. I also got a great price on my bridesmaid’s dresses.
Their dresses were originally about $180. I got a 20% discount during a Halloween sale
and another 20% since I bought my dress there. So they ended up being about $120. All
in all, I would go there again.
Rings: Koop’s Diamond Cutters-A+
I am so impressed with the level of customer service I received from Koop’s. I had a
problem with my original engagement ring. It kept dropping stones from the band. Justin
was so helpful in helping me choose another setting. Their turnaround time is great. The
only negative thing I can think of is that they aren’t very convenient to get to. They are
located downtown and are only open M-F 8a-4p. If you work full time it’s difficult to get
there.
Hair: The Mandarine-A+
I LOVED The Mandarine in West Chester. It has since changed to Four Elements Salon.
Lori did my hair and she was amazing. I think I paid about $100 for hair trial and day of.
My mom and one of my BM’s paid about $35 for theirs. Can’t say enough good things!
Hotel: Wingate Inn in West Chester-A+
The Wingate was awesome and it’s right around the corner from Wetherington. We got
our room for free since we booked about 15 rooms. The room was HUGE. It had giant
picture windows also. The only problem was that there was a wedding at the hotel the
night my guests were staying there. They had music playing until really late and one
of my guests complained about the music. They ended up getting their room for free!
The staff there was really helpful.