I bought my Modern Trousseau dress, veil and jewelry from TWD and also had my alterations done there. I had a great experience there - from the day I bought it to my accessories appointment to my fittings. Penny did my alterations and she did an awesome job! It was a sample so she had to take it in a decent amount and it looked great. There was also a part in between where my legs were that kept looking like a dark spot (I think because there was nothing behind it). Over the course of the alterations she added extra crinoline and lining to ensure that the dark spot would go away. Also, she sewed in a monogram for me that I had bought on etsy. Although Clinton was over an hour drive for me, I'm so glad I did the alterations there and wouldn't have trusted it to anyone else.
I used Angela for my hair and Janice for my make-up. Both were very professional and did a great job! I had two trials with Angela but ended up using a completely different hairstyle the day of and it came out great. She was great to work with. I have an extraodinary amount of thick hair so while I really wanted a classic chignon, it was just too much and ended up giving me a headache. A few days before the wedding I sent her a different hairstyle and she was able to recreate it beautifully! Despite the heat (it turned out to be about 90-95 degrees that day) it held up pretty well! Janice also did a great job. I wanted to wear make-up but not look too done up that I didn't look like myself. She did a great job of keeping it natural and classic but also looking more than what I do everyday. Both Janice & Angela were very responsive through e-mail and had great communication!
They arrived on time and were very friendly and professional. We hired them to do 4 runs before the wedding from the Inn to the Barns and then for them to pick my husband and I up after our sparkler exit. They also ended up going back to the Barns after they dropped us off to pick up my parents and the rest of the bridal party even though that was not what we had contracted them to do. Thank goodness they did because the bus never returned to pick them up!
We used first student as our shuttle for our guests. There was a mix-up and I'm not sure if it is due to the Inn or the bus itself but from what I understand they only ended up making one run from the Inn to the Barn before the wedding. We had 47 rooms booked at the Inn so I am sure that there were more guests who wanted to take the shuttle but ended up not being able to.
The Inn at Middletown - B+
Overall, we had a good experience with them. We had a lot of guests staying at the Inn - we had 47 rooms booked. Two things I wasn't happy about - I heard from some people that they didn't get our OOT bags. There was also one for me (I didn't know) that was never given to me when I checked in. My parents picked it up because they saw it behind the counter and it said Whitney (Bride). Also, they had me fill out a survey for them before with information regarding shuttles, etc. One question was if you had a shuttle and when does it run? I wrote that it would run from 3:30-11:30 because we had it for a block of hours. They told our guests that there was only one shuttle run and it was at 3:30 so many ended up driving to The Barns. I'm not sure whether it was the shuttles fault or the Inn's fault because from what I know the bus never returned to the Inn. The rooms were very nice though and they were helpful and accommodating.
Gray Cloud Print - Stationary - via etsy - A http://www.etsy.com/shop/GrayCloudPrint?ref=pr_shop_more
We used Anna for all of our wedding stationary - our STDs which included an accomdations card, our invitations which included invites, response card, reception card, directions card and accommodations card, our rehearsal dinner invites, our menus, programs, favor stickers, OOT bag stickers & inserts for the OOT bags, and thank you cards. We even used her for my bridal shower invitations, favor tags & thank you cards. She did a great job! In the beginning I emailed her with an invitation suite I found in Southern Living Weddings magazine. From that inspiration, she created our custom wedding logo that we used throughout our stationary. For our invitations, I told her that I wanted our suite to have the same theme but for the cards to look different. Based on my vague description, she came up with an awesome suite! I loved them! There was a hiccup or two along the way but she always came through and corrected anything that was wrong in an extremely quick manner. She was wonderful to work with and had great communication.
Calligraphy - Rachel Carl Co. - B+ http://www.etsy.com/shop/RachelCarl?ref=shop_sugg We used Rachel for our calligraphy on our STDs & invitations as well as for our place cards. I shopped around and she had some of the best prices I found. When we first started with her I think her business was smaller and still developing. As it got closer to our wedding, she seemed to get busier and a little bit spread too thin. She did a beautiful job and I loved her calligraphy! We used white ink on kraft paper envelopes and it went perfectly with our theme. However, she did make some mistakes that caused a lot of stress. Our invitations were already late going out and when I got the envelopes back from her, I realized she forgot to do 2 pages of addresses that we gave to her. For our place cards, I wanted them to be on small, flat cards so that I could hole punch them and tie them around our honey jars for our favors. She had this as an example on her etsy site, only tied around a teacup. When they arrived (late because there was a miscommunication about when they should be returned) they were on tented cards. In the end, I'm so glad for the mistake but I love the way we ended up displaying them but it stressed me out at first. Overall, she did a great job but it did get to be hard to deal with the occasional mistakes.
Decor - The Funky Shack via etsy - A http://www.etsy.com/shop/thefunkyshack?ref=pr_shop_more We used The Funky Shack for a lot of our wedding decor. They were awesome, especially for a barn wedding! We got burlap runners, barn wood chalkboard table numbers, our barn wood cake stand, our barn wood and chalkboard card box, several barn wood chalkboard frames and several barn wood picture frames. They were great to communicate with and very helpful, even getting some frames with just days to go! They were willing to work with me on custom orders as she has a carpenter she uses who can make most things. I'll be selling several of the pieces from them so if anyone is interested, let me know!