Hello all ^_^
My now husband and I were married on October 1st in Monroe, CT. I know I didn't have much of a presence on the boards, but I did spend a lot of time reading up on vendors (esp important since we were planning from out of state!) and wanted to add to the pool of resources here for people in the planning process.
Hair/nails - Anita's Beauty Salon in Danbury, CT - A+
Fabulous. Tom was easy to work with and everyone looked great (and the girls ranged from one with shoulder length hair to one with hair down to her knees!). By the end of the evening, everyone's hair looked as good as it had in the morning when it was first done. I've had my hair done many times for various events over the years and never liked the final product as much as I did here.
Cake - Varano's Bakery in Bethel, CT - A My now husband had his heart set on a cannoli cake from Varanos, so this was the first (and only) bakery we spoke to. I had every confidence that the cake would taste great (and it did!), but wasn't sure what the cake would end up looking like. They did a great job on both counts. The cake was everything I wanted it to be appearance wise and absolutely delicious. Everyone at the wedding was a big fan. The only minor issue was the cake topper wasn't as secure as it needed to be (and, in their defense, it was a decently heavy topper and probably hard to secure). Before anyone arrived, it had fallen back. Fortunately, we were able to get it fixed and the minimal damage done to the cake was in the back and out of view.
Flowers - Driscoll's Florist in Danbury, CT - A+
One of our favorite vendors! We went in to our meeting with Trish with a picture, a color scheme, and a budget. She outlined our options, gave some great suggestions, and worked to keep everything in our price range. The final product looked even better than I expected and I have had a ton of compliments. They were also super flexible when we had to change the delivery time the day before the wedding.
Makeup - Dawn's Pizazz in Danbury, CT - A+
I'm not a big makeup person, so it was important to me to have someone who knew what they were doing handle things for my wedding. Erin was easy to work with, very understanding about what I wanted, and made me look great. During the trial when I wasn't 100% happy with the lipstick we tried, she brought out some other options, explained why certain things will look better in pictures, and worked with me until everything was perfect. The day of the wedding, my appointment was quick and stress free and the makeup help up great all day.
Shuttles - First Student - B-
Great price, definitely the best we found. The drivers were on time for all pick ups and setting everything up with the company was painless. Our only complaint was with the route one of the drivers chose to take. What should have been a half hour trip was closer to an hour for one of the buses as the driver took the most circuitous route I can imagine between Danbury and Monroe. I would chalk it up to the bus handling better/being safer on certain roads, but we had two shuttles and one driver's route was much shorter and made a lot more sense. For the trip back home, my parents suggested to the driver who took the longer route that she go back the way the other bus used and she really didn't have a good reason why she couldn't (and still took the longer route). All in all, though, everyone got where they needed to be safely and it really was a great price. If you use them, I would just recommend double checking the routes they plan to take/estimated travel time.
Hotel/post wedding breakfast - Marriott Courtyard in Danbury, CT - A
Really a lovely hotel. Everyone liked their rooms and the price for the room block was on par with other prices we were quoted in Danbury. There is food service/a bar right in the lobby and other options in walking distance. We also did a breakfast at the hotel Sunday morning. It was a nice spread with really excellent service (people from the hotel were in and out the entire time making sure we had everything we needed). There was a minor issue with what we were charged for our room, but it was fixed easily.
DJ - Tom Salatto/Starry Night Entertainment - A+
I'm very picky when it comes to music. Tom was awesome from the beginning. He worked around our schedule to arrange meetings, "got" our musical taste and worked with it, and was wonderful even when I wanted a specific recording of the music for the processionals. The dance floor was packed all night and everyone has been very complimentary about the pacing and flow of the evening. Tom was entertaining without being obtrusive and kept us and the photographers abreast of what was coming up. Another favorite vendor.
Ceremony/Reception - The Stone Barn at Whitney Farms Golf Course - A
We originally researched our venues online and went to Connecticut for a long weekend intending to see our four favorites. The Stone Barn was - on paper, at least - the bottom of the list when we started. There had been some issues with communication, mainly that the e-mail account used by the coordinator tended to flag my e-mail as spam. (so, a word of advice to anyone contacting them - send an e-mail, but give them a call too and make sure they know to look for your e-mail!) We also weren't keen on the idea of getting married at a golf course. It seemed too cookie cutter/not very us. Seeing the venue/meeting Christina changed our minds. They have two rooms on site which allowed us to do the ceremony in one space and the reception in another. The venue started life as the old barn and much of the stonework is still visible in the fireplace room. The whole thing was very charming and reasonably priced. The coordinator, Christina, was wonderful. She walked us through the options, worked with us on some very odd requests ( we wanted to take down a piece of decor over the fireplace due to glare and they were happy to do so), mocked up a table when we were torn on exactly how we wanted things set up, and was just over all great to work with. She also allowed us to make our final payment at the rehearsal and bring anything we wanted set up the next day to leave overnight, saving us an extra trip and wedding day stress. The food was excellent and they worked with us to accommodate a host of allergies (including making special gluten free meals for some of the guests). The bartender kept the line to a minimum all evening and everyone had a great time. The staff was very attentive, bringing drinks and food to the bridal suite during cocktail hour and checking on us throughout the evening to see if there was anything we needed. Besides the issue with e-mail getting lost, the venue is kind of off the beaten track which is a bit of a downside, but we were very happy with our choice.
Tuxes - Men's Warehouse - D
Ah, where to begin? We originally decided to go with Men's Warehouse because the guys were scattered all over the country and because we had seen first hand how efficiently they can fix any issues that come up. For our wedding, 6 out of 9 tuxes had issues (mostly size related). Not a great record to begin with, but the real issues came when we tied to get the problems fixed. A shirt was reordered and was still the wrong size, one jacket was never reordered after the groomsman went back to the store to specifically make sure it was, and the father of the groom's tux was given back to him after hemming wrinkled. We were also told (incorrectly) that the guys would have real ties with their rentals. When we saw this was not the case, my now husband called the store to see if they had enough ties in the correct color to purchase. He was assured that they did and made the trip out there only to be told that there were not enough and to have none of the sales people own up to having spoken to him on the phone. Overall, a lot of time was wasted at the tux store over the weekend. At the end of the day, the guys looked good which is the only reason I can't give them an F.
Bridesmaid Dresses - David's Bridal - A You hear horror stories, but we had only positive experiences with these guys. Six bridesmaids, all ordering their dresses from different stores (Freehold, NJ, Sugar Land, TX, Woodbridge, VA, Glen Burnie, MD) at different times. Dresses came in on time, in the correct sizes, and looked stunning. Some lack of attention from the sales person at the VA store, but honestly we were more than capable of going through the racks and pulling dresses without anyone hovering over us.
Supplies for invites, etc -
paperandmore.com - A+ We did all the paper products (STDs, invites, programs, menus, escort cards, table markers) ourselves and used
paperandmore.com for all the supplies. Quick turn around, quality product, with the option to cheaply purchase samples while deciding what you want. Everything looked very professional and the paper/envelopes was a big part of that.
Favors - Chessex - A We did customized dice. The gentleman handling our order responded quickly to our e-mails and, when we were torn between two different color combinations, offered to mock up our design on both to help us decide. The turn around time was a touch longer than anticipated, but the final product looked great (and was very reasonably priced).
Rehearsal dinner - Chuck's Steak House in Danbury, CT - A
They set us up in a private room with our own salad bar. There were a lot of selections for dinner, the food was very tasty, and the price was very reasonable.
Our photographers and officiants were friends and family members and I got my dress at a bridal salon down in Virginia. I think that covers the major vendors.
