My wedding was 10/22/2010 in Omaha. I had a semi-formal wedding and reception with 100 guests. I did a lot of DIY and scouting the internet for decorations, so I may make a list of helpful websites later. But here's the main peeps that made my wedding wonderful...
Venue- The Club at Indian Creek: A+
Our coordinator there, Jennifer Preheim, was fabulous. Kind, knowledgable, flexible, never ruffled, communicated quickly. She was my favorite person to work with. We had our ceremony in the Pawnee Room and the reception in the Lakota Room. The place is pretty neutral on its own, but dressed up nicely with our decorations.
Food- Abraham Catering: A-
Indian Creek works exclusively with this company. Their hors d'oeuvres, chicken, and beef are delicious, but their salads, potatoes, and vegetables weren't that great. We also had a vegetable lasagna that was kinda icky. There service staff is wonderful (guests commented on how friendly and sweet the ladies were). The manager, Brian, did the tasting with us was very helpful in answering my questions, but after inquiring what I do for a living (cashiering), he got kind of snooty.That made me feel like crap.
Flowers- Frank Piccolo at Mulhall's: A+
Frank did an awesome job. I was very specific with what I wanted and brought in pictures. He totally understood my vision and nailed it with the final product. He warned me that one of my flower choices may be unavailable for the season, but he managed to get plenty of it. Oh, and the prices were cheap cheap cheap! He can be a bit hard to get a hold of on the phone, but tends to email within a week.
Cake- Molly Graham, Graham's Goodies: B
Molly's cakes are absolutely delicious (our guests devoured ours). We also ordered petite fours from her which turned out very cute. We had lemon cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. We had asked for piping on our cake, and there was none. The cake was iced neatly and smoothly, but there was no detail and looked unfinished. Maybe she ran out of time? Also, she went AWOL when we tried to contact her to coordinate what time she would be delivering the cake. It was very stressful because we were close to wedding time.
DJ- Complete Music and Video- D
We went through months of getting the run around and were reassigned DJs FOUR TIMES (they accidently double booked the DJ we ahd requested and made a deposit for and it all went downhill from there). We received contact from our fourth and final DJ during the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding. Ugh! The DJ did actually do a wonderful job (he saved my review from being an F). These reassignment issues occured within two weeks of the wedding! It was so frustrating working with this company. Besides the DJ reassignments, it was impossible to get a straight answer about when we would be able to speak with our DJ about the wedding details, as well as other basic information. We kept on specifying times for our DJ or the manager to call us, and we would wait by the phone and never get a call. This company sucks!
Bridal Gown- Bridal Tradtions- A
They have a beautiful selection. Most of their samples are a size 10 or 12. I fell in love with my dress just before the holidays, but had to wait to purchase it in the new year, only to find it was discontinued! They called and begged the company to make one more, and they made it happen! They were great help with bridemaids and MOB dresses as well. However, they left me uniformed when shoping for a veil, and I ended up ordering a veil that turned out to be hideous! Also, avoid having your dress altered by Kim. She was a total wingnut who made mistakes altering my dress (removed boning that wasn't supposed to even be touched, had to hem it shorter twice) and even "forgot" to finish it in time for my final fitting. Masha, the lady who altered MOB and bridesmaid, was awesome, so ask for her.
Photographer- Leni and Derek Hester, DandLPhotography: B-
They are a wife/husband team. My mom reccommended them to me after having befriending Leni through a coworker and taking my sisters (who are toddlers) for portraits. They are both very friendly, and their prices are reasonable, but I didn't feel I received professional service from them. Our photo time after the ceremony was completely scattered. None of the pictures of the groom's side of the family had me included in them, my groom and I were seated in nearly every photo (not the most flattering way to show off a wedding dress), no attention to detail (my train wasn't straightened, my veil was sticking to a family member standing by me, a damaged bouttoneir was left unadjusted). They laughed and bickered like husband and wife at home, not like two pros on the job. They are very sweet people, and would reccommend them to anybody having a very laid-back, feel-good wedding, but I am very concerned about having salvageable photos.
Harpist- Kathleen Wychulis- A+
Everyone was so impressed that we had a live harpist! She is the harpist for the Omaha Symphony and has a wider repetoir than another harpist we interviewed who did weddings exclusively. Her performance was flawless and she was wonderful at helping us choose the perfect music for our ceremony.
Chairs and Linens- AAA rents: A
We mainly worked with Missy. She was very helpful, and did a good job of keeping up with changes we made to our order throughout our wedding planning. Two other ladies working there weren't helpful and rushed our meetings. The selection at AAA is pretty basic. We found out that the table overlays we wanted weren't available in the size we needed, which was dissappointing. We rented black wooden padded chairs, linens for cocktail tables, and a backdrop for the ceremony. A few of the chairs weren't in great condition.
Favors- CandyHouse.Net : A+
We got custom printed mini boxes of truffles as favors for our guests. The truffles were beautiful and delicious. We bought extra to taste test, there were no icky ones at all! The company was able to convert an image I created on my computer into a print for the boxes. They shipped everything in insulated packaging just days before the wedding, so everything would be fresh and not melted.
I hope these reviews are helpful to you!