Here's what I have so far. I pretty much included all the national vendors I used as well as the ones in FL... ones in NY I didn't really include since they are irrevelant here. My reviews are really honest, so sorry if they offend anyone. We planned a lot and expected a lot in return...
Ceremony & Reception Location {Marriott World Center Resort & Spa} - A+ // After getting engaged, there was no doubt in our minds we wanted to have our destination wedding here. We never looked at any other venue because this is the resort we vacationed at. We were definitely one of the first weddings here and you could tell the Marriott was new at them. We feel they learned a lot through planning ours. There were a ton of hiccups throughout the planning process, even down to when we arrived, details were messed up with our reservation, etc. However, the Marriott was fantastic with owning up to their mistakes, fixing the issues, and apologized profusely. From our dessert party, ceremony, cocktail hour, reception, and breakfast, everything was fantastic. The food was beyond amazing and they went out of their way to make sure we had a special day. It was beautiful! I definitely miss being there and I totally miss my wedding!
Day Of Coordination {LOVE Special Events} - F // HORRIBLE. The Marriott outsources Stacey and her company to provide ceremony coordination as part of their contract. We opted to hire her additionally to coordinate the reception and ensure things were set up and taken down properly. Not only did she not do the job WE hired her for, she did not perform the job the Marriott hired her for in the contract THEY have with her. The Marriott felt so badly about this that the Marriott refunded us the money we paid Stacey and her company so we didn't even have to deal with her anymore. Just to give you an idea of what happened:
She failed to hand out our ceremony programs until I said something to her
after the ceremony. She asked me questions on things I'd given her the answers to in writing and told her numerous times. Then, she took forever to get the ceremony going. I actually initiated it and lined everyone up. Then, she proceeded to mess up the line up and had us
ALL walk down the aisle completely wrong, like Josh walked out with his parents right before I walked out with mine. It was obvious she never did a Jewish wedding before, and furthermore had done zero research on how they are supposed to be done.
Worst of all she never even looked at my table arrangements and had placed the wrong number of seats at
EVERY guest table, causing the reception to start 30 minutes late. I can deal with the other things, but not stupid mistakes that involve my guests, making it look like they have no seat was horrible. I basically did not see her the rest of the night. She had said she was going to leave and her assistant was staying. Never saw either of them.
I labeled all my items in bins, repeatedly asking her to save things, and at the end of the night neither her nor her assistant were there to clean up or save half the things I wanted. Unfortunately, most things I wanted ended up getting thrown out and I had to start cleaning up the rest MYSELF to ensure nothing else would get tossed. Her assistant ended up showing up 45 minutes after the reception ended.
When we arrived home I logged on to her Facebook page and saw pictures of our wedding up, with her taking credit for EVERYTHING when she did NOTHING. After emailing her a nasty letter she took them down.
If you want a smooth wedding, stay away. I literally dummy-proofed everything and clearly that was not good enough.
Photography {Mike Biggs Photography} - Pending Album . Day of him and his assistant were fantastic, and our proofs are amazing! I loved these parasol shots he did and morning of we were so behind I left the parasols in our room. Not his fault at all, completely my mistake, but I'm so mad! LOL. So so far he definitely gets an A+!
Hair {Eve Banegas} - F // Looking back I should have booked earlier and gone with someone else, or paid for my hair stylist to come down from New York. Hiring Eve was definitely a regret. She was recommended by our horrible coordinator, however, she told me she does hair and makeup for Disney so I thought she must be good. Big mistake. First, it took her FOREVER to do our hair {which was a waste because none of the curls stayed in anyway}. We started off over an hour late which was soley because she took so long to do our hair. Because of this our timeline was off and pictures were definitely rushed. Furthermore, my hair looked nothing like I wanted. I had a picture of how I had my hair for my bridal shower and wanted something similar, which I didn't get. My mom's hair came out bad as well. Worst of all, my hair fell out and was messed up after we took our pre-ceremony pictures. I was so upset. By the time the ceremony had begun no one could tell I got my hair 'professionally' done and all my curls were out. My mom and I were both very disappointed.
Makeup {her company is irrelevant} - A+// I met my makeup artist through her doing my makeup for all my special occasions {back to when I was 13}, along with my mom's. She became a close family friend over the years and attended the wedding as a guest, and naturally did my makeup as well. She's in NY so I won't bother posting anything else here. lol.
Dress Steaming {Carolyn Allen's} - A // We hired Carolyn Allen's to come to our hotel morning of the wedding to steam my two dresses, my veil, and my mom's dress. They did a good job steaming. They were a little late arriving and I wish they had told us they needed towels beforehand because we had wasted some time waiting for housekeeping to bring some up. Not a big deal, but we would have had them ready if they said they were needed. They also didn't take nearly as long to steam as many dresses as they said to allow time. I'm glad we hired them.
Ceremony Musicians {String Serenade/Jennie Rudberg} - B // I hired a violin and cello to play Disney music for the ceremony. Overall they did what they were supposed to do. At the end of the night my mom had said that Jennie had called and said morning of she may not come because of rain. Thank goodness my mother did not tell me this because I would have freaked. Turned out it did not rain {it wasn't even in the forecast until 9pm and ceremony started at 3:30pm}, it never even rained. In the future she should probably just wait and see or come and see alternate accommodations we could provide her {such a tent of some sort} instead of calling morning of and saying she may not show up.
Videography {Visual Effects by Seth} - Pending Video. Day of Seth was really fun!
Floral Design {Lee Forrest Design} - A+ // Lee was fantastic and fun to work with. The entire process of working with him was better than I could have asked for and stress-free. It was important to hire someone that completely understood my vision, especially since planning from so far away. He sent me pictures of our centerpiece mock ups right when he said he would. He really stuck to the entire contract we had with him, it was perfect. I was nervous I wouldn't be 'wowed' by everything because I had high expectations, but I was. My bouquet was lovely, and our centerpieces were better and bigger in person! Lee personally delivered my bouquet morning of and was there when I stepped in the reception room for my reveal. If you want amazing flowers and stress-free experience, hire Lee! I'm going to miss him now that the wedding is over!
Entertainment & Lighting {Liquid Entertainment} - A+ // Jay was amazing. To say everyone had a blast at our wedding is an understatement. Jay made sure we were doing great the entire night. If someone requested something on our do not play list he made sure to ask us if it was okay to play, which I'm glad he did because everyone had so much fun. He always played the right music at the right times; he is a true pro! We also hired him to do our lighting. You could tell his primary concern was to make the room look great and to keep us happy. He is very honest and it was truly appreciated. He even gifted us some lights in order to make the room look amazing {and it did}. If you didn't already book Jay for your wedding do so now before he books up! He is so worth it! I'm going to miss him too!
Rentals {Quest Drape} - A+ // Quest was great with providing our draping backdrop. They were affordable and did everything they were supposed to! I highly recommend them!
Chrissy O's Designs - C // They are a nationwide vendor located in NJ. I gave them a C because their prices are amazing, but that's about it.
I purchased a Maggie Sottero dress there and had them alter it as well. The first alteration appointment the seamstress was there, however, the second appointment {and the appointment I was supposed to take the dress home} she was not even there. We noticed a black mark on the dress and the saleslady accused us of doing it??? She then said she could remove the stain. She did nothing but pack the dress in the bag so that we could not see the stain unless we unravel it all. We hired a company to steam the dress day of and they pointed out other stains to us. It was the day of the wedding so there was nothing I could do at this point.
The worst part of it all was my left cap sleeve kept unbuttoning day of due to poor alterations. It was so embarrassing! I loved my Maggie Dress, but I was so happy to change into my reception dress {That I did not purchase here} just so that it would stop coming undone in front of everyone!
We also had them add a piece to a veil I had custom made. They were to ship it to us once it was complete. It took over double the time frame they said it would and my mom kept having to call to check up on it. I feel like if we didn't constantly check on it we would have been forgotten. It took so long that they ended up having to expedite the shipping so we received it before we left for our wedding {the day before!!!}! Huge headache!
Mens Wearhouse - My local one F/// but the one in Kissimmee, FL - A+///
Our local MW was horrible - they messed up on every one of the groomsmen, father of the bride/groom, and grooms measurements as well as pick up location.
However, when we arrived three days before the wedding to pick everything up in their Kissimmee location, the manager there was FANTASTIC. She couldn't believe how our local MW screwed the order up and she fixed EVERYTHING. She had to re-order different items for different people. She re-ordered and had everything rushed to us and ready for pickup the next day! She was awesome!
Davids Bridal - A// I got my reception dress from them. Again, my local one was HORRIBLE, but the company as a whole was GREAT in solving any issues we had.
Momental Designs/Rice Ink - A// I hired them to custom design our ketubah. You can read about my issues:
http://stylemeglamourous.blogspot.com/2010/01/ketubah-troubles.html. Even though we had issues I ended up giving them an A. After the wedding we called and spoke with her and she agreed the work she did for us wasn't nearly as up to par as her usual work. She ended up refunding us some money.
MP Artworks - A// We ordered the actual blank Ketubah from them with text. They personalized it and did a great job!
Umm so that's all I can think of off the top of my head! Overall the wedding was really great {until I probably see the wedding video and watch us all walking down the aisle wrong, stupid coordinator!!!}