My daughter got married on February 26th and I'm back in Vermont still trying to catch up! I can honestly say that the day went by so quickly and many things are just a blur! They warned us about this but it is true! Those 6 hours were gone in a flash! Everything ran so smoothly and we are still getting compliments from everyone. Our theme was fun and it was FUN!
Venue - Jacaranda Country Club - A+
Darlene, our catering manager acted as our DOC so that saved us the expense of hiring one. Everything was set up exactly as we asked it to be. They have a huge space for cocktail hour and kept the hot hor'dourves coming. Our contract was for 5 different types of hor'dourves and they served at least 8 different kinds. The cold buffet had much more food on it than we anticipated. It was all delicious! We had a five course dinner that was also delicious. No complaints about the food at all. The dance floor could be a little larger but we had 172 people at the wedding and it worked out fine. They have pretty lights strung from the ceiling so we didn't do any uplighting, also saving us money. Jacaranda is situated on a golf course so photo opportunities are endless. Staff was wonderful and everything came off without a hitch!
Flowers - Tropical Elegance, Joan - A+
Joan was a pleasure to work with. She is extremely professional and always had lots of pictures to show us. She was very flexible, even when my daughter doubled the size of the wedding party. She understood our vision and executed it perfectly. The centerpieces (glass cylinders with floating orchids and candles) were gorgeous and we got so many compliments on them. She showed up on time and everything looked great. Her prices are reasonable and we were very pleased.
Photography - Jonathan Scott Photography
I am going to hold off rating him pending the pictures and album. We LOVED his work when we saw it. He does photojournalistic style and his albums were AMAZING. We also loved his personality when we met him. Something changed between our contracting him and the actual wedding itself. We didn't "hit it off" with him at the wedding but if his pictures are amazing then I don't care at all! His second photographer was a doll! His prices were more reasonable than others with the same style like Trevor Goldsmith.
Videography - Reinhardt Productions - Kenya - A+
Although I haven't seen the video, Kenya was an absolute joy to work with. We contracted them very late as my daughter didn't think she wanted a videographer. They gave us excellent pricing and let us pay for a set number of hours. I decided to have Kenya stay an extra hour and she did so willingly. She was very motherly (although not of motherly age!) and helped Tara with so many things.
Cake - A Piece Of Cake - B+
This came as part of our package with Jacaranda. We paid a little extra because we wanted a certain design. They didn't execute our vision exactly, but came close. They weren't that easy to work with, always seemed rushed. But the cake was delicious (yellow cake, chocolate filling). It was very moist and people really liked it.
DJ - Liquid DJ's - Shannon A+
Shannon is as good as advertised. He called Tara on the Tuesday before the wedding to tell her he was sick and asked if she could wait until Friday to go over the details. (We had been putting music choices into his VERY user friendly website). She said sure. Knowing Shannon's reputation, I hardly worried at all......well maybe a little bit. He called her on Friday and they spent about 40 minutes on the phone going over everything. He pulled it all together perfectly. She wanted her wedding party to walk down the aisle to "Chapel of Love" and he came with 3 different versions for us to choose from. He was fun, professional, and had the dance floor packed. He did our ceremony, cocktail hour and reception and all were perfect.
Officiant - Rev. Arlene Goldman - A++
This lady is a gem. My daughter had an interfaith ceremony (Jewish-Christian) and she worked with Tara and David to get the ceremony to reflect who they were. She had them fill out questionnaires and used a lot of their own words to tell the story of how they met and fell in love. It was so personal and had many people crying. We have gotten more comments about how great she was, they just keep coming. She incorporated both religions yet it wasn't a very religious ceremony, just as they wanted. She came the night before and ran a rehearsal for a wedding party of 21! She was supurb and I highly recommend her.
I know I have probably forgotten some things. Tara had her hair and make-up done by Puyre Salon in Coconut Creek and althouht they ran behind schedule, we all looked wonderful when they were done! We used many excellent Etsy vendors and I will review them separately because I can't remember all of their names right now. I hope this helps some of you still in the planning stages!