Hi everyone! I know I may not have posted very much but this board was really helpful to me while I was planning. So I wanted to give some reviews in case my experience may help anyone else. Best of luck to anyone still planning! Feel free to contact me with any questions!
Ceremony Venue: Matheson Hammock Park, Coral Pavilion area in the front (B-) The park in general was beautiful but the actual area we reserved, well they did just about everything they shouldn't have/didn't do anything they should have. We were told we could start some set up the day before, when we called to confirm that day we were told there was a wedding going on so we'd have to do everything the day of. The morning of the wedding as we were setting up we noticed there was an active water leak ("flood") at the pavilion. Eventually they fixed the flood but we had to call them about it and keep an eye on it. When we reserved the area we'd asked that the picnic benches be removed and were told that'd happen along with the entire area being cleaned. They didn't do any of that. When we asked them to fix the "flood" we also asked for the benches to be moved like they were supposed to be. Since we were running out of time my husband and a friend moved the benches out of view. However some time between them finishing setting up and the actual wedding park staff apparently moved the benches from where we placed them, to the only other spot they could still be seen by guests. We took pictures on the second floor of the pavilion, which was COVERED in broken glass. So while things looked pretty nothing had been done to the area to prepare or clean for us and our event.
Reception Rentals: Rumba Party Rentals (A+) The reception was held in my parent's home, so we rented everything. Ernesto from Rumba Party Rentals was A M A Z I N G. My Mom handled all the rentals and despite looking in to many other companies this was the only one she felt truly comfortable with. Ernesto was simply amazing to work with. He would answer any and all questions, no matter how many times you asked him. He always gave his professional opinion even if it was to suggest we not rent something from him and he had the overall best prices around. We rented the tent, pole covers (which were worth every penny, they made the tent look stunning), tables, chairs, linens, glasses, plates, serving dishes ... everything! (We also used them for the chair rentals for the park.) I can't recommend this company highly enough. The only reason they didn't get an A+ is because he came late when he picked up the tent after the wedding (instead of "morning" he came at 2PM).
Photography: Taken Photography (A) Alicja stood head and shoulders above the other photographers I met with when picking out my photographer. Her style is simply stunning and her personality is great. After hiring her she moved from Miami to Savannah and traveled down to the wedding at her own expense. Alicja was always open to my questions and concerns. I forced myself to talk to her whenever I had a concern and no matter what I said she was always willing to work things out to make me happy. Despite being pregnant and having to travel from Georgia she arrived as scheduled. She even helped when a few minor details still needed to be taken care of ("finishing" my dress hanger, steaming my veil, etc). I just got our photos back and they're amazing. (Great photos and a super quick turn around!) The only complaint I have is that since it sort of became a destination wedding for all of us we never got to do a run through of the sites and the accompanying pictures we wanted. Instead I only gave her a shot list of family pictures to take. (I forgot to ask for pictures of just me and my Mom and just me and my Dad so I only got group shots with them.) So there were several shots we assumed she'd take but she didn't. We also have no pictures of the cocktail hour so I don't really know what it looked like since I missed that. However the photos I talked to her about she did take and did an amazing job on. So I'm 95% happy with my photos, the 5% is mostly from the pictures that weren't taken. No matter what though, she truly is amazing at what she does, she's an artist. And I'm thrilled I hired her.
Make-up: Make Up Artistry By Jessie (A+) Jessie is amazing, she really is. She's incredibly friendly and does beautiful work. When she was doing my make-up it felt like a girlfriend coming over to hang out, and then at the end I was all done up! Even now my Mom still talks about how much she loved Jessie. She made me look beautiful, while still making me look like myself. She also was incredibly patient. She did my Mom's make-up and worked with my Mom's concerns and difficult skin. She even answered last minute questions I threw at her when finishing some timeline issues! I can't recommend her highly enough, if you're looking for a make-up artist contact her!
Hair: Art of Hair by Claudia (A) My hair looked amazing. A few hairs fell out of place by the time we left the park but that's because it was incredibly windy out during the ceremony and then afterward we took pictures along the water where it was even worse. My hair stayed in amazing considering the lashing it took from the wind. Claudia did a great job and I would definitely recommend her.
Hair Flower: Etsy seller ButterflyEnchantress (A) My grandmother's favorite flower was a gardenia so I wanted a gardenia hair flower to symbolize her presence at the wedding. Well I got something even better than I imagined. My hair flower was amazing! Everyone thought it was real and didn't believe me when I told them it wasn't. The product was stunning, the owners of the shop are great, and they provided great customer service. While it may seem a little expensive you get a great quality product. They also included a very sweet note and a pair of beautiful pearl earrings along with my hair flower. Anyone in the market for a hair flower, go see them!
Cake: Ali's Sweet Treats (A) This bakery specializes in cupcakes, cake pops, and birthday cakes. But they did an amazing job on my butter cream wedding cake. We tasted cakes from all of the major bakeries in town and their cakes tasted bad. It was refreshing to try cupcakes from this bakery since all of their cakes tasted amazing! They also had great customer service! They do day of the week flavors and froze some so we could try all of our options when we came in the weekend we did our tasting. Even their frozen cupcakes tasted better than most of the other bakeries samples! Our wedding cake tasted AMAZING. We combined two of their cupcake flavors: Glazed Doughnut and Vanilla to create our cake. And after everything was said and done it tasted even better than we imagined. (Yes I did make sure to take an entire piece during the reception, I wasn't going to miss out on that!) Their pricing was great and you get a lot of cake per serving since their serving sizes are normal and not the miniature wedding serving sizes. If you're in the mood for cupcakes or need to order a cake definitely check them out!
DJ: DJ Danny Cohen/ DJ Chuck; Power Party Promotions (D) To make a long story short Liquid DJs recommended DJ Danny as they were already booked. Danny has his own DJ company, though sometimes he does also work for Liquid DJs. Danny, while nice, was extremely flaky and unprofessional. My Mom would leave him email and text messages and sometimes days later he'd respond that he'd get back to her soon but then he never would. He assured us that was a fluke and after booking him he told us he was accidentally double booked but it wouldn't be a problem, he might miss the beginning of the reception but he'd make it. After trying for months to meet with him in person (coordinating around the few days I was in Miami) we met and he brought DJ Chuck along. DJ Chuck is part of DJ Danny's company and Danny told us DJ Chuck would stand in for him if he had to be late due to the other wedding. DJ Danny called about two weeks before for the wedding and said he was finalizing his other wedding and would get back to us soon but it looked like he'd make our entire wedding. We never heard back from him. DJ Chuck came as expected, however DJ Danny never came. They were supposed to give us a chance to keep the DJ for an extra hour if we chose, they were to talk to us about it an hour or two before our contracted end time. We never got the chance, at 10 PM DJ Chuck packed up his equipment and left. We found out that DJ Chuck had been given those instructions, so he was just doing as DJ Danny had told him. Bottom line: DJ Chuck was fine, but not super personable, and not what we were expecting when we hired DJ Danny. DJ Danny, well while he seems like a nice guy he was extremely unprofessional and I wouldn't recommend him.
Invitations: Paperandmore.com / DIY (A) We made all of our invitations but used recycled paper from them and it really made everything just pop. Great product at a good price.