Hey all! I just had my wedding and wanted to give you some reviews! Hope it can help!
VENUE/CATERER- La Casa Bella Party Center, Oakwood Village, OH. with D&R Catered Affairs. I give them hands down, an A+! There aren't enough good things to say about this venue. Carol, the coordinator, has allowed me to come to the hall several different times with different people to show them the hall anytime I wanted to, and was happy to do it. I got numerous compliments from my guests throughout the night on how nice and accommodating the staff was to them. This really made me happy! Rita, the caterer, has been AMAZING as well. She took care of every detail so that I wouldn't have to. The food was out of this world--absolutely delicious! During dinner, Carol and Rita both waited on my hubby and I, getting drinks from the bar, making sure we didn't need anything. They were just so incredible and the hall looked amazing! At the end of the night, Rita had all of the decorations cleared and packed up to take, and she packaged up all of the cookies, cake and leftovers from dinner for us to take home. Another thing I have to say is that the communication with Carol and Rita was flawless. They were both extremely quick to call or email back right away throughout all of the planning.
PHOTOGRAPHER- Smyklo Photography, from Erie, PA. Again, if there was anything above an A+, they would have it! Eric and his wonderful wife Katie are the owners/photographers. They were always professional, but brought out the fun in all of us. I've gotten 2 teaser photos already and they are gorgeous! I am so excited to see the rest of them!!! Their level of talent is unparalleled, in my honest opinion. Katie went above and beyond to fix my dress because there was a rogue pin stuck in it from when I had my alterations done and it was stabbing me. lol! They were always open for any suggestions for photos we wanted, but have been in the business long enough to know which ones to cover automatically. I can't even properly express how happy I am with them!
DJ- A Bride's DJ, Cleveland, OH. Our DJ was Lou Shocken. I'm going to give them a B-; although, I'm conflicted on what grade to give them because up until open dancing at the reception, I was completely satisfied. Diana, the owner, was great with communication and providing information. They have a client website with planning tips and suggestions for music, as well as a reception planner, which was really helpful. They also put up a bunch of song ideas and planning tips on their Facebook page. DJ Lou was great with communication throughout the planning process and offered advice and asked if he should take requests, which I told him yes. He got the names perfect, and was great with keeping things on track throughout all of the things (cake cutting, dinner, first dance, father/daughter dance, bouquet toss, garter removal and toss). He also was right there, making sure John and I didn't need anything during dinner, which I think is above and beyond what he's required to do. Then open dancing came along. He played a couple of the older songs the Loveshack kind of things at first, probably for the older people to get into it, but then they just kept coming and no one was dancing. A couple people approached me and said they requested that he play more modern songs or that they requested specific songs that he never played. So, I went and asked him to play some more modern songs and he seemed put out or something. I wasn't happy about this. So at any rate, he ended up playing a few of the modern dance songs, but only played ONE slow song outside of the first dance and special dances, that I can recall. I just kept looking around and seeing the large majority of my guests seated at their tables. I would say that they all could've gotten up and requested them or something specific, but it turns out that they did and he just wouldn't play them. Don't get me wrong, I would still recommend this company, I just wasn't happy with my dance party portion of the reception. Maybe it was just an off night for my guests...and my DJ.
OFFSITE PHOTO LOCATION- Akron Civic Theater, Akron, OH. Definitely an A+! I got lucky because they were somehow not booked for our wedding date, a week ahead of time. I wasn't counting on it being 45 degrees and raining, so I was frantic trying to find a place indoors a week before the wedding. They responded quickly to my emails and it couldn't have possibly been any easier to get the theater booked. We had free reign over the entire theater to take photos anywhere we wanted. It was easy to find and the only word I can use to describe the inside is STUNNING. The photos are going to be absolutely incredible. To me, it was worth every penny we spent on this place, and it was a few pennies for sure. That's the only downfall...the price. Since everything else indoors was booked so far out, we decided to jump on this little jewel regardless of the price. I'm definitely not sorry we did! I loved it! There are 2 photos in my bio if you would like to see what it looks like.
CAKE- Cakes by Christina, Kent, OH. Again, I give an A! Christina was fabulous to work with, from initial contact to the tasting, to the cake itself. I had 5 tiers of cake, each one was a different flavor and it didn't affect the price at all. She answered my calls and emails right away and even gave me a heads up that she was going to be on vacation 2 weeks before my wedding so that if I tried to reach her and she couldn't respond, that I wouldn't be worried. The cake was beautiful and absolutely delicious!! I got a lot of compliments on the cake as well!
LIMO- All Occasion Limousine, Mentor, OH. I give them an A as well! We went with them because we had a coupon from the Entertainment book for 50% off at the time. We had a 14 person limo bus with 12 people in the limo. It could've easily held 4-5 more people with plenty of room, so it was nice and spacious. They had all the ice, cups and napkins in there for us, which was nice to not have to worry about. Our driver was helpful and knew where he was going and most importantly, ON TIME!
Overall, I would highly recommend all of my vendors, but the DJ. I'd highly recommend the company with one of their other DJ's though.
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