Hi girls! We just got married this weekend and I thought I'd share some of our vendor experiences with you. If you have any questions just let me know
Photographer
MMGPhotography+ Very easy to contact (usually responded to emails in a few hours), very flexible (we changed our date after booking her), all packages include an engagement session (which helps if you're awkward in front of the camera like us), she gives you the rights to your pictures so you don't have to order them through her, her work is great - we loved our engagement pictures!
- The only negative I can think of is if you're very traditional about pictures. She does do the traditional pictures, but some artsy ones as well that my sister didn't care for (but all of the rest of us loved)
Recommend? I would highly recommend her! My husband is very picky, and even he was very impressed with her. They were very great the day of, and I can't wait to see the pictures!
Rehearsal dinner
Station Square
+ They had the tables ready when we got there, we got to pick the menu and they made up the menus for us, the owner even emailed us after we sent the menu, the food was amazing!
- We put the house beer and wine on our menu, and we heard a few complaints about the wine.
Recommend? We would definitely recommend. They made everything very easy and everyone raved about the food.
Reception venue
Davis Center in Mill Creek Park's Fellows Riverside Gardens (ours was in the Garden Cafe)
+ They were easy to work with, the room was beautiful, they made sure things were set up for the vendors, they let us deliver everything the day before, and the park ranger there the day of was a big help.
- You have to pick from a list of 30 caterers that they have approved.
Recommend? The room was
beautiful! It probably would have been even nicer if it wasn't raining, but the room was perfect and I can't think of anywhere else we would have rather had the reception.
Florist
Something New
+ First of all, they are incredibly easy to contact. I spoke with Natalie a lot, and she got back to me almost right away and was very cordial (the last time I got an email from her was a few days before the wedding, and she ended the email with "3 days!") The flowers were beautiful! I'm not a big person on flowers, but the flowers were amazing. They also handled our linens and all other decorations. We met with them, told them where it was and the theme of our wedding, and he just ran with it! The bouquets were awesome and the decorations at the reception were breathtaking. They put candles all around the windows, it looked surreal. I also go really sick when we had the appointment for our centerpiece mock-up, they felt bad and boxed it up so my husband and mother could bring it home so I could see it.
- They are a little expensive, but well worth it.
Recommend? Yes! I can't explain how beautiful the room looked after they were done with it.
Reception music
Walden Players (contact info in the blog)
+ Very easy to contact (they apologized when it took a day to reply), flexible (we paid an extra $25 for them to transcribe a song they didn't have the music for), inexpensive, the music was amazing (we had a lot of people skeptical of a string trio for the reception, but everyone raved about them after)
- We booked a string trio (two violinists and a cellist), which we loved but wouldn't work for someone who wanted a lot of dancing or doesn't like classical music. But we did still have a first dance and father/daughter dance.
Recommend? Yes! While a string music wouldn't work for every wedding, we absolutely loved them! And if you don't want them for your reception, they would be absolutely perfect for a ceremony.
Caterer
Jeffrey Chrystal Catering
+ Customizable menus, they don't have a number restriction (we had a 29 person wedding, many caterers had a 50 person minimum), their food is absolutely amazing (we had many compliments on it), and it was almost like having a wedding coordinator the day of. They also set up everything else, like the place cards and favors.
- Very very very difficult to contact (Mill Creek Park tried contacting them multiple times before calling me), they don't give you a contract (they consider the bill your contract), expensive
Recommend? I'm going to be honest, before the wedding this would have been a
hell no! They were very difficult to contact (it is a husband/wife pair - the husband is the chef and the wife does
everything else), we got the bill around 10 days before and it was
completely wrong (we had to email a list of things to correct). But my husband absolutely loved choosing everything on the menu, even his father who is very picky about food complimented us on it, and we were waited on hand and foot. I thought the reception would be a little stressful, but they almost acted as a wedding coordinator. You do have to make appointments a month in advance, and you might have trouble contacting them, but in the end we would definitely recommend them because they made the day of go so smoothly.