Vendor Reviews 9/24/11

lmg1115

I got married this past weekend and WOW! Did I have incredible vendors from top to bottom!

see below - reviews were cut off by advertisements on the side!

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lmg1115

As you can see, I'm wordy and love Etsy :-)

lmg1115

 got married this past weekend and WOW! Did I have incredible vendors from top to bottom!

Ceremony Site: Holy Family Church, Chicago  - A
Gorgeous cathedral church. Could not have looked more spectacular. The wedding coordinator there helped keep everything organized. The priest there is a one man show. Only reason they didn't get an A+ is because 2 months before our wedding the priest found out he would have to miss our wedding to be in Rome. We then had to find our own priest, which wasn't bad since we used my childhood priest, but it was a minor hassle to have to re-do that just months before the wedding.

Reception Site: Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile - A +++++
I couldn't have better things to say about our reception site (also where we had our hotel block). From the moment we started looking at venues to then end of our reception we have been so very impressed wth the staff and facilities at the Marriott. Our event coordinator assigned by the Marriott, Kristina Capazolli was AMAZING. She answered questions by email, phone, text within minutes throughout the whole process. She saved my butt on some missing corsages and bouts the day of the wedding by running to a local flower shop and having them made. She was filling up coffee cups and water glasses at the actual reception. She was incredible. As was all the staff there - so friendly and helpful. Everyone said our food was amazing (we had a choice of a filet, chicken, salmon, and a vegestarian paella) and some of the best they'd had at a wedding. The ballroom was gorgeous with chandeliers, extra tall ceilings, and wall sconces. The location of the hotel couldn't be more central to downtown chicago attractions. My bridal suite was STUNNING! I love this hotel.

Cake: Included with Reception @ Marriott: A+
Cheryl, the pastry chef at the Marriott is AMAZING. The cake was so moist and flavorful. The frostings were delicious. We had alternating layers of carrott cake w cream cheese frosting and chocolate/yellow cake with strawberry mouse.  We got so many compliments on the cake. My florist forgot the flowers for the top - Cheryl ran out to a floral shop and purchased them herself. It was something we had talked about when I had my consulation with her and she told me she was NOT going to let me down. Just more amazing Marriott Serive.

Brides & Bridesmaid Dresses: A'Lamour Bridal in Barrington - A+
Super friendly staff who doesn't push you into buying or trying on dresses you are absolutely against. if you have a specific look you want, they will find dresses like that. If you're open to whatever, they will pick out some amazing options. I bought the 3rd dress I tried on. My consultant, Emmy, was awesome. She listened to what I liked, brought a bunch of options in, and by the 3rd dress, i knew it was the one! They have a range of prices; mine was a little on the expensive side, but i fell in love with it. Lots of bridesmaid options - we were able to find a relatively cheap one, at $140

Tuxes: Men's Wearhouse - A
We've heard stories of people having major problems with MW. But we had absolutely none and neither did any of them men in our party. All together, there were 14 tuxes rented from 6 different MW locations - all had the correct sizes and were perfect! We went early to pick them out and have the groom sized - 3 months in advance, I think that helped get everything organized.

Photographer: Colin Lyons Photography - A+++
Colin is awesome. He puts you at ease in a second, definitely knows what he is doing, has awesome suggestions for shoot locations and angles, and is so fun to work with. You can hardly even tell he's there, he's that good. He made our wedding day. He also made our engagement shoot awesome. He spent 8 hours with us on engagement shoot day and 12 hours with us on Wedding day. You definitey get your money's worth with him. He has a great eye for a beautiful shot and we can't wait to get our pictures back beause we know they will be amazing. His second photographer Matt - was PERFECT. So high energy, kept my groom from forgetting his head (and the rings!) and couldn't have been a more fun or nicer guy. I would recommend Colin a million times over and can't say enough good things!

Table linens/Chivari Chairs: Prestige Wedding Decoration, Rolling Meadows - A+
The hotel provided complimentary black or white tables cloths and matching chair covers. But that wasn't working for me. I rented the MOST BEAUTIFUL textured purple tablecloths that looked so gorgeous in the ballroom. They seriously brought everything together. And WHERE ELSE CAN YOU GET CHIVARI CHAIRS WITH SEAT COVERS FOR ONLY $4 EACH?!?! No where. The combination looked stunning in the ballroom. My wedding coordinator said the staff arrived on-time to set up and were super fast and efficient. Amazing service; highly recommend.

Flowers: The Enchanted Florist, Orland Park  C+/B-
This is the one minor down of my day. This is the 3rd wedding David, The Enchanted Florst, has done for my family, so I expected perfection. We had an initial consultation, I brought pictures of inspiration for the bouquets, corsages, centerpieces, and cake flowers. I also typed lists of every bouquet, corsage, boutonnier, and flower I would need (I'm highly organized) and David seemed totally on board. I went in a few weeks later to see mock-ups of the centerpieces (we did 3 different ones; a short, medium, and tall braches) and they were GORGEOUS! exactly what I had asked for.

Fast forward to wedding day... David sends one of his employees to set up. Said employee either misplaced or lost 4 of my boutonniers, 2 corsages, my cake flowers, and my flower girl bouquet. I tell him this and he is completly flustered and goes to call the shop to see what he can do. He never checks back in with me. So my Marriott wedding coordinator gets them made for me (thank god for her) and saves me from stressing out.

I had 25 tables at the reception... 10 were supposed to have the tall willow branch centerpieces to add height to the room and the other 15 were going to have the short and the medium centerpieces. There were only 5 of the tall willow centerpieces... my heart was broken. The 5 there were spectacular - but it looked so off to only have 5 in the room for 25 tables.

I contacted him the day after the wedding to demand a refund for the missing items - we'll see if he delivers on that.

Transportation: Masters Transportation: A+
We rented a 41 person coach bus and a 22 person coach bus to take the wedding party and family to and from the ceremony/reception site. The 41 person coach also took the wedding party around chicago for pictures. What awesome guys these drivers were. They were friendly, helpful, had coolers of water for us (we also used it for our beer/champagne) and showed up on-time, if not early. Jim Venn, the guy I worked with there, was on-top of things and so helpful. We wanted to see the buses a few month in advance to make sure they were new and updated, and they were awesome. If you have a large wedding party (we had 7 bridesmaids/8 groomsmen/3 ushers - then we invited spouses/dates to ride along too) i highly suggest the Coach bus route. Great prices too - for what we paid for 2 buses, i'm not sure you could get 1 trolly for that.

Invitations: The Design Group, Palos Heights - B+
For the invitations alone, she would get an A+ - they were gorgeous pocketfolds on shimmery paper with 3 layers and multiple inserts and gorgeous shimmery purple envelopes with custom printed band labels. people said they were the most beautiful wedding invitations they'd ever seen. However she is definitely very pricey. After finding my ETSY vendors, i realized one of them probably could have made my invites for half the cost. She also dropped the ball occasionally on getting back to me, I was short on components of the invites. Overall, she is the nicest lady though and she does beuatiful work. Shop around though.

Table Numbers/Placecards/Menu cards: Etsy Shop JAXDetailsandDesigns(www.etsy.com/people/JAXDetailsandDesigns">http://www.etsy.com/people/JAXDetailsandDesigns): A++
Wow, she was awesome. She created a custom designed and completely coordinated set of placecards, table numbers, and menu cards. They matched my invitations (which were ungodly expensive but gorgeous) for a fraction of the cost I would have paid through my invitation designer. She is super creative, responds to questions quickly, and does beautiful work. Plus she is SUPER SPEEDY in production! I had everything a week before the wedding! Check her out for your paper needs!

Programs: Etsy Shop Goldeninvites (www.etsy.com/shop/GoldenInvites">http://www.etsy.com/shop/GoldenInvites): A
I had a vision in mind based on something I had seen at my invitation ladies' office. She re-created that vision at a fraction of the cost! They were gorgeous and we got so many compliments on them. She answered questions quickly, made changes when i requested them, she send me samples of paper colors and ribbons. She was awesome to work with. Only reason there's no + is because I didn't get the programs until 2 days before the wedding because she made a mistake and had to correct them. She did correct them though and got them to me before the wedding and they were gorgeous! Highly recommend her.

Bridal Jewelry: Etsy Shop Luxedeluxe (www.etsy.com/people/luxedeluxe">http://www.etsy.com/people/luxedeluxe): A+
I wore the Madeline style bracelet and matching earrings. They were spectacular. So sparkly and well made. They went so well with my dress. Gorgeous. She ships from Scotland but she is so fast and does such high quality work.

Bride's Shoes: Etsy Shop Parisxox (www.etsy.com/shop/Parisxox">http://www.etsy.com/shop/Parisxox): A
I wanted peep-toe shoes in purple with a little bling at a low heel. These were gorgeous! I loved them and my photographer thought they were so fun! Seller was nice and very helpful. My address in paypal was initially wrong and my shoes were sent to the wrong address - seller troubleshooted and got my shoes to my door in 2 days! Awesome!

Bridesmaid Jewelry: Etsy Shop Missjoanshobby (www.etsy.com/listing/71568505/wedding-jewelry-vintage-style-matching">http://www.etsy.com/listing/71568505/wedding-jewelry-vintage-style-matching) - A
Exactly as pictured, reasonably priced, and they looked beautiful with my bridesmaid's sweetheart neckline dresses! Vendor communicated well and shipped on time!

lmg1115

I forgot to review my DJ!

John Marcopoulus from Fantastic DJs in Glen Ellyn - A+
John was an awesome DJ. He really set the tone for the whole wedding - which was high energy and super fun. John made the process of planning for our wedding day entertainment easy and painless. He kept us on track by having us input special dances, introductions, and wedding party members into his website. We were able to meet with him and get a feel for how our music and introductions would sound. Our wedding was so fun - the dance floor was packed the entire night. We didn't try to micromanage John and give him a list of 200 songs to play - instead we trusted him to mix it up and play music all of our guests would like - WOW, did he deliver. Everyone was dancing!