VENDOR REVIEWS Our wedding was August 15th. We had lots of interesting things happen which will make the day super memorable, but the day was amazing anyway. Let me know if you have questions about any of my vendors or anything else. Kountze Memorial Lutheran Church - A I have gone to this church since I was a little girl. The sanctuary is over 100 years old and has gorgeous stained glass. It is a beautiful church to get married in. The wedding coordinator Joyce was very unfriendly and the pastor does not attend the rehearsal. I know one of the other wedding coordinators and she is awesome unfortunately she was out of town for our wedding. The Livestock Exchange Building/Brandeis Catering (South Ballroom/Carolyn) - A I am soooo happy I had my reception here. It was absolutely perfect. They pretty much do everything for you to set up/clean up besides decorate. Carolyn is very friendly but is not a huge fan of email she prefers the phone. They allow a food tasting which was very nice. There were a few things I requested that did not get set up before we came in to decorate, but Carolyn reserved the ballroom for us on Friday back in May which was sooo nice. There is no way I would have been able to decorate Saturday morning. The food was absolutely amazing. Livestock Exchange Security - C The two security guards were very rude. They cornered my husbands sister and interrogated her for like 20 minutes and gave my father in-law a huge lecture. She will be 21 in March and was definitely not out of control. After the wedding as we were getting ready to go they were making rude comments that I really did not appreciate. Photography - Farrah and Nick Grant - A+ These two were so friendly and relaxed which really helped since we had a few problems before the ceremony. She was able to get the pictures that needed to be taken done and was so understanding. I have not seen my pictures yet but she has a great eye and I really feel like we will be happy. Flowers - Frank at Mulhall's - A The flowers were beautiful and delivered right on time. He has great prices and does great work. He was able to meet with me a few times to talk about things. The bridesmaid bouquets were a little different than I expected but still very beautiful and looked great in pictures. I would highly recommend Frank for flowers! DJ - Mark at Bandstand - A++ Mark kept the whole night running so smoothly. He did everything we asked and checked in throughout the night to make sure things were going good. He kept people on the dance floor all night long; we had such an awesome time. Cake - Linda Tills - A+ Linda makes absolutely amazing cake. We had some left over and it stayed moist and very tasty for over a week. We had sooooo many compliments on the cake. She is super reasonable at 0.75 a slice. She is straight to the point and probably will not spend a lot of time with you or talking on the phone but that was fine with me. We wanted two slices per person and she really tried to talk us out of it because she did not want us to have too much left over cake, but she did what we asked. In the end we really did not have much leftover so I am glad I went with 2 ppp. Weddings by Design (West Des Moines) – A- I absolutely loved my wedding dress. I went to Des Moines because they were having an Essense of Australia trunk show. The day I found my dress they were super helpful. The communication after I purchased was not so good. It took about 4.5 months for my dress to come in. I called after 4 months and had a hard time finding out the status, three weeks later they were very rude, and in the end my dress was there and no one called me. Black Tie White Satin (Fremont) – Bridesmaid dresses – A+ I had a bridesmaid dress from here so I knew about a sale in November. I knew what dresses I wanted and they have dresses of all sizes from each designer so the girls could actually try on their size. Under $100 and they came in about 2 months. BelAir Fashions – Tuxes – A+ We found out about them at a bridal fair. Got a great deal on the tuxes. The shop is not the nicest but the tuxes were very nice. They had a color that matched the bridesmaid dresses perfectly. Very helpful and there were no mistakes. Alterations – Linda Lee – A+++ Linda Lee is amazing. My dress fit perfectly. She is a perfectionist and does an awesome job and does not cost a fortune. I had a belt added to bridesmaid dresses, 11 pocket squares made, she made my veil, and did my alterations for $100. I could not believe it. The best part is that one of the bridesmaid’s zippers broke about 2 hours before the wedding. She went to Linda’s house and she put a new zipper in like it was nothing. She saved the day and I HIGHLY recommend her! MagnetStreet – Save-the-Date magnets – A+ This site is very user friendly. They have a ton of modifiable templates and the print quality is great. They were a little pricey but I found a discount code online. I loved our magnets. Luxury Limousine – Trolley – A+ The air-conditioned Ollie the Trolley was booked and then I found this company in Syracuse. They have a brand new fully air-conditioned trolley and were a little less than Ollie. The only thing I was worried about was that they told me numerous times there could be no alcohol. We ended up being able to bring a cooler on and make some mixed drinks; the driver never said anything. He was early to pick us up, very friendly and a great driver.