I won't give photo/video a grade because I don't have everything back yet but here are more reviews:
Photography: Kimberly Potterf Photography – Kim is SO incredibly easy to work with. She is experienced and knows what she is doing, which took a lot of stress off the big day. Even when my family congregated at the altar after the ceremony because everyone in my extended family wanted to be in pictures, she still handled it well (much better than I did!) and helped keep us on time. She made both of us feel comfortable and natural, and took all suggestions I had in terms of locations to shoot in and around the church. We got a sneak peek yesterday (only 3 days post-wedding) and I couldn't be more thrilled. I am so excited to see the rest of the photos! I know she is super talented and in high demand, so I couldn’t be more confident in our choice.
Videography: Brian Myers Productions – Brian is new to the industry and works out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Found him through a friend and I am glad I hired him while his prices are still low. This guy is headed for great success! I haven’t seen the video yet, but Brian’s passion for what he does was totally obvious throughout the day as he gushed with excitement about the shots he was getting. Both my husband and I could tell this is what Brian is meant to do with his life. The films he created for other weddings this summer are amazing and I have no doubt that ours will be as well. To anyone even considering videography, I am SO glad I convinced my husband to invest in this. We were on the fence - it is a big expense but there truly is nothing like seeing, hearing and reliving your wedding through cinematography. Brian travels to the Columbus area for a small fee, but I am convinced it will be totally worth every penny.
Hotel block: Embassy Suites Dublin C- at best. The Embassy Suites was absolutely TERRIBLE in terms of customer service. The hotel itself was nice and offered good accomodations but they gave me the worst headache of any vendor I worked with. They didn't offer many good incentives to book in the first place, it was mostly out of convenience that I used them though there are many other good hotels in the area. A few points:
--The original sales contact I talked to must have left because I didn't hear from her again after about 6 months out. Then every time I emailed my new "direct contact" to ask about something, a different employee who I had never spoken with replied. I swear I talked to like 5 different people and most of the time had to explain everything to them.
--The hotel COMPLETELY booked up a whole month before our wedding so we had to scramble to find another block!! That was a complete nightmare.
--When I signed my contract, they said we'd have shuttle service, which I assumed meant would take care of ALL of our guests. Then when the day approached, they offered only ONE trip to and from the reception in a 12 passenger van. We had at least 30-40 guests staying there, so clearly that wasn't going to work. And I had to argue big time to get them to give us TWO round trips instead, which still sucked.
--When we went to check out, we were supposed to have our room free because in the written contract, we got one free room for every 20 nights booked. They couldn't comp the room because the "sales department would have to review the bill in the coming weeks and credit our account back", even though I had a copy of the written and signed copy in front of me. Even the manager claimed they'd still have to charge us up front.
--They cancelled one of my guests' reservations because THEY had incorrectly made the reservation for Friday night instead of Saturday night, so the guests were counted as a "no show" for not checking in on Friday and it took my mom calling (on wedding day mind you) and yelling at the manager until they magically "found" an open room. Bottom line = big headache! Go somewhere else!