Sauer Cakes- D This one is tough, because I hate to say anything negative because our wedding really turned out so well, but Michelle was a nightmare to work with. She was a preferred vendor at the Athenaeum, and although we didn’t go with her simply for this reason, it did cause us to put a little extra faith in her. She was great at our tasting and all of her cakes were delicious. I think she is moderately priced and also does flavor changes, filling changes, etc. on each level for no additional charge, which was great because we (my husband in particular) had a hard time deciding between all her delicious flavors. But once we booked her, things really went downhill. I tried contacting her for over a month prior to our wedding (email, phone, voicemails, the works) and got ZERO responses. Finally I heard from her less than one week before our wedding, and she gave no apologies, just told us that she was busy and would get back to me later that day. Three days later (just days before our wedding), she finally got in touch with me. I completely understand that she was probably busy, especially during this busy wedding season, but her behavior was completely unacceptable. I was pretty organized through the whole process, but this made me crazy and I was completely helpless to do anything at that point. I just don’t think a vendor should cause anyone this much stress; up until a few days before my wedding I wasn’t even sure if she’d show up! I’ve since read a couple similar reviews, so I think this is a regular thing for her. We tried to do our due diligence before booking vendors but I read some good things about her initially and she seemed great, so we thought she’d be fine. Needless to say I’ll be letting the Athenaeum know that they may want to reconsider using her as a preferred vendor. In the end, she did show up, and the cake was very good, although the design left a little to be desired, but I would have liked to avoid some of the stress along the way!
Buckeye Entertainment- A+ Another vendor that I have so many good things to say about! I have to say, I really think Byron needs to charge more! (although I’m glad he didn’t before my own wedding). We had him play music at our ceremony as well to avoid having the extra cost of musicians, and even including that, he was half the cost (if not even less) than the other dj’s we considered. He completely understood what we were going for at the reception, and did a great job judging the crowd and getting people up and dancing. He was as un-cheesy as possible, which I appreciated because I’ve seen some pretty bad ones at weddings! And he was so easy to work with and found several songs we had asked for that were a little less common and needed some searching. He and our photographer have also worked together quite a bit, which made things go even more smoothly, since (even though I never considered it much before), they do depend on each other quite a bit to communicate so that the photographer doesn’t miss any big picture moments like the first dance, etc.
Ashley West Photography- A+ I decided to give my husband boudoir pictures as a wedding gift, and after seeing some of the shoots Ashley has done, I just couldn’t resist booking her. She was a little pricey, although reasonably comparable to others I’d researched. I was a little disappointed because I had seen some outdoor shoots she had done where she sets up a bed, a chandelier, etc outdoors and they’re absolutely stunning, but unfortunately she only does them about once a year and wouldn’t be doing them until after my wedding. So we did our shoot in a hotel room, and she did an amazing job! It’s definitely a little bit of an uncomfortable situation posing for a stranger in your lingerie, but she made me feel as comfortable as possible, and the pictures were beautiful. I was so nervous about how they’d come out, and they were better than I could have imagined! She also got me the pictures for review three days after the shoot (even though she had a wedding that weekend) and once I picked the pictures for my album, had it ready for me within a week, so with regards to time she was great!
Flowers on Springtree Lane- B+ Flowers are one of the places we really cut our budget so we didn’t have a ton, but Robin and Anne did a great job on what we did have. I think their prices were really reasonable, and they were so easy to work with. My only complaint is that I used a piece of my grandmother’s wedding dress in my bouquet (around the stems) and asked them to do their best to preserve that piece of lace, and they glued it to the bouquet so it really wasn’t salvageable afterwards. We took it from a pretty inconspicuous place on her dress, and I don’t think anyone will ever wear it again anyway (I considered it but eventually decided against it, so this was a way for me to keep a piece of her with me), but I still wish they had thought about that part a bit more. I did tell them if it wasn’t possible I would understand, so I suppose they just couldn’t make it work without the glue. But other than that, they did do a great job.
Wendy’s Bridal B+ We looked for bridesmaid dresses a few places, and ended up finding exactly what I was looking for at Wendy’s. No offense to those out there that have used David’s Bridal because I’m sure there’s plenty of people who have had good experiences there, but I’ve had to buy several bridesmaid dresses there and had horrible experiences every single time. So I knew from the beginning I wanted nothing to do with that place, but still wanted to find something reasonably priced for my girls. Wendy’s was definitely a good compromise, and they were able to get their dresses on sale so it was an even better deal! Their service was a little so-so, but I only had two bridesmaids and had a good idea of what I wanted, so I guess I didn’t need a ton of help anyway. But they did come through exactly on time, etc. so I really can’t complain. And for the price, unbeatable!
The Max Salon- Short North- A I had my hair and makeup done here, and both were great! It was a little pricier than some other places, but nothing out of control, and being able to have both done there, as well as the bridesmaids’ and my mom’s hair all done at the same time as well, the convenience more than made up for a few extra dollars, especially in those hours before the wedding where I was starting to stress! Kat did my hair and did a great job. Jade did my makeup (I had it airbrushed..again, a little pricer than necessary but I figured I’d never have a good reason to have my makeup airbrushed after this!) and she did a great job as well.