Hello Knotties! We finally tied the knot this weekend and it was absolutely amazing! I wanted to provide a vendor review for all of the newbies looking for ideas... Here it goes! Our Budget - $15,000. Our actual costs - $17,723. Guests - 140 people total.
Ceremony - First Christian Church in Platte City. Wonderful venue. It is a non-denominational church. Historical landmark built in the 1800s. The church is tiny and will fit 150 max. It does not have a center aisle, rather two aisles. When you walk in, you can't help but be swept away by the woodwork and beautiful stained glass. I loved it because we packed the house, so the wedding had the image of "full" instead of being in a huge church and only being able to fill a quarter of the pews... kind of depressing! lol. We loved it! Quaint and a ton of character! Very affordable, less than $500. Pastor Kerry is awesome and very funny. He definitely puts you at ease on your wedding day.
Reception - Seven Bridges Clubhouse in Platte City. Gorgeous Venue! It reminds me of a ski lodge in Aspen. Wonderful deep colored wood, spanish tiles and vaulted ceilings make this an idyllic setting. They let you bring in your own everything. Your own alcohol. Your own caterer, and so on and so forth. You must set everything up for your reception, but they were very accommodating and let us in the Friday before to set up. Karen is nice to work with. Sometimes very hard to get a hold of when you had questions, but overall a pleasant experience.
Catering - Reliable Choice Catering. I am officially in love with them! The food is fantastic. We received compliments all night long about the huge selection and great tasting food. They are VERY AFFORDABLE. Amy and Gregg are two of the kindest people you will ever meet. They catered to our every need, provided cake cutting services, and took charge of the day-of-coordination. Their presentation was beautiful and matched our decor exactly (we had an Asian-fusion theme). I would HIGHLY recommend.
Alcohol - Gomers in Parkville. The gentlemen there know what they are talking about. We had an open bar and they were dead on in their estimate. I was impressed! Any alcohol we did not use, they took back.
Cake - The Dreamery. You MUST try her Raspberry and White cakes. Catherine's secret recipe for Raspberry is AMAZING! I've never seen people go up for seconds and thirds for wedding cake, but they sure did at our wedding. She was the most affordable out of all the vendors we interviewed and she delivered a wonderful product with a beautiful presentation.
Flowers - Hy-Vee off Barry Rd. Becky is easy to work with and really listens to what you want. I told her I wanted Ikebana style centerpieces and she knew exactly what I was talking about and told me she took classes on it. So of course, I was excited! I let her use her imagination in creating the centerpieces and she did not disappoint! Elegant, would be the word, if I had to summarize her work. She is very knowledgable and was able to throw out prices of flowers on the spot without having to say "let me get back to you on that." Spent under $1000 on all my flowers... both the church and reception looked gorgeous!
DJ - Kent Houston. He doesn't advertise, so if you don't hear about him through word of mouth, you'd never know someone with so much talent was out there. I had a huge list of songs, but after meeting with him, I told him to scratch our play list and go with what he thought worked. He asked what type of music genre we enjoyed and boy oh boy did he nail it! The dance floor was packed from the moment he started playing music. He went off off the vibe of the crowd and didn't miss a beat. He also made an impromtu speech during toasting which was awesome and kick started the night well. Again, the theme of our weddng was Affordable... he was definitely cheap compared to those other 'official' wedding DJs.
Photographer - BeauVaughn. The photos came back and are pretty good for the shots they took. Absolutely no creativity though. If you go with them, you'll have the same dipping shot, kissing shot, and head on pose for 200 pictures. If that's what you are looking for, then I would say they are good at what they do. But if you want more romantic, special moments between husband and wife that doesn't include face sucking, then you are better off going with another vendor.... especially when they charge $2100+ for their services.
Invites - Lehan.paper.design on Etsy. She does a great job. She is very detail-oriented, so if you're a perfectionist like me, then you won't be disappointed. We had our invites custom-made with imported Japanese ribbon, so they were on the more pricey end, but her other invite prices definitely competes with the market.
Guest Favors - Sake glasses by KOYO online. They are a wholesale company for Asian-ware. They were a pain to work with! I started communication with them in Feb of 2010 with inquiries, etc. Even with an early jump start, we ended up not getting our order until the very last minute (in Sept). But there are a very limited number of vendors that can do screen-printed sake glasses for cheap, so we just trudged through it and made it happen. Start early if you plan on using this vendor.
Hair - Rio Salon in downtown Parkville. Katie is amazing! She looks at the pic of the dress, looks at your face shape and then does her magic. My hair came out so beautiful on my wedding day. It was $150 for the hair trial and actual wedding day updo. Stay away from getting your make-up done there though. Went in for a trial and it was horrible! The owner of the salon did my make-up and I didn't want any bad blood (since they were doing my hair) so I cancelled my appt for day-of wedding makeup and just said my friend was going to do it.
Make-up - MAC at Dillards in Zona Rosa. Natalie did my makeup and make me look like a move star! She took her time and made sure every blemish was covered and my eyes popped! There is the $50 minimum purchase for the makeover, but you're getting products! Better than having to pay a make-up artist oodles of money. Just remember, they are a business, so they have to step away from you often to help other customers... make sure you give yourself about 2 hours to get your make-up done.
Obviously there were a ton of other expenses that drove our budget, but these were the main vendors.
Thanks so much and happy planning!
