Hey all,
I don't post on here a lot, but I used a lot of vendor reviews to plan my wedding....so here goes mine....
- CEREMONY AND RECEPTION (Rosy's Jazz Hall): A I had my ceremony and reception here and it could not have gone any better. Darlene and Steve are so fun and on top of things. Having Darlene during the planning process was amazing especially as an OOT bride. She always got back to me in a timely manner, always had great suggestions and always knew exactly what to say and do. On the wedding day both Darlene and Steve were on top of things and made sure everything went perfectly. I am a pretty calm person and don't get stressed about a lot of things, but even if I did Rosy's (Darlene and Steve) could have handled anything, while keeping the bride and groom at ease. Oh and the food is sooooo good. I still have people telling me how good the food was!!!
- REHEARSAL DINNER C My husbands parents rented a house for their family to stay there and we had the rehearsal dinner there. We had it catered and the food was great, we hired a jazz trio via Karen Rose and they were fantastic. If I could do it all over again I would have rathered had the dinner at a sit down restaurant. The "house" party was fun, but it was hard to coordinate the toasts and it was a little but awkward.
- PHOTOGRAPHER (Studio Tran) A I can not say enough great things about Beebe Tran. He always got back to me, was always professional, always on top of things, and takes amazing photos!!!!! He got my photos to me VERY quickly. I have friends who were married months before me and they are still waiting to get their photos and I already got my CD of images!!! When I looked at the photos there were so many that I do not even remember him taking, or even remembering happening. I really did not see him at all during the wedding and reception but after looking at the photos he was EVERYWHERE because there are photos of EVERYTHING!!!!! Highlyhighly recommended!!!!
- CAKE (Flour Power) A We had both the wedding and the grooms cake done by flour power. Both cakes actually tasted like cakes and not like dry cardboard, like other wedding cakes I have had. The grooms cake was in the shape of a VW bus (1977) which replicated the car we use to own when we first got together. They did an amazing job with that!!!
- HAIR AND MAKEUP (Flawless Bride) A Heather with Flawless Bride did such an amazing job. I choose her during the planning process because of the natural look she showed on her website. On a daily basis I wear NO makeup whatsoever so I did not want to look too "made up" Heather did an excellent job of that!!! She always got back to me and she was on time for both my trail and the wedding day. She did the hair and makeup for my bridesmaids (only 3) and my mom and she was very professional and efficient. If you are looking for a natural look she is your girl!!!
- ROOM BLOCK (Hilton St. Charles) D Troy at the Hilton was my contact and it would sometimes take him 2-3 months to get back to me on simple questions. As the wedding got closer I needed to add more rooms and needed to ask him about OOT bags. Emails never worked so I called him a few times. Even when I would get him on the phone (which was rare) I never really got anything accomplished. The few days before the wedding I went to the Hilton to drop off the OOT bags and I was informed by the front desk that he was on vacation. He never told me that or gave me another contact to work with. I work in customer service as well and I know stuff can get busy, but I never felt like I was taken care of at the Hilton for the amount of business I was providing for them.
- BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES (J. Crew) B I wanted to have my bridesmaids in a non-bridesmaids dress and J. crew is perfect for this. The dresses the my bridesmaids wore were flattering on all of them and they can definitely wear them again. Another good thing about J. Crew is that the dresses actually run true to size so if you are a size 4 and order a size 4 it will mostly likely fit and you will not need to go get it altered. You can also order two different sizes and compare them, then return the one you don't want. It only takes about a week to get the dresses as well. A few words of advise.....two of my bridesmaids when they got the dresses the side seam was sewn wrong so they had to return them and get new ones. This was not a problem, but just make sure they leave enough time to re-order a dress if necessary. Also the J.crew ready to ship dresses only go up to size 14. They have size 16 but they take longer to order. So again, if you need this just give enough time.
- CEREMONY MUSICIANS (Karen Rose) A I had a guitar/violin duet and they were amazing. Karen Rose was easy to work with and the musicians played exactly what i asked (and I did not have the "normal" wedding music)and did a beautiful job!
- SECOND LINE BAND (Soul Rebels Brass Band) A Highlight of the night!!!! Showed up on time and did an amazing job! Very easy to deal with, very talented, and so much fun!!!
- SECOND LINE UMBRELLAS A http://www.oldtownpraline.com Again, I got these at the last minute. I just called them up, told them what I needed and they had them ready for pick up. They were a little on the small side, but after holding that thing up in the air for 45 minutes I was really really glad they were not full size umbrellas!!!
- GROOMS AND GROOMSMEN ATTIRE (Jos. A Banks) A They wore suits instead of tuxedos. They bought the suits....only because they were on sale (70% off, YAY recession!!) Very nice suits for very nice price, probably less than renting a tux....you just got to find the sale.
- INVITATIONS (The Paper Stylist) A Ann was great to work with!!! So easy and so much fun. I sent her some "inspirational images" and she made the invitation, assembled them and then sent them to me. All I had to do was address the envelopes. I had some friends that did the whole do it yourself invite...oh but it sounded like such a headache to me. The extra money was so worth it to not hassle with all the folding and the glue. Since she is custom making them she can work with you to stay in a price range as well.
So, I think that is it!!!! If any of you have any questions I will be happy to answer them!! email: ellen1919 at gmail dot com