Ok sorry it has taken me so long to finally post these, but we had an awesome day with no glitches and I was so pleased and almost shocked when it was over.
Dress - Trumpington Bridal House, Westerville, OH A-
I tried on the dress a long time before deciding to buy it, even though I knew it was the one. They had just put the sample dress on clearance, but she said they could still order it. Well when I called back about a month later the dress maker (Sarah Danielle) wasn't even going to be making wedding dresses anymore, so it was the sample or not have the dress. The sample was about 1 size too small, but with 2 inches of give, let's just say my seamstress was awesome. The girls at the shop are so great (and went to HS with my brother) and they know about every person who walks in the door. They do have a seamstress available, but I went with a woman who has been doing stuff (dresses, pillows, window treatments, etc.) for us for a long time.
Alterations - Kathy A+++++
Kathy and her late mother have been doing alterations for us for as long as I can remember. She made the bridesmaid dresses for my aunt's wedding 17 years ago. She let out my dress a half inch on each side, bustled, and made my sister's bridesmaid dress for $50!!!! She does stuff like this all the time (altered 3 suits for my brother for $25!). So needless to say, she gets a great tip. Everytime I go to her house, she lives in Johnstown, so its a little far, but she always has dresses at her house. Highly reccommended! Contact me for her number.
Hair - Amy Kulp (Cala Luna Salon) Westerville A-
Amy was my regular hair dresser in Ohio, so I chose her to do our hair. She came to the house and had 7 people done an hour early! That was awesome! The only thing I didn't like was when I went for my trial run she didn't do my hair exactly how it would be the wedding day. She didn't want me sitting around all day in rollers, but I would have liked to see the final product the day of the trial. The end product was very pleasing and all the bridesmaids and mothers were very pleased.
Make-Up: Johanna Pfaff (Bobbi Brown) A+
Make-up was something I left until about 2 weeks before the wedding and was freaking out. Johanna works for Bobbi Brown at Saks at Polaris. My mom had been to here prior to purchase Clinique, but ran into Johanna. I went to have a trial run with her and she was so sweet and did a great job. Everything who had their make-up done by her loved the outcome!
Ceremony - Vineyard Columbus, Kelli Messick A+++
Vineyard has an incredible chapel that is used mainly for weddings now and the colors are incredible. I literally did no decorating to the church. They had an alter, the Christmas trees were up and lighting around the chapel. They also had tall candles they let you use. You do have to be a member (my parents were and I had been going there through middle and high school). We had a unique situation since I lived in South Carolina and my husband in Chicago and Kelli worked with us to go through our counseling sessions. We have lasting relationship with the people who mentored us.
Transportation - Classic Limos A+
I give this company an A+ becasue the limo was a gift from my husband's brother, so I did not deal with them at all. The limo was clean and we had such a great time drinking champagne and celebrating with friends. They even rolled out the red carpet
Transportation to and from was not in our budget, so this was an awesome gift and if you have the money it is an awesome bonding experience for you and the bridal party.
Reception - Royal American Links Galena, OH
Judy - C
Lead Staff - A+
Ok, so I love this venue. I found out about it because my aunt had her rehearsal dinner here 17 years ago. It fit out 125 people perfectly (I think they can go to 175). It has a very rustic feeling with a fire place and other beautiful odds and ends. That being said, Judy is the head sales lady and after I signed the contract, she wanted the wedding her way or the highway. She was not very understanding and even got into it with my mom and the decorator. I had been living far away, so I had to intrust everything to them. The lady who runs the place the day of the wedding (for some reason I cannot remember her name), was so amazing! I literally was not excited about the reception because of Judy, but it was so perfect! I did not have to carry a plate or get anything for myself. Also, I never had a tasting of their food, but it was amazing! My family and everyone else was so impressed and said it was the best food they have ever had at a wedding. Except for Judy, I cannot say enough good things about RAL.
Cake - Anita Kline A++
Anita is an awesome person and her house is so cute and the tasting is so fun. She is very down to earth and I only did one tasting for cakes and hired her. Since she lives in Dublin, me in Westerville, and the reception site in Galena, she even had me just drop the ribbon and flowers for the cake at the reception site and she took care of it. It was perfect, delicious and beautiful. I will just echo what everyone else says about her.
Photography - The Rendvzous Photography A-
Trevor and I were friends in high school and I had not seen him since, but had seen his photography and am in love. My mom was so impressed at how he worked during the wedding and reception. The only part that is hard is that we havee been married almost 2 months now and don't have too many pictures back. I guess I don't know if that is normal, but photogaphy is not his full time job. Don't get me wrong, he is a professional photographer, but he works for his dad's company as a primary source of income, so editing photos takes a back seat to the weekends. Everything I have seen so far I like, just takes a little longer than I like. He will do a great job if you hire him.
Centerpieces - Flowerman A+
We purchased our flowers from the Flowerman, but had them put together by our decorator and her decorating husband. The woman who my mom contacted for flowers helped them out the whole time and even made us an extra boutinnere for the groom because the flowers they used have a tendency to "pop" off. They went over and beyond and even helped the decorator do things while she was there putting them together, like wrap more fabric around the bridal bouquet. They even rent their glass centerpieces for $5 so we didn't have to buy big pilsner pieces for $20 or $25 ($5 rental fee).
Flowers - Sam's Club A
We purchased the bridal bouquet, toss away, bridesmaid flowers, boutinneres and corsages through a wedding package through Sam's Club. They came in the mail as promised and were absolutely perfect! A great bang for your buck! My bridal bouquet was still alive after we got back from our honeymoon and continued to live on for another week. Cannot say more about this deal.
Decorator - Amy Shaw A+
Amy is an interior decorator who has done just about my mom's whole house. She put things together at the drop of the hat. She chose all the flowers during the consultation at the Flowerman, put them all together, made all the favors (Starbucks coffee of course!), had luminaries running up the drive tot he golf course, placed flowers and candles on all tables and around the cake table. She also put special touches in the restrooms. She is really looking into getting into weddings and she is fabulous. I had 3 weeks to finish planning after I moved back to SC and she put everything I asked for together during the Christmas season. I don't know what I would have done without her to coordinate those things. Even the people who work at the reception venue told me how great of a job Amy did.
DJ- Rob from Team DJ A+
Rob was really great to work with and provided a great party for our family and friends! He kept the music going and knew when we change things up. We didn't give him much direction on where to go with the music, but he caught on very quickly. I would hire him again!
Bridesmaid Dresses - Varying Seamstresses
I was so happy they turned out. My seamstress made my sister's but all the other girls lived in different states, so they had to find their own people and I am not going to lie when I was freaking out inside that they wouldn't be the same, but they all turned out great and I am very pleased with the pattern I chose and the color.
Tuxedos - Jos A. Bank C
I was hoping this would be something that would be easy, but it was not. After everyone got fitted I went back to see how things were, but they had the wrong tuxs for certain people, but all they could do was change the notes in the system and not on their computer, since they are owned by an outside company. This provided for more of a headache than anticipated. I even called the company that ships them the tuxs to comfirm our order and make sure it was correct. Everything turned out, but it was way too much of a headache.
Hotel Block - Hilton Garden Inn Polaris B+
Brian is the contact at Hilton Garden Inn and they ran a shuttle to and from Royal American Links, which was so helpful. We had so many people from out of town that we got upgraded to a jacuzzi room with strawberries, and chocolate, and champagne and let me tell you it was absolutely more than we could have ever asked for. The only beef I had was that on the contract I had my guests paying $10 more for their breakfast to be included (no complimentary breakfast at HGI). We could not afford to do a brunch, but thought this was the least I could do, but when they got there they wanted them to pay for breakfast! I was so mad that I had booked so many rooms there at a certain price and even got the contract out, but thank goodness my husband went down to talk with him and everything was worked out, so the people who came for the day of the wedding had no clue, just family who was there for the rehearsal dinner, who were very understanding. Other than that, it was great and they were so easy to work with.
Invitations - Vista Print A
The invitations were beautiful and relatively inexpensive. My mom and grandmother addressed them because they have nice handwriting.
Save-the-dates: Shutterfly A+
Loved them! They were beautiful!
Rehearsal Dinner - Giomarrco's Westerville, OH A
His parents took care of this, but it was a really great time in their party room. We had a couple different selections for dinner, salads, bread, house beer and wine, and cake! Their cake slices were huge! The only thing that I didn't like was that the prices were put on our menus (made specially for the party), and his dad was paying so we didn't want people to feel like they couldn't order anything extravagant because he had to pay more for it. Oh well. It was a great time.
That's all I can think of. Wow my head hurts after that haha. It was such a great time and I can't believe all the planning is over. Married life is great and I hope you can enjoy your time with your family and friends as much as we did. Contact me via email if you have questions because I am not on here very often steph.crosby09@gmail.com.