Venue: Talon Winery
Grade: B
Beautiful site year round. Made for great pictures. Provide tables and chairs. A little expensive, but I think it was worth it. Can't have liquor or kegs, but you can make your own wine labels, which is fun. Generally responsive, but there was about a month there where I had some contact issues.
Dress: Wedding Wonderland
Grade: A
Great price, friendly staff, delivered on time and looked great. Helped me decide when I'd tried on 40 dresses at 5 stores and was feeling overwhelmed and lost.
Invitations: Cricket Press
Grade: A+
Gorgeous, cool, custom invitations. Very professional and easy to work with. Received three proofs over email and was amazed at how the design progressed. Again, not cheap, but worth it.
Rehearsal Dinner: The Julep Cup
Grade: A
Gave us a private room for our 30 person group, had two dedicated waiters. Great food. Just ordered whatever we wanted off the menu. No minimums or fees.
Flowers: Jeanie Gorrell
Grade: A-
Ordered bouquets and boutennaires. They looked great, especially the bouts. It was a little hard to know what to expect, just because we discussed most things over the phone and email, and I don't know much about flowers.
Cake: Tinker's Cake Shop
Grade: B
Cake was tasty. Design was pretty good. Again, I found it a little confusing to communicate about design, and pretty much just ended up saying, can you make one like this picture. Really nice people. I'm excited about the free anniversary cake.
Photographer: Stephanie Lyell
Grade: A+
Love her! Did amazing engagement photos for us and fantastic wedding photos too. She's changed her pricing and reproduction restrictions since we booked with her, but she's great.
DJ: Keith Brockman, Affairs to Remember
Grade: B
I couldn't really understand anything he said over the microphone, but I guess other people could, and everyone said they loved the music, though we think it may be b/c of requests. Very nice guy.
String Quartet: Highland Chamber Players, Louisville
Grade: A-
I was a little distracted during the ceremony, but everyone said it was great. I guess they had some trouble with the wind outside, but powered through.
Very professional, with a contract.
Photobooth: Magnolia Photobooth, Louisville
Grade: B-
Attendant got lost on the way and was about an hour late. ("Go the other way on New Circle." and then fifteen minutes later, "What? You're at Transy? How did you get downtown?") He offered to stay late, but our time at the venue was up, so that wasn't an option. The pictures were great and really fun though, and they gave us a good-looking book of all of them.
Bridesmaid Dresses: J. Crew
Grade: A
Super easy.
Tuxes: Men's Warehouse
Grade: A
Super easy.
Hotel: Marriott Griffin Gate
Grade: B
Didn't deliver all of my OOT bags, and the whole thing was just kind of a mess, which was annoying b/c they charge for them. Also, room assignments were weird. They gave us a tiny room and some of our guests huge balconies...a little annoying. Nice hotel though, and the sales staff are easy to work with. We had a cocktail party the night before the wedding, and it was nice. The food looked good, drinks were good, and it seemed like we had the whole floor to ourselves.
Rentals: Goff Southeast Tents
Grade: A
Had to rent more chairs and napkins. I wish I could have picked the shade of the napkins (dark purple, not bright), but as problems go that was tiny. Really nice people. No problems.
Caterer: Dupree
Grade: A+
Amazing. Food was SOOO good. Lucy was great to work with. She met me for lunch a few days before and went over everything. Fantastic food, and the staff were very helpful.
Tablecloths: Chaircoverfactory.com
Bought tablecloths b/c it was way cheaper than renting. Free shipping, and got the color I was looking for. Still trying to sell them.
Honeymoon: Grand Hyatt Resort, Kaui, Hawaii
Grade: A+
Beautiful. Lots to do. Like Paradise.