I have been married for a while now, but was waiting for my pictures to come before posting reviews so that I could include my photographer into my reviews! I was married October 1st at Holy Cross Church (downtown) and had somewhere over 300 people at my wedding.
RECEPTION: The Columbus Athenaeum: A++
I worked with Anne and had my reception in the Olympian Ballroom and could not have been happier. Anne met with me everytime I wanted to change one little detail, and never seemed annoyed. She also threw in lots of "upgrades" for free - we had an elevated, lighted head table, with chair covers. The rest of the room did not have chair covers, but I used some of their mirrors, candles, and ficus trees for decorations. I got a free speciality linen for my cake table, and free champagne flutes for the head table (did not do a champagne toast for other guests). I loved the ease of them setting everything up so that I was free to do other stuff on Fri/Sat. I also loved that I did not have to deal with finding a caterer, and everyone raved about our food choices. Our appetizers were: fruit tray, meatball bar, stuffed potato skin thingys, and now I forget the last. Our dinner was the Caesar salad, London Broil, and Chicken Buerre Blanc.
The whole night she was so helpful with getting the main events rolling - she was the perfect liason between myself and the DJ to really get everything rolling. She let my parents have a sneak peek of the room before everyone else, and they said it was a special moment. Also, I loved the BYOB aspect of the Athenaeum - we saved tons of money using Gentile Wine Cellars for the alcohol.
CAKE: SAUER CAKES A+
I am not a cake eater - I didn't even really want one but my husband did, and I fell in love with Sauer cakes! Her buttercream is different than anything else I've tasted. She has tons of flavors - we did 2 tastings and one day she even made a to-go box of cupcakes for me to bring my parents so they could try before they paid for it. We went with a 4-tier cake and tons of sheet cake to serve the 350 people. We did red velvet (my favorite) with cream cheese frosting, pumpkin spice with maple buttercream, white almond with cherry filling, and a "buckeye" layer with chocolate and peanut butter BC. My design was simple, but gorgeous and exactly what I wanted it to look like. Michelle can be difficult to get in contact with at times, but it is because she is reallllly laid back about payments, etc. Delivery and cake stands were free.
FLOWERS: THE FLOWERMAN A+
I did a half DIY/half designer flower deal from the Flowerman and could not have been happier. Most of my inspiration came from Melissa herself, and I thank her for being so creative. My flowers were so fresh & gorgeous. The DIY party was so fun too - it was 6 of us and we had snacks (my mom snuck alcohol in...) and Melissa really taught us everything (I am the LEAST crafty person around). I had the designers make the 2 church arrangements, my bouquet, and the corsages (7). We made the boutonnieres (17), bridesmaids bouquets (8), 2 types of centerpieces (16 total), throw bouquet, and cake topper. Oh and for all of that? My flowers cost $1800 which I think was reasonable. Melissa IS very hard to get in contact with so if you know that going into it, you'll love her.
PHOTOGRAPHER: MELEE PHOTOGRAPH C
I was really impressed with this vendor when I initially met with them after first getting engaged. They had a great sounding package- ipads to show pictures on at the reception, a slideshow going at the reception, engagement pictures included, all day photography, and a reasonable price ($2000). Also, I had a friend who had just used them about 3 weeks ago for a wedding so I booked them. This turned out to be the only vendor that I regretted using.
When it came time to book engagement photos, I had a really hard time getting responses. Two months after the photos were taken, it took myself, my fiance, and my mom calling/emailing to finally get them to even answer, let alone say the pictures would be coming soon (which they didn't - it was 10 weeks when they said it would take 4-6). I had also heard from my friend that it took almost 4 months for her to get her wedding photos back.
I was pretty irritated and looked into cancelling them and losing my huge deposit, because I had another photographer who was willing to do my wedding. They promised things would be better and there business had just grown too rapidly, so I kept them.
They talked with me over the phone about the wedding day details, so I was super excited thinking maybe things would be better for the actual wedding. The day of my wedding was raining and cold, so I wasn't able to take any outside photos, and they did take some formal/informal ones of us, which I liked.
After the wedding however, it again took multiple attempts to get the pictures. My husband got a response to a request for a simple picture of his grandfather, who had since passed, and we were promised the photos by the end of the week (this was about 6 weeks after the wedding). They didn't arrive for another 2-3 weeks. The finished product was not impressive. The DVD is huge - it contains about 800 photos, but there were details that weren't captured that I wish would have been (all of our centerpieces, our rings, our guest book table, etc). Overall, they take decent photos, but it's not worth dealing with the unprofessionalism.