Vendor Reviews (also posted in sticky)

acaponi87

Some background info: my H and I are both from the Metro-Detroit area but live 5 hours away. Convience, flexibility and good communication were very important to us.

Please feel free to PM  me or ask here if you have any specific questions!

Ceremony
Ceremony Site--Greystone Golf Course. A+, $700.
The ceremony site is gorgeous. It's on a lake and is cool because the seating is set up almost stadium style so everyone can see well. The aisle is also very dramatic: long and everyone is well-hidden until they are supposed to be seen.   If it would have rained, the ceremony would have been in the reception area and we would have been refunded the $700.

Officiant--LaDonna Weddings--A--Rev. Tab Martin. $450
LaDonna was easy to work with. We paid $325 for the ceremony and $125 for our rehearsal. Tab married us and he did an excellent job. He's funny, wise and did an excellent job. La Donna was flexible and had no issue with us making changes to our script. We were truly able to make our ceremony exactly what we wanted.

Ceremony Music--Elite Entertainment DJs--A--$300
Jon and Evan did a great job. Jon was easy to work with and the music sounded great the day of.

Reception
Reception Site--Greystone Golf Course and Banquet Center--A+--$72 per plate (including taxes and gratuities).
Greystone is amazing and there are not words for how awesome Maggie, the banquet coordinator is. When my H and I were looking at venues early on Maggie sold us. We met her and we were very confident that our wedding and the planning process would be so much easier with her and it was.

One of the reasons I loved Greystone is because their packages include so much and there are really no hidden costs. Our cost per person was based on a plated meal of filet and chicken. It also included a 5 hour premium bar, hors d'oeuvres,  late night pizza snacks, champagne toast for all guests, cake cutting and all taxes and gratuities.  We had a Saturday night wedding so there was a 150 guest minimum.

The staff was extremely helpful and did a great job. The venue is gorgeous and recently has had some updates. The space is large, open and the dance floor is beautiful. They've got a good outdoor patio that our guests loved and the space overlooks the golf course.


Caterer--Greystone--A+
The food was amazing. We ended up having filet and bacon gouda chicken. We got tons of compliments on the food.

Chair Covers/Linens--Couture Chair Covers (through Greystone)--A
I can't remember exactly but I think we paid $2.50 for runners and maybe $2 for chair covers/sashes? The only thing I remember I was a little bummed about was they didn't have a ton of color options, but it all worked out fine.

Bakery--Achatz Handmade Pie Co.--A--$390
My H and I don't like cake so we decided to do wedding pies instead. Achatz is a great company and their pies are delicious. We ended up getting 3 10'' pies for display and for us to cut and then 8 half sheets--2 of each: Michigan 4 berry, Florida Key Lime, Raspberry Cream and French Silk. The cost also included delivery. The only thing to consider is that they are not open on Saturdays. We were able to have them deliver on Friday to Greystone since they didn't have an event that day but if we wouldn't have been able to do that it would have gotten tricky.

DJ--Elite Entertainment--$1,095--A
We were very happy with Elite. Jon (DJ Kool-Aid) was our DJ and he was wonderful. He played all our "must plays" and kept the dance floor packed. He was very professional and easy to work with before the wedding. We were able to do our final appointments over the phone which we appreciated. Our price included: 2 DJs to coordinate, MC and play music, deluxe  light show, back-up equipment, back-up dj, planning session and 6 hours of music. We also used them for our ceremony music and that cost $300.  At the end of the night they gave us a cd wtih all of our ceremony music and our special dances. Elite also does photography, photobooths and videography and offers bundle discounts.

Favors--Did not do favors.

Lighting--Just what was included with our DJ package.

Other
Limo--Did not have 1

Florist--Parsonage Events--A. $1,030
Parsonage is a smaller company that does very unique and beautiful arrangements. I LOVED our flowers. Liz is such a great lady to work with. She was so patient with my indecisions and worked very hard to make sure what she was doing worked wtih our budget (I think she ended up doing 4 quotes for me or something). The price included, my bouquet, 5 bridesmaids bouquets, 3 corsages, 9 bouts and 2 side pieces as well as delivery. We had 2 vases break right before the ceremony and Parsonage was very understanding and didn't charge us which we appreciated. Everything was delivered on time and looked great!

Hotel/Shuttle--Hampton Inn--Shelby Twp/Detroit location--C---Shuttle $262
The Hampton is the newer hotel and is the closest to Greystone. Life was good in the beginning. We blocked off 20 rooms to start. Dana was helpful. I booked the shuttle. As time went on things got a little weird. They've changed their group manager multiple times . When the wedding got close I became more confused about the shuttle and coudn't get ahold of anyone to answer my questions. The day before came and they had sign up sheets for the shuttle which is good in theory but it's like 50 minute round trip and who ever was there the night before signed up for the shuttle. We ended up calling a cab company the day before the wedding and made sure that we had cabs there at the end of the reception. The rooms at the hotel were nice and the group rate was good. I was irrationally annoyed because we didn't our room comped. Also we were 1 of 4 weddings there. And I had a friend who had issues with a room (like they said they didn't have 1 for her) but it got resolved.

Miscellaneous equipment--Petal Garden.com--A
We got fake flower petals through this website. They are great because they will send you 10 free samples of all the colors (they have TONS of colors). Good prices and they have a very helpful guide to help you know how much to order. They also have freeze-dried petals.

Photography
Photographer--Photos by Miss Ann--A+, $1,825
Ann in 3 words: Fast, fun, energetic. She is the quickest photographer there is. She will respond to you within the hour almost always. She had all our wedding photos done within 24 hours.  She had our photobook done within 48 hours. Her work is beautiful and creative. Don't use her if you are afraid to get dirty. Between engagement pictures and the wedding day she had us in rivers, climbing trees, jumping, all sorts of crazy stuff. She is loud and quick and which is great for doing the wedding party pictures. She was exteremly accomodating when building a custom package for us. Our package included:an engagement session (with 50 4X6 proofs), coverage for 6-7 hours, unlimited wedding photos taken (we ended up with over 700), 1 coffee book table (which she upgraded for us), online viewing and ordering within 1-3 days of the wedding, high-res USB drive with all the pictures and rights to them and all travels, taxes and shipping expenses.


Picture Locations---Nichols Arboretum and the Law Quad in Ann Arbor.
We did our engagement pictures in the fall. These places are great and free. We had such beautiful colors (we did them middle of October). It's got it all: pretty buildings, trees, fields, rivers, train tracks, benches, whatever you want.

Beauty / Attire
Rings--Helzberg Diamonds--A
 Love our rings. H bought my wedding band and E-ring together as a set. I think all together it was around $4500 (shhh I'm not supposed to know that) and his was $1100. We both have lifetime warrantys on ours.

Wedding dress--Mori Lee-Blu Style 4601--Nicole Michaels Bridal and Formal--A--$650
This is a smaller shop but is awesome. I love Nicole. She's got tons of dresses, most of which are under $1000. Great experience there

Alterations--Nicole Michaels--Michelle--$145
Michelle did mine at NMs. The price included boob cups sewn in, bustle and hem.

Tuxes--Men's Warehouse---B--$130
Our groomsmen were all over the country so it had to be either Men's Warehouse or President Tuxedo. My groom had a very specific look he wanted and MW had the better prices (slightly) and the better look so we went with them. Overall it went pretty well. My dad's tux was the wrong size but they got that fixed. I'm not sure if there were other issues. They are just kind of annoying to work with. My H wore his own tux and since we had 6 tuxes he got $450 toward a suit and that was the experience from hell but I'll try to not let that cloud my judgement as far as the actual wedding tux situation went. The price does not include vests, because we didn't wear them. I should also note that we did most of the work with a MW in Cincinnati so I can't give you a location that will help really.

Bridesmaid Dresses--Konja's Bridal---A.  Dresses were Dessy (D498 in ebony) and cost about $160.
My MOH had sent them a list of dresses they were interested in trying on and they had them all pulled and ready for us. They really made the experience pretty painless. Also, they do free alterations for BM dresses

I told my girls they could wear whatever dresses they wanted within a color yet they all choose the same one and despite the vast difference in body type they all looked amazing.

Hair--Andrew Marke Salon (between $55-$70)--A
Elizabeth did my hair and it came out awesome. 3 of my BM's also got their hair done here and I honestly loved them all.

Makeup--My cousin (who was a BM) did my make-up as well as my mom's and 4 of my BMs. She's amazing. If you are intersted PM me and I can give you her information.

Paper
Save the Dates--Wedding Paper Divas--A--$133
For 115 postcard STDs. Super cute, quick to ship, easy to make.

Invites--Wedding Paper Divas--A--$366.
Here's my WPD talk. They can be expensive (IMO). However if you wait til holidays and do your reasarch you can get good deals. Look up coupon codes. Try them, even if they say they are expired. I saved $65 with an expired coupon code. I ended up saving over $200 with all the codes I found. A lot of times you can get bundle discounts, so buy all your invite stuff at onces (including TY cards). Our price included 120 invites,  printed return addresses, RSVP cards, TY cards and envelopes for all.

Programs/Menu--I DIYed programs like a week before the wedding on Microsoft word. I signed up for a free trial of oneheartweddings.com and used a clipart from them and then cancelled my membership lol. I ended up printing them through the UPS store. 90 copies (front and back--1 side in color) was about $60.