Hi Again!
Below are some pics and some reviews from my Friday night, August 20th wedding. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was on a bit of a tight budget (as far as Boston area weddings can go at least). Because of this, I did put the range that I paid for vendors. I figured it would help future budget brides who are having trouble crunching numbers as I was.
Ultimately the day went beautifully and I couldn't be happier being my husband's wife 
I found that the easiest way for me to grade was to separate it into 4 parts:
A - Went above and beyond Expectations
B - Met Expectations at a higher level
C - Met Expectations at a lower level
F - Did not meet expectations at all
I am a very tough critic. However I feel I have the right to be since I was incredibly organized, had over communicated and followed up regularly to ensure everything was in it's place.
Florist - Lyndsey Loring Design - A
Lyndsey was amazing. She is located in Dover, NH, which is a bit of a hike, but was totally worth it. I had planned on doing all of my own flowers because of my "flower budget". But with 20 tables and a 20 person bridal party, my friends fortunately talked me out of it. I knew I wanted to use mason jars (I bought tons of them online through craigslist) and I knew I wanted yellow/white/coral and them to be tiered. Otherwise I was open to using any local flowers, though def wanted some hydrangeas if possible. Lyndsey gave me gorgeous gladiolus, hydrangeas and roses that everyone raved about. The bouquets were hydrangeas, dahlias and roses. Everything came together perfectly and I am sure I couldn't have beat the price. For all the bouts, corsages, bouquets (including mine), flower girl baskets, centerpieces and arbor flowers I paid just around $1K.
DJ - Nu Image - C
I'll start by saying that I have seen Nu Image at about 7 different weddings. They are amazing. Or were, up until my wedding. Nu Image was the one big splurge that we had for our wedding. I knew I wanted Nu Image, and I was over confident that I could count on Nu Image. To start, our DJ completely missed our appointment. FI and I drove to N. Reading, sat in the hall way, calling the office, knocking on the door, for 30 minutes. No one came. No one called. I was infuriated since FI worked around his schedule to take the appointment, had to fly to NY at 5AM the next day to NY instead of that night so that he could make the appointment, and we had it scheduled for months. As of 11 AM the following morning, I still hadn't heard from them. Once I called them, they did apologize, said it never happens, apologized profusely and said "they would make it up to me". Well, our DJ was going on vacation for 2 weeks, so could not meet. Instead, we did a phone consultation 3 days before the wedding. The night of the wedding the balance owed didn't change, nothing additional was thrown in to make up for it, and things did not go as I had hoped. The bridal party entrance song was wrong, most songs on my must play list were not played and they played some awful song for the last song for everyone to get up and dance to. I was disappointed. They were a lot of $ for us at around $3K and I had expected what I saw at other weddings (and the organization that my friends went through). They did well otherwise - got everyone on the dance floor, names pronounced correctly, all that jazz. For those reasons, they met our expectations.
Videographer - Dave from AWaves - A
Dave was awesome. Unobtrusive, friendly and affordable. We got our wedding video today and it is AMAZING. Great song selection and footage is perfect. We got him during a sale last year, so I can't say that others would get the same as we did at around $700 for the Classic Package (6 hours/edited/with scene selections). One of our favorites vendors for sure.
Photographer - Julie Surette - Pending pictures (but assume A or B at min)
Julie is a sweetheart. She is a photographer that is a bit new to the wedding business, but she has done some amazing work so far, and her portfolio shows it. The day of she had great photo ideas, worked off my "must takes" as necessary, organized people without being pushy and was very flexible. Instead of E-Pics (included in our package), we asked her to take pics at our RD. She was fine with that. At just over $1K, we got 8 hours of coverage, RD dinner coverage and all photos oh hi-res CD. I can't wait to see the pics, though I'm confident that they are great.
Officiant - Linda Maxwell - A
Linda is a fabulous person. She is sweet and funny. The ceremony went out without a hitch and she gave us great vow ideas. She is Kevin's aunt's sister in law, so we do know her on a personal level, which I need to throw out there. However I'm sure she'd be amazing at anyone's wedding.
Bagpiper - Ronny Neff - A
What can I say, who doesn't love a great bagpiper? He was great and around $300. We had him play for the processional and it brought tears to everyone's eyes. When I watched the video, it brought tears to mine. Everyone raved about how great he was and what a beautiful idea it was.
A Day to Remember Catering - B
Lori and Shawn are amazing people. They were able to work within our budget of under $40 a head (for buffet with a chicken and a fish, 3 passed apps, 2 stationary tables) and and even threw in a few extras. The food was great and people commented on how good it was. The only issue I had was the service that I received the night of. I paid Lori extra to be my day of coordinator, instead of catering staff. Unfortunately, I didn't see the service I expected from a DOC. I didn't see her really. The waitress that was assigned to us only came to Kevin and I once. the wedding party only got 1 round of apps while taking pictures and it wasn't much. I'm sure my guests didn't feel service issues as it was buffet, but if I hire a DOC I expect to get a DOC. Instead I felt she was in the kitchen most of the time helping with the catering. Oh and the cake ribbon was red. LOL should have been coral. Minor detail, but still.
Belmore Transportation - B
They were very efficient in transporting guests, though the last shuttle was late, which in turned had us start our ceremony 15 minutes late. They did come back in time for the 11:00 shuttle. However at 12AM, there was some confusion and a minivan approached (we had 3 14 passenger vans booked). I ended up hoping in the minivan, asked why it was so small, and didn't get much of an answer. Later we found out that the shuttle company said that wasn't one of their drivers! Weird! and scary! lol So who knows who this dude was, but no one could have had our info and time except the shuttle place, so I was a bit skeptic on that. otherwise they were good for the price of $60/van per hour.
Reviews will continue on the next post so I can get my pics in
Me and the New Hub
My fabulous Dad and me
Us cutting the cake, which should had coral, not red, ribbon. tasted yum though.
Table Shot
