Venue: Charter Oak Country Club, Hudson, MA
Charter Oak is an absolutely beautiful location and it pretty much set the tone for the wedding. It was the first place that DH and I looked at and it might as well been the only place because in our opinion nothing compared to it. Christine, the wedding coordinator there, was very nice and always responsive. I left many of the decisions on where to put some of the decorations (card box, guest book, flowers, etc.) up to her because I knew she would do a fabulous job – and she really did. During the planning process, I didn’t stress over many details because I knew Charter Oak would speak for itself and there wasn’t much I needed to add. I am so glad I took that approach because I think it really paid off. The food was awesome too. Everyone was raving about the sushi and passed hors d'oeuvres during cocktail hour. We had stations for dinner and there were so many options (we had an asian station; carving station; and New England station) no one left hungry and everyone was very impressed with the amount of food and the quality. Photographer: Scott Metzger, Metzger Studios
Scott is AMAZING! He worked so hard all day long – from the moment he got to my mother’s house to the moment he left at the end of the night. He is a very nice guy and totally unobtrusive. I liked having him there, he made me comfortable and I trusted his judgment the entire time. He took a walk around my mother’s house when he first got there to scope out some areas of the yard that would make good photos. He had his assistant, Jay meet the guys at the church and Jay did a great job too. DH called Scott a ‘ninja’ because he was everywhere – rolling around on the ground, up on a ladder, etc. He has already sent us the slideshow and we couldn’t be happier with his work. We can’t wait to see the other photos.
DJ: Greg Bedard
Greg was phenomenal! He is a great guy too! We met with him twice and we had fun both times, getting to know him and his style. He has top of the line Bose equipment that is awesome and delivers excellent sound. He played the perfect music at the perfect time at the perfect sound level. He has an online database where we logged on in advance of the wedding and chose about 4.5 hours worth of music. There is a great feature in the online database where you can put a note next to particular songs if they are “must-plays” or if you prefer to have it played during dinner as opposed to dancing, etc. He came over and took a photo of us while we were eating and we assumed it was for his website, but at the end of the night before he left he gave us a CD of all the songs he played that night with our picture on the front! It was so sweet and it made us love him even more.
Cupcakes: Alice Lombardi at The Bean Counter Bakery, Shrewsbury/Worcester, MA
Alice baked cupcakes for our wedding and they were wonderful! We had vanilla cupcakes with raspberry filling and lemon buttercream frosting and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter mousse filling and peanut butter buttercream frosting. Everyone loved them. Alice and I coordinated primarily through email and she was always very responsive. I think the cost was about average too. I think we paid $3.25 per cupcake plus a couple of other fees for colored frosting and delivery.
Flowers: Rachel from RCH Designs, Charlton, MA
Rachel did a great job on the flowers – they were beautiful and exactly what I envisioned! I met with Rachel once, we talked on the phone a couple times and emailed each other. She was very friendly and always responsive to emails. I don’t think she is doing flowers anymore, but she is also a DOC. I would definitely recommend her.
Transportation: Exceptional Limo, Milford, MA: We are very happy with the service we got from Exceptional Limo. We hired two ten passenger limos and they both came with champagne. Both drivers were on time, very friendly and helpful. Exceptional also added transportation to the airport for our honeymoon as part of the package.
RC Uplighting: DH and I won a contest through RC Uplighting and are so happy that we did! RC did a fabulous job lighting up the room – it looked outstanding! The owners, Ryan and Charlene are very nice and always responsive through email. I am not sure what they would typically charge for the services they provided at our wedding, but it is well worth whatever the fee is!