Hi everyoneI didn’t post here that much but I figured I would give my reviews from our July 18th wedding. It was an incredible day and I wish I could relive it all over again. I have to say all of our vendors went above and beyond in making our wedding absolutely beautiful. We have gotten nothing but rave reviews from everyone that attended. We used a couple of popular board vendors but we had a couple that not many people have used. With all of that said, here are the reviews:Venue- Stone House at Stirling Ridge- (A) When Dan and I first starting looking at place to get married we were having a difficult time finding a space that fit our style. As beautiful as some of the places we went to nothing compared to when we looked at Stirling Ride. Contemporary but also very rustic look, we fell in love with the space. Through out the planning process I had worked with Rebecca and towards the end I was working with Carissa, both were extremely helpful with every question that I had. I would have given them an A+ if there wasn’t a couple of communication gaps towards the wedding date (never told me that I had to make an appointment with the baker for the cake tasting and forgot to give me the number so we didn’t get to do it until almost a week and a half before the wedding when things were insanely crazy and there were a couple of other small things). The day of the wedding everything looked amazing and tasted amazing. We are still having people tell us that they have never been to a wedding before that the food tasted that good. We had gotten the raw bar and they had to restock it 3 times, there was never a moment that they stopped serving any of the passed appetizers. Dinner was fantastic (Pepper crusted filet and Halibut). All of the staff there did an excellent job as well, if you let your table someone would fold your napkin and place it on your chair. They were completely on top of everything. The girl that was our personal attendant we great, she stuck around in the background and just knew whenever we needed something it would just be there. I can not rave enough about what an excellent job they did, I know some people on the board has had some bad experiences with them and I was getting a little nervous as the day approached but they put my fears to rest. I seriously can not say one bad word about them. I highly suggest Stirling Ridge. Great food, incredible staff, absolutely beautiful space!Band- Brian Kirk and the Jirks- (A++++++++) I feel like I need to give Erika a huge hug for introducing us to them. The were with out a doubt the best band, they were AMAZING!!! Just like the venue we were looking for something different. I am not a huge fan of wedding bands but it was a strict request from my mother. After looking at a couple of bands and posting some questions on the board Erika replied back about Brian. So thankful that she did! We booked them right away after we saw them play. We hired them for the whole shebang! Ceremony (Acoustic guitar), Cocktail Hour (Jazz trio) and Reception. The ceremony music was absolutely beautiful, he played here comes the sun for when everyone walked down the aisle and Jack Johnson’s Better Together when I walked with my father. The cocktail hour music was perfect, they sounded great. For the entire reception they had everyone on their feet dancing, we walked around to tables to say hi to people and no one was there! People were singing with the band. Everyone was on the dance floor before we were even announced. One of Dan’s friends decided last minute that he wanted to sing a song, Brian sat down with him and figured out the harmony and it sounded really good for just learning the song 2 minutes ago. They truly made the evening spectacular, I can not say enough about them. All of our gusts wanted to know where we found them and where they could go see them play. LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!Photographer- Kella MacPhee- (A+++++++) I love this girl, she take the most beautiful pictures. She just has a great eye. Stirling Ridge doesn’t have a ton of place that you can take picture but with her creativity she took so many great shots. Kella also said she is going to submit our pics into some magazines! I will let the pictures speak for themselves (sorry don’t know how to make it clicky).
http://tiny.cc/4m8axVideographer- Well Spun Films- (A+ so far) We haven’t received our video yet but Aaron was great, just a super sweet guy. Wasn’t intrusive, was in the background, barely saw him. He was working so hard he didn’t even eat, we made sure we sent him home with a doggie bag ☺. I can’t wait to see the film!!Florist- Laura Clair Design- (A+++++++) Jennifer was such a pleasure to work with. I came to her with a sketch of what I wanted to do and she exceeded my expectation. We had our first flower trial and I wasn’t completely loving it so she gave me tons of suggestions and sent me picture to show me all of her ideas with the mock ups. She did a fabulous job with the centerpieces, bouquets, ceremony flowers, ect. Pictures of the flowers are on Kella’s website.Make-up and Hair- Jeanine Mangan and Jeanine LaMacchia (A for make-up and hair) (C for attitude) The Jeanine’s did a great job on everybody’s hair and make-up. Everyone looked beautiful. Jeanine even brought her airbrush foundation and didn’t charge me for it which was very nice of her. I have to tell a small back story, so Dan’s cousin is getting married this month in NJ but she lives in CA. She asked me for recommendations for all of our vendor so I sent her our list. She figured it would be a perfect time to do her hair and make-up trial on the day of our wedding since she would be home and no waste of an updo and full make-up. Back to present, Dan’s cousin was scheduled to get hair and make-up done at 5. Jeanine was finishing up on my make-up around 4:00 and the two of them started losing it, asking me where is Dan’s cousin, why isn’t she here yet, they just want to go home. Now mind you the are doing all of this while I am getting my make-up done. It wasn’t like they were just sitting around for an hour. They were having Dan’s sister call her telling her she needed to get there ASAP. They also did a quickie job on her then made her pay full price, not even the trial price. I hate to give a bad review about them because I did feel beautiful and everyone looked great but the attitude wasn’t needed. I could see if Dan’s cousin was running late and they had to wait around but that wasn’t the case. I really enjoyed meeting with the two of them for the trial and they were great for most of the time they were there but I was really surprised with their attitudes.Officiant- April Beer (A+)- She was great, I felt like our ceremony was really personal and everyone got a good idea of who Dan and I are as a couple. It was exactly what we were looking for. Not a dry eye in the house!Hotel- Somerset Hills Hotel- (C) The rooms there were decent but we had baby ants all over the place (gross), the bar closed down early that night (huge disappointment, they ended up giving us a conference room) and the suite we stayed in reeked of smoke. The only thing that was pretty good was the breakfast buffet.Limo/Shuttle Bus- D & G Limo- (A+) They did a fantastic job, they were there on time everyone got over to the ceremony site on time. My Dad even asked the limo driver if he could go back to the hotel and pick up some guest and he did it without a problem. Both drivers were extremely nice. I know they haven’t gotten great reviews but they did a really good job.Dress- Kleinfelds- (A+) My dress was gorgeous and fit me like a glove. It was strapless and I never had to pull the dress up. Totally worth the experience.All things paper- Me (A+++++++++) What can I say I did an awesome job!!!! I decided to do everything myself, from the invites, to the favors, menus, programs, tags, ect. It was a huge undertaking but I loved that everything was so personal. I think that is it. If anyone wants any further reviews of anything feel free to email me at michelle.couvillon@gmail.com