My wedding and reception were on 5/23/2009 at Camp Blodgett in West Olive, MI. I've finally set aside the time to write the reviews. I was thrilled with all of my vendors. My husband and I have decided that we were extremely lucky. Here are my vendors: Location: Camp Blodgett The location is absolutely beautiful. It is a large retreat center located on Lake Michigan in West Olive, MI (just south of Grand Haven). There is a private beach. We had the ceremony on the deck which overlooks the beach. The reception was inside. The room isn't the fanciest all by itself, but its simple and pretty. There are hardwood floors and a stone fireplace. One side of the room is all glass doors and windows (facing the beach and the deck). Phil manages Camp Blodgett. He is really laid-back and easy to work with. He was really flexible with allowing my family and I to come out to the location before the wedding to take measurements or just look around to get decorating ideas. One the day of the wedding, the guys at Camp Blodgett went out of their way to make sure we had everything we needed. They even helped my dad put up some lights along the railing of the deck. The location can fit 160 guests; we had 110 and it was comfortable. We were allowed to have a bonfire on the beach in the evening. My husband and I stayed the night there in one of the rooms upstairs. It was fantastic to relax on the beach at the end of the day. I would recommend this location to anyone. Day-of-Coordinator and set-up: Pearls Events, Grand Rapids, MI I am so glad that we had Aletha and her assistant to help with the wedding day. She is wonderful to work with and truly loves what she does. I had spent a 1 1/2 years planning the day; I had been super organized and was all about the details. The week before the wedding, it was such a relief to hand the schedule and the details of the wedding day over to her. I didn't have to worry about a thing. She was in contact with all of my vendors and knew my decorating plan. My husband had been worried that I was going to be a big stress-ball on the day of the wedding, but was shocked to see that I was calm and super-relaxed. I just enjoyed the day knowing that someone else had it under control. When I arrived at Camp Blodgett, I was thrilled to see the my decorating ideas come to life. It all looked perfect. The wedding and the reception went smoothly, even though we threw in a few curve balls, like deciding not to do the bouquet and garter toss. The ladies even loaded our presents into my parents' van for us. We were able to just be us and truly enjoy the day. Photographer: Jenn Marie Photography, Grand Haven, MI Jenn and Dean are amazing. Jenn was one of the first vendors that we booked (second to the location). Having a fantastic photographer was extremely important to us. We booked with Jenn for our engagement and wedding photography and have been thrilled with all of our pictures. We had a package with two photographers. They are really easy to work with and have great ideas. During the ceremony, we did not notice them, but they took lovely shots. There are so many fantastic detail shots. The photographs really capture the emotions of the day. We look forward to working with in the future. Cake: Sweet Cakes Design, Grand Rapids, MI We loved our cake. We loved working with Barb. She bakes delicious cakes and decorates them beautifully. She is willing to work with any idea. I had asked for the embroidery design from my dress to be put on the cake. It looked amazing. Better than I had imagined. Sweet Cakes offers so many flavors. Our favorite layer was white chocolate cake with two layers of raspberry buttercream and one layer of peach buttercream. The italian meringue icing is light and yummy. Her prices are definitely reasonable. Invitations and Stationery: Syd Design, Grand Rapids, MI I worked with Abbey from Syd Design for custom invitations and stationery. She is amazing. My husband and I had decided that we wanted to have a drawing of our wedding rings and a quote from my favorite poem on the invitations. That's a lot harder to do than originally imagined. I talked with a lot of vendors before I found Abbey. It was no problem for her. She has a friend that is an illustrator that drew our rings for a small fee. The first time I talked with her on the phone I gave her an idea of what we were looking for and some of the themes of our wedding. When I met with her in person, she had created a bunch of samples with different paper in different styles for us to review and ponder. I got to take them with me to show our families. That really helped. We ended up with invitations made out of handmade paper and seed (plantable) paper. The colors and fonts were perfect. Our invitations were a combination of earthy, natural, subtle and sophisticated. We were so happy with the invitations, that we asked her to also make our programs, escort cards, table numbers, and menus. Everything was perfect. Abbey is fantastic to work with because she listened to our ideas (even our odd ones) and then transformed them into something more beautiful then we had imagined. DJ: Moments in Time DJs, Grand Rapids, MI We worked with Joe Lober from Moments in Time DJs. He is really laid-back and has a wide selection of music. We gave him a list of some of our favorite songs for the cocktail hour, dinner, and reception. We had two djs at the wedding. They were professional and played great music. We never heard one song that we didn't like. Our families danced all night. They had a surprise for us that was one of our favorite moments of the day. We had picked "I Cross My Heart" by George Strait as our last song. When it was time to dance, Joe had all of our guests come to the dance floor and surround in a circle. It meant so much to us because everywhere we looked, we saw the faces of people who love and support us. It was fantastic. And at the end of the song, everyone came in for a group hug. String Quartet: The Grand String Quartet, Grand Rapids, MI We had the Grand String Quartet play for the ceremony. The group is easy to work with and has a large repertoire. If you would really like a song that they do not have, they are willing to acquire it. Tom from the quartet came to the rehearsal to offer help and advice. It was great to have that. Before and during the ceremony, they sounded absolutely beautiful. Caterer: West Michigan Caterers, Grand Rapids, MI We worked with Bob from West Michigan Caterers. They have a delicious menu and are also flexible. We had our hearts set on having salmon with a butter dill sauce. They are willing to make that especially for us. We had two entrees on each plate. For dinner, we had pork with a mushroom gravy, salmon with a butter dill sauce, risotto cakes, and asparagus. The food was perfect. The waitstaff was fantastic. They were professional and polite. We were impressed. Bar: Martha's Vineyard, Grand Rapids, MI We worked with Martha's Vineyard. They were very flexible with us. We had purchased our own wine from local wineries. They were willing to serve it at no extra cost along with the kegs we got from them. Flowers: Eastern Floral, Grand Haven, MI I worked with Skeeter at Eastern Flower. He is a fantastic listener and has wonderful ideas. I wanted to mix herbs with garden roses and spray roses for my bouquets and boutonnieres and other flower pieces. He did an amazing job. The boutonnieres were exactly what I wanted. The bouquets were better than I had imagined. Fantastic!!! Herbs: Countryside Greenhouse, Allendale, MI For favors that doubled as table decorations, we decided to use little potted herbs. I love the various textures and smells. I also wanted to give something useful and living (I tried to kill as few plants/flowers as possible). I worked with Colleen at the greenhouse. She is fantastic. The greenhouse has a large selection of plants. She helped me narrow down which varieties of herbs I wanted. Prior to the wedding, I gave her the pots (I had 4" clay pots painted chocolate brown). They potted 110 herbs for us and delivered them to Camp Blodgett on the wedding day. They looked great. Our guests loved them. Hair and make-up: Sanada Salon, Grand Rapids, MI I worked with Rikki at Sanada. She is great. I had a few ideas of what I wanted (a few pictures ripped out of magazines). She tied all of the ideas together and made the perfect wind-proof hair style for my day. I felt like a beautiful princess. While I was getting my hair done, my girls were getting their hair done at the salon too, but I don't the names of the other stylists. We were all happy with how our hair turned out. A lady named Jaime did my makeup. She was great. My makeup was subtle, beautiful and waterproof. Bridesmaid Dresses: JCrew We ordered chocolate brown knee-length halter dresses from JCrew. JCrew was easy to work with, especially with returns. The prices were affordable. The girls are happy with dresses they can wear again. My matron-of-honor wore hers to another wedding this summer. The dresses are so cute that I almost bought one in blue for the rehearsal. My dress: Becker's Bridal, Fowler, MI I bought a fantastic Maggie Sottero dress at Becker's Bridal. The ladies there are great. I had went all over the state looking for the perfect dress. We found it at Becker's only to find out that it had just been discontinued. The ladies at Becker's called the designer and got them to make my dress. It was perfect and exactly what I wanted. I felt beautiful all day in the dress. Tux Rental: Bunny Tuxedo, Grandville, MI We had a great experience with tuxes. The people at Bunny's are great. The styles were good. The guys were happy. I think I covered all the vendors. They were a good group of people that worked really well together. My day went as well as it did because of these fantastic vendors.