Hello fellow GR knotties, So, I am more of a lurker than a poster, but since I really valued other posters' vender reviews I figured I would contribute as well, especially since we had so many amazing venders! FYI, our wedding took place entirely in GR. Rehearsal Dinner - Tre Cugini restaurant A-We had our Rehearsal Dinner in the atrium (La Scala) of Tre Cugini in downtown GR. The food was awesome and the atmosphere was fabulous (open atrium, exposed brick, very cute). Eveyone was great to work with there, my only complaint was that we started cocktail hour at 6:30 and I don't think they served dinner until almost 8:30 or 9 o'clock. We did have a rather large rehearsal group (75 people), but people started to drink a lot, then get hungry! Once served, the food was fabulous and the wine kept coming! Hair/ Makeup - Sananda Salon (29th St.) A-All the sytlists at Sananda did a great job on my bridesmaids and mother's hair. Ricki did my hair and got it perfectly! I did have some pieces start to fall prior to the dancing, so that was my only issue. Luckily, I stocked our bathrooms with baskets inlcuding bobby pins, beause a few of us had to tighten up our hair during the night. To be expected, I suppose. Limo - Executive Coach Service - A-Really, they were all you could ask for: on-time, easy to work with, polite, and cheap! We only used them for transportation from salon to the church, as well as for the boys and gradnparents. The limo was a little dated looking, but it didn't matter because they were completely reasonable in price and got the job done. We had a 10 person stretch limo, which was your basic stertch. Also, a last minute booking a few weeks before the wedding, and would also do 2 hour rides which required you to book at least 3 for Saturday afternoons. Florist- Modern Day Floral A +++++++Jenn at Modern Day was amazing from the first time we met! She knew exactly what I was going for when I said classic, but modern. My bouquet was absolutely gorgeous, as were the bridesmaids! They were large bouquets as well! They did all our flowers and centerpieces, which turned out better than I could have imagined. I really trusted them to turn the vision in my head into reality, and they absolutely did that (even better than I could have imagined!) Her entire team was easy to work with, and Jenn really is a genius when it comes to flowers and decor. They were worth every penny and more! Photographer - Ben and Laura Harrison of Harrison Studio A+++++++What can I say, Ben and Laura were absolutely amazing and our pictures turned out sooo beautiful. I knew I wanted Ben and Laura (before I even got engaged, ha!) and we were so happy to work with them. Both are masters with a camera, working hard all day to capture every single moment. My dad, who never cries, actually called me balling after he watched the slideshow they prepared for us with of a few of our images. I would recommend them to everyone I know, and am soo excited to see all of the pictures. Such a great couple, and amazing photographers. Their photographs speak for themselves!Reception - Amway Grand Plaza A+We had our reception at the Amway in the Ambassador Ballroom, which turned out so beautiful. Jennifer at the Amway really was our wedding planner. She was on top of everything and just "got us". She made sure everything ran smootly, was willing to work with us and accomodate every wierd request we had. The Amway is so beautful, and they do a fabulous job with their weddings. The only issue we had was with the bar - at some point the bartenders allowed people to get shots, which we specifically requested NOT to allow and I guess they normally never allow it anyways, but I think this was more of a problem with a specific bartender than the Amway. Jennifer took it very seriously, and in the end it didn't matter anyways. Cake- Amway Patry Chef A The pastry chef at the Amway is awesome! He came from the Beverly Hills Hotel and is phenomenal. Everyone said the cake was so good and it looked beautiful. Simple and elegant, just as we wanted. We actually ate all of it! Plus, they make you a brand new cake (mini replica of yours) on your one year anniversary, so no freezing and dethawing! Only downside - no cake testing. We basically just trusted that he was as good as he proclaimed - and trust me, HE WAS!!Dress - Bridal Elegance BFor the most part everything with Bridal Elegance was good. Picked out the dress, got good discounts for purchasing on my first trip etc, and it came in early. The seamstress there was great about meeting with me to get the dress perfect. Only downside - okay personal service, made me pay $5 to look for bridesmaid dresses and try them on, and hours/ days open. Bridesmaid drseses - Houseofbrides.com AWe ordered our bridesmaid dresses online. They came in a few weeks early, and we saved a bunch of money! The dresses retailed for $207, and we paid $140 for them. Definitely worth it! I even had a bridesmaid get pregnant a few days after ordering the dresses online and talked to someone about changing the sizes and it worked out perfectly. I mean it is kinda scary, because its online, but this is the 3rd wedding I've been in where we used this site and had no problems! (Not sure that I would use this to order the wedding dress though, only because it is not that easy to get in touch with the right person to help you there if there were any porblems) Band- Trilogy A+++++++Trilogy was absolutely awesome. I still have people telling me how much fun they had and how great the band was. Booked them before even hearing them, but they are truly great. I just let them do their thing, and they chose such a great variety of music and played cd's for us during dinner and on breaks. Seriously, packed dance floor all night and very reasonable. The members were all very fun and relaxed and they sounded so good! You can catch them at the Bob every once in a while, and they have done SOOO many weddings that they definitely know what they are doing!GR Trolley - CIts hard for me to say anything bad about my day, because the day of I was so happy and excited that nothing bothered me! However, the trolley that we recieved was so small. I've been on many of their trolleys, but never this one they sent for us. We had a lot of people standing on it, because we were told it could hold 25, but the one we got definitely did not. Just clarify that your trolley seats that many! Also, our driver totallly took us on the highway! All of a sudden we were on the on-ramp to 131 on this trolley, where half the people were standing and some even on the back "porch" area of the trolley. Kinda scary, although it ended up being fun. Videographer - Visual Inspirations A My mother in law booked this for us, as I didn't think I would care if I had a videographer. In retrospect, I am SOOO glad she did this! Anne, our videographer was so easy going and great to work with. She interviewed all our bridal party and caught some great, funny moments. Have yet to see the final work, but am sure that it will be amazing. Now, I just can't wait to see everything that I missed! Well, this is long, and like I said, I'm not a regular poster on here. I always got a lot out of these posts, so I wanted to return the favor. I also ordered ivory linens (organza overlays) for very cheap on
www.tableclothsfactory.com and they were fast and turned out nice for the price. Anyways, hope this helps someone! Feel free to let me know if you have any more specific quesitons. I'm not on here too often anymore, but will try to check back!