I wanted to do this before I forgot!!!
Venue: Seasons Event and Conference Center/Tracy Therrien A++++++Tracy and her staff were amazing! Throughout the planning process, anytime I had a question for Tracy she got right back to me with an answer. She really goes above and beyond for the bride and groom! I shared my vision with her, and she really made it happen. She never pushed her opinion on us - if we weren't sure about something, she'd share what other couples had done, but if we knew what we wanted, she went with it. At the end of the night, she made sure that all of our gifts were brought up to our room, where a little surprise was waiting for us. All of my decorations were packed up and ready to be picked up the next morning too.
Emmy, the chef, is amazing as well. She was fantastic during our tasting - brought out each meal, let us eat, and then came back to talk about what we liked. She has a nutrition background and was able to make our entire meal gluten free without changing what we wanted. We received so many compliments on the food. I had a few people ask "How on earth did you afford this?", when in reality, it was very reasonably priced.
Photography: Michelle McDougal Photography A+++
www.michellemcdougalphotography.comI've known Michelle for two years now and had seen a lot of her work online prior to getting engaged. When I started planning for the wedding, she was the 2nd person I contacted (DJ was the 1st). My date was determined based on her availability and my DJs. That's how bad I wanted her to photograph my wedding! She is amazing! We met with each other about a month before the wedding to go over a few concerns I had (a few people with mobility issues) and she helped me get rid of my anxiety about pictures. A week before the wedding, we met at my ceremony location (Fort Williams Park) and spent a few hours walking around and deciding where we wanted to do pictures. She also went to my reception venue that day to check out the space and lighting so she'd be prepared. Her husband is her second shooter, included in the package, and neither one of them were ever intrusive or distracting. I haven't actually seen my pictures yet since it's only been 12 days and she edits every single image, but I know I won't be disappointed!
DJ: Brian Sparhawk/Sparhawk Sounds A+
www.sparhawksounds.comI've known Brian for over 20 years and I've always known that I wanted him to DJ my wedding. He was great - he only spoke when he needed to but he kept the excellent tunes playing all night. We sent him a CD of the music we wanted played during dinner (O.A.R. - a favorite of ours) and when that ran out, he played music that was similar. When people starting hitting the Candy Buffet, he started playing music that mentioned candy, sugar, etc. It was almost like it was planned, but it wasn't! He took requests, checked in with us throughout the night about things, and was absolutely perfect.
Cake: Nothing Bakes Like A Parrott A
www.nothingbakeslikeaparrot.comI know some others on here have had difficulty contacting/hearing back from Jessica, but I had a great experience with her. We set up a tasting back in December on a Sunday morning, which was very helpful with our schedules. The tasting went great and we booked her right away. Her prices are very reasonable compared to some of the others that I researched. We ended up finalizing the design about two weeks prior, and she was able to recreate a cake stand that I had found that really fit with the theme of the cake. The cake looked great, it tasted great, and I can't wait for our 1-year anniversary to eat that top layer that we hope we've wrapped well enough to make it last.
Ceremony Coordinator: Trisha Blow/At Your Service By Trisha A
aysbytrisha.com
Trisha has been in the wedding industry for a long time and is trying to get her own business off the ground. I believe she does actual wedding planning, but I used her services as a DOC for the ceremony. We met ahead of time to go over what I needed from her. She came to the rehearsal the night before and took a few ceremony-related items with her so she could set them up the next day. She made sure the chairs were where they were supposed to be, set out my programs, and played my music, as well as directed guests up to the Picnic Shelter and helped usher them out so we could start pictures. The only minor snafu we had was that she started my music 4 minutes early, which had the bridal party processional already playing when they were getting out of the limo. She helped my mom with my bustle, and FOUND A TICK in the process! I was very grateful for that! If you're looking for someone reasonably priced to help you out at your ceremony, I definitely recommend her.
Transportation: Atlantic Limousine A+
We booked the limo for the wedding about a week and a half before the wedding. It was at the bottom of my priority list but then we had a little extra money so we decided to go for it. Our chauffer was great - helped me and the rest of the girls in and out of the limo, brought over some water while we were taking pictures, and dropped us off and picked us up at the right places for pictures. I was impressed with his ability to back the limo up a very steep hill next to the picnic shelter too!
I don't think I forgot anything, but I will be back if I remember something else!
ETA:
Hair and Makeup: Trendsetters B
There's a part of me that wants to give this place a lower grade and another part of me that is thankful that they were able to book me under a month to go when my original place closed down. My hair was fine, and I liked the day-of 'do better than the trial. Both of my SILs said their stylists were a bit rough and felt like their head was getting scraped by the bobby pins. Their price list states that updos are $40, not $40+ or $40 per hour. However, when I went to pay the deposit, I found out they were $45 an hour. I booked it anyways and told my girls that if they went for more intricate updos, then they'd be charged more than $45. They weren't happy when they had to pay more, but that's their fault, not mine or the salons. I LOVED my makeup and the MUA. She doesn't actually work there, but she's the DIL of the owner. I'd like to find where she works because I really liked her and I think she does hair as well.
The biggest challenge with this place was paying. All of the girls had given me half of the money due that I gave for the deposit. When they were done, they each paid for their balance. When it was time for me to pay, things got confusing because one girl hadn't actually paid me and wanted to pay her entire amount and have her deposit applied to mine. I had paid $35 for my deposit and $35 for hers, so it should have been easy enough to do my total ($90 + $25) and subtract the $70, but that took her almost a half hour to figure out. It put us a bit behind for the morning.
If you consider booking this place for hair/makeup, either have each girl originally pay their own deposit OR have them pay you and you can pay the entire balance as well. It was like they had never had individuals pay for themselves before and it wasn't worth the hassle!