We're back from our honeymoon, and it was beautiful. The wedding was amazing. The only problem was that I realized that morning that I didn't bring the placecards with me, but FI's mom was able to find them in the house and bring them to the venue to be put out before the end of the ceremony.
Venue -- Grand Ballroom at Cornerstone Commons, Butler, PA -- A
My only complaint about the venue was that their coordinator had a ton of questions that could've been answered by anyone else there, but she kept finding me to answer her. For instance, while I was in the bridal room before the ceremony, she came to find me to tell me that someone had moved the flowers. It certainly wasn't me, and I didn't know who it WAS. However, when I directed her to someone else, she was able to find them and the flowers were found. Just silly little things, but things that could've very much stressed me on that day.
Caterer -- Jody's Pantry -- A+The food was superb, and the serving staff could not have been nicer. When I asked for a plate of artichoke dip, the servers brought gigantic plates of appetizers for the entire head table. They also were very responsive to my requests. The cake was awesome too.
Photographer -- Tony Urban Photography -- A+
Tony arrived just as we were stepping out of the limo from the salon. He got a ton of amazing preparation shots, and was very much willing to get whatever pictures I asked for. Most of the time, I never even noticed he was there, which led to me running into him more than once.
You can see the pictures at
http://tonyurbanphotography.com/?p=1433. (The link will open our slideshow in a new window. Pay no attention to my highly stylish black bra and pink cami -- it was HOT in those two rooms!)
Limousine Service -- First Class Limousine -- A+
We actually were lucky enough to get our limo as a gift from a friend -- we had their all day wedding package. The limo picked us up at the hotel, took us to Starbucks, the salon, etc., then picked up our friends at the hotel, brought them to the venue, took them back at the end of the night, you get the picture. The driver was wonderful, highly professional, and able to get anywhere we asked without needing any help from us. The limo also came stocked with champagne, chocolates, and roses.
Dresses -- MB Bride, Greensburg --BI'm so heartbroken that I have to give MB a B, because I found my dream dress there. However, the service that my bridesmaids got was pretty icky at times, which made me unhappy. When they went to pick up their dresses after alterations, no one was interested in assisting them to try them on to make sure there were no problems. The problem was that the dresses laced up the back, and they needed help to get them on! In fact, the one sales associate looked at us like she couldn't believe that my BM wanted to try her dress on at all. However, Kim, who was my associate, and Maia, the owner, were amazing and did a wonderful job of helping me with whatever I needed.
Honeymoon -- El Dorado Casitas Royale, Riviera Maya -- A+Our honeymoon was unbelievable. We were greeted at the airport by our transfer driver and driven to the resort, where we had champagne waiting for us prior to check in. We were escorted to the casitas check in for registration, then taken to our concierge's office to make dinner reservations for the week. There was also a DVD library for nights in, and a library for beach reading material. We ate at most of the restaurants there -- each was better than the last. Our pool had a swim-up bar (all pools in the Casitas do). We also had a bed on our balcony for lounging and listening to the ocean. The beach was shell-y, which was a drawback, but there were huge beach beds for lounging. Waiters would come and take drink orders, and there was also a lunch service and afternoon ice cream on the beach beds. I highly recommend it to anyone!