Rehearsal Dinner: Moosehead Grill Amherst
The servers were nice enough and the food was great but service was SLOW- it took over an hour for them to start serving us and some people didn''t get their food for an hour and a half. On first phone call the server told my MIL that we could have a buffet style service and that would be the best for a large group (15 people). But on the second phone call the manager said that off the menu would be fine. We didn't care which way but we would have preferred not to have such a long wait.
Flowers: Silver Fox Florist Westlake
Our flowers, were amazing. They were flexible- letting me clean and arrange my own centerpieces for a discount. All the flowers were fresh and great tones- I had peonies and hydrangea and I do not like the antique look (brown or green tones in the flowers) and I wasn't disappointed. All the colors were true. The only con I'd say was they forgot to make the tossing bouquet and cake flowers I requested, but I also forgot to call and pick up the cake flowers so not a big deal!
Limo Service: NM Limo Co. Cleveland
You get what you pay for. The limo was great, they were flexible and affordable (They let us pay for one limo from Pick-up, to Ceremony, to reception and another from Reception to hotel afterward). The drawback? They wanted us to Googlemap out our routes! I just figured we would supply the addresses and they would figure out how to get there. I mapped out our routes and e-mailed them to the company a week before and and they said "No, you need to print it out and give it to the driver when they arrive on your day". That was a PIA. There is so much going on the day of your wedding the least they can do is print it and give it to the driver beforehand. We forgot the directions for the driver going from reception to hotel and he laughed and said he had killed his Iphone waiting on us (we were not late.) Our Best Man ended up having to use his phone's navigator to give the guy directions even though he had a GPS hanging from the windshield.
Cake: Wild Flour Baker Rocky River
Amazing cake... It was moist and delicious DAYS after the wedding. It was plain white stucco icing like we had requested and Mona even confirmed the details a week before.
Ceremony: Avon Lake United Church of Christ
Very easy to work with, the wedding coordinator was new when I was married but still so helpful. She helped make sure everything was timed out just right.
Reception: Avon Country Club
Delicious food, Patti was very easy to work with and very helpful. The day of, she wasn't so helpful with our vendors. The DJ said she was hard to talk to and she left half way through the reception. We also didn't get the chicken Marsala requested just for my Husband and I. BUT the server put in orders of chicken tenders for my newphews 7 and 8 who had no clue what Chicken florentine was
Overall, I'm going to assume there was a problem in the kitchen since that was where she was most of the night. I had many friends refer me to this venue and those little details seem to be a one-off situation.
Suits: Men's Wearhouse Strongsville and Avon
Overall, great to work with. They claimed the were missing a tie that was in one of the GM's shoes- they were actually missing a set of cuff links. I explained the mix-up to the manager and she immediately fixed it. I would definitely work with them again.
Dress: Catan's Bridal Strongsville
I got Blue by Enzoani- Edson off the clearance rack at a great price. I love the dress but their service left something to be desired. Both of the ladies who attempted to check me out appeared to be feuding and didn't know how to ring up a dress on sale (shooting each other nasty looks and speaking tersely to each other) When I'm about to purchase a dress upward of 1k, I'd rather not have the stress. They also charged me to fix a small piece of netting that was torn on the bottom while telling me it was free and the $100 charge was for alterations. It took them 6 months to fix it (luckily, I had a long engagement) Later, I got a refund for $75 when I asked for it to be hemmed 2 inches and they told me alterations were not included. Such a hassle for lack of communication.
Bridesmaid Dresses: David's Bridal Strongsville
It is so hard to find a place that has a large selection of dresses in a short amount of time. My bridesmaid's had picked their dresses from Catan's and then never purchased them. The dresses were discontinued so I had to go with DB because of time constraints. They have a great selection, their sales people are great- when you get one to talk to you. Both times I've been here, I've waited 20+ minutes before anyone would even direct me where to go! Our dresses came in on time and looked great but they also sold my phone number and e-mail to a bunch of vendors without my permission. Overall, I guess David's Bridal is a necessary evil if you need great dresses on a time crunch. (Tip: if you want your dresses faster, give an earlier wedding date, dresses are processed based on wedding dates)
Hair and Make-up: Fringe and Foundation
Overall they did a great job for a great price. My hair was a bit crunchy and the BM's curls fell down about halfway through the reception but it was hot and humid and I changed my style the day of and my stylist didn't even flinch. A+
Hotel: Marriott Courtyard Westlake
Nice, clean, comfortable room at a good price. Been here a few times and love how friendly the staff is!
DJ: MCSound DJ All Cleveland and suburbs
This is a younger duo (20's) who went to school with my husband. We watched them play several times at a local bar and loved how they read the crowd so we decided to book them. They had great pricing, were thorough and easy to talk to. They are 20x's more mature than any other DJ I have dealt with, they have the confidence that comes with being good at what they do- they don't need to yell to command attention. They are professionals through and through. Corey will literally sit down with you and help you create a timeline for your reception so that everyone is on the same page. I changed out garter toss song 2 days before, no problem. They did a great job at our wedding as well- everyone was dancing all night long! The only take away- they did an odd thing where the guests circled us at the end of the night and they played "over the rainbow" and then made everyone do the hokey pokey. It was okay because all our guests were drunk but I don't think they will be doing it in the future.
Photographer: Jolynn Demeter Photography
Jolynn is possibly one of the most upbeat and happy people you will ever meet! She was great, she took pictures, her assistant wrangled the people into order and I took away some great pictures. She also includes in her wedding pricing copyrights so you don't have to haggle to print those customized thank you notes. I would definitely recommend her to anyone!
"So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me... everyday."~The Notebook~