Hi, ladies! I didn't post TOO much leading up to my wedding, but I always found the vendor reviews helpful, so I thought I would add in my 2 cents. Also, I had some AMAZING vendors so I wanted to give them the props they deserve!
Church: St. Joseph's Chapel at Seton Hill University: AThe Chapel is gorgeous and they let us use the site despite neither of us being alumni. (My husband's family is friends with the priest in charge of the chapel). The coordinators were really helpful and the get ready rooms were spacious and great for pictures. The only issue we ran into was that it is a dry campus, which no one had mentioned and the groom and his buddies had brought some beer to the room. It wasn't a big deal, just an FYI, really. Also, the get ready rooms don't lock and there were incoming student tours while we were there, so we had to make plans to have our stuff taken elsewhere.
Dress and Alterations: MB Bride: AI had a great experience at MB Bride. My consultant was Carolyn and she was very helpful and listened to what I said I liked and what I didn't. I cannot recall who did my alterations, but she was great! Really just a sweet lady and she was very good. I was lucky and my dress didn't need too many alterations so I only had 2 appointments for that. My husband actually picked up the dress before the wedding and they were so concerned that they made sure to put the dress and the slip and jacket in dark dress bags so that he couldn't see it.
Hair and Makeup (Bride, MOB, flower girls): Beauty Justified by Justine Lynn: A+LOVE HER! She is incredibly sweet and so helpful, not to mention talented. At our trial we weren't happy with the way my birdcage veil that I had ordered from Etsy looked. Rather than tell me to just order a new one, Justine offered to take it home and fashion a new one! She was extremely organized and even helped to coordinate a day-of time line with the photographer. She kept us all on time despite the organized chaos going on around her. She was even great with the flower girls. She traveled to the Church with us and was there to do touch ups right until I walked down the aisle. It was so great to just be able to relax in my hotel room and not have to rush around to the salon. I HIGHLY recommend her! I wish I had another formal event in my future just so she can make me look fab again!
Photography: Jenni Grace Photographs: A+Fantastic photographer, even better person. I just love Jenni and her husband Mike (her second shooter). They made us feel so comfortable all day and our pictures are AMAZING. I can't even tell you how many times I watched our slideshow (which she had for us while we were still on our honeymoon). I also can't tell you how many compliments we've received on the pictures. She will definitely be doing our future family photos when we have little ones! Also, she had worked with Justine and our DJ Andy Booth before so she was able to communicate with them in terms of scheduling and locations, which was great! It was so much easier on me. She even texted Andy updates while we were getting our photos taken so he knew exactly what time we'd be arriving!
DJ: Andy Booth: A+Andy's reputation on these boards is WELL deserved. He is kind and sweet and kept the reception going all night. Literally, we were there till midnight! He was very good about organizing all the dances and finding me whenever I was needed (bouquet toss, etc.). He also played a great mix of music and we had everyone from 2 to 90 up and dancing! He has an interactive website that makes planning and selecting songs super easy and he didn't even blink when we changed our first dance song the week of the wedding!
Cake: Marian Soldano of My Daughters' Wedding Cakes: A+Marian is super sweet and so are her cakes! She is a smaller baker that bakes out of her own home (which is seriously in the middle of nowhere), but that means her prices are great! We had a devil's food cake with raspberry filling and chocolate icing. It was fantastic! The guests raved about it and she did a great job decorating. We wanted a simple cake, so she was perfect for us, but I don't know if I would use her if I wanted a really elaborate cake with lots of fondant just bc I didn't see too much of those cakes in her sample book. Also, I think she only provided 2 types of cake (of your choosing) to taste, but we were pretty set on chocolate/raspberry so it didn't bother us at all.
Cake Topper: Etsy seller ReadyGo. A+Our topper was adorable and Nadia, the seller, was great to work with. She custom designed us a topper of us and our dog and she donates $10 of the sale to a local animal shelter. The bride and groom can be selected from various options on her site, but the dog is totally custom and looked just like our pup! She just so happens to be from Pittsburgh, which I thought was great!
Florals: Lauren Matyasovsky for Tall Flowe Designs: A+Lauren is just getting her feet wet in the wedding business, but she is fantastic and definitely has a bright future ahead of her! Prior to meeting with her I sent her a few pictures of what I had in mind and really just let her run with it. I had collected vintage green glass vases, bud vases, bowls etc. and she took them and created a different centerpiece for each table at the venue. They were gorgeous! And the bouquets and corsages were above and beyond my expectations. She gave me a quote with prices for small, medium, and large displays. We went with small for the maids and medium for everything else. I honestly can't imagine what a large would even look like as the sizes were great! She also set up all the details of our tables including doilies and candles. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend her.
Photobooth: Fineline Weddings: AThey were great! Very easy to work with, we had our CD of photos and videos before we came back from our honeymoon. We used their props, but also brought our own St. Patrick's Day themed props and mustaches on sticks. We also brought our own scrapbook and supplies rather than pay for them to bring one. They had everything out when we got there with no issues. They even gave us a discounted rate as our wedding is in the "off season." We only used them for our photobooth, but I've heard good things about their photography and videography as well.
Transportation: Quest Coach: BThe company was great to work with and cheap! We were able to rent a 45 person coach bus for the entire day for $600. This included it running as a shuttle at the Church and also 3 trips throughout the night from our venue to our hotels. The only thing keeping them from an "A" rating was a mistake they made after the wedding. They somehow misplaced their record of us paying our second deposit ($500) and ran my credit card for an additional $500 a few days after the wedding. Luckily, there was money in the account and I noticed it immediately. They went back through their records and found our deposit and refunded the money right away. It was more of an annoyance than anything and I would still recommend them.
Venue: The Barn at Ligonier Valley and Catering by Carson's Catering: BThis is another one where it would have been an "A" if it weren't for a few issues.
I'll start with the good which is that the venue was gorgeous the day of, the food was excellent, and the bartenders and catering staff were extremely helpful and totally on top of things. They even packed up the left over food from the buffet and let us take it hope, which was so nice! I honestly think the food tasted better the day of than it did when we went to the tastings!
Carson's had been a savior of sort for us as we had originally booked the venue when it was run by Ligonier Tavern, only to find out a few months later that they had lost the venue contract and they were asking for $700 extra for us to continue using them as our caterer. We found out that Carson's had taken over the venue and was now the sole caterer for the facility. Tim Carson responded to our panicked calls immediately and assured us that they would cater the wedding for no extra cost. We met him at Carson's restaurant and he was really helpful both then and throughout the wedding process.
The only issue that we had was the week before the wedding when we received our final invoice after we had given them our final headcount. Included in the invoice was a $500 charge for a facility rental that did not belong. We had discussed upon our initial meeting that there was to be no facility charge as we had not signed a contract for one when we originially booked, but that anyone who booked in the future would have to pay a fee (I think it is $1200 or $1500 now). I called Tim and he took the charge off immediately, but it was again annoying to deal with. He also requested that we pay all in cash (which was never discussed before), but gave in when we balked on that as well. It was kind of bizarre that we had those issues as they had been great to that point. And honestly, they were great after that too. I called Tim a few times the day before and the day of the wedding and he did everything I asked him to do, so there were no other complaints!
Finally: Feel free to check out our wedding slideshow or Jenni's blog!
http://www.jennisphotography.com/blog/?p=1714http://www.jennisphotography.com/TaraMike/Feel free to PM me if you girls need any other help or info. Happy planning and best of luck to you all!