Well, now that my wedding is over and everything has somewhat settled down, I wanted to give you all some vendor reviews as I had the pleasure of working with some incredible people!
Ceremony & Reception Location:
BENT TREE GOLF CLUB - A+++
Bent Tree was amazing to work with. Brett Wiley was the main contact I ended up working with and he was great. He probably thought I was nuts half the time because I'm a planner and had everything basically done with a year until my wedding, but no matter what he was always patient with us. Whenever I had random questions, I could either call or ask him and he was always quick to respond and patient even though I'm sure I was driving him nuts. The days before our wedding it was raining so the outdoor grass area where we were going to have our ceremony was like a mud pit. The day of our wedding was on and off rainy, mostly misty rain but Brett knew how much I wanted to have our ceremony outdoors and made me feel comfortable with him making the decision on what to do the day of. He was in touch with me the day of periodically to keep me posted, which helped my stress level! lol! They were very accomidating and we moved it to another location outdoors and it was even better than I could ever imagine. I had done a lot of stuff myself for our reception and had all the decor, Kayla & Sue set up the tables and the room and everything else EXACTLY how I wanted it. It was seriously perfect and just wahat I pictured. Kayla was amazing the whole day with me making sure everything was okay, that we had everything we needed before the ceremony and all during the reception. I can't say enough good things about Bent Tree. Bent Tree just offered us so much for the money it was so nice and they took care of everything for me, set up and tear down, everything. It was such a relief. Also, their food was amazing and I got so many compliments from our guests on how good the food was. Along with the amazing service the offer, they have increidble packages that are budget friendly, which was VERY important to us as we paid for the wedding ourselves.
OFFICIANT: REV. WILLIAM GLAZER: A+
Bill Glazer was the sweetest officiant and I could truly tell he cared about the wedding ceremonies he performed and he made me feel as if he truly put a lot of effort into our ceremony. We didn't write our own vows, but he provided me with a lot of suggestions to help me really personalize them for us. The whole ceremony was perfect and Bill Glazer is great!
FLOWERS: KELLY KARSTEN A++
I met Kelly and was so happy to have found her because I was getting down about how much the flowers would cost. I'm not a big fan of flowers and didn't want centerpieces w/ flowers, but just needed bouquets, the arch, etc. Kelly is more than affordable and does an AMAZING job! I told Kelly exactly what I wanted and showed her some pictures. I wanted deep red, burnt orange, and a pop of apple green. I wanted my flowers really romantic and she seriously created exactly what I had pictured in my head. I got SO MANY compliments on our flowers, they were seriously the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen. She also delivered her ceremony arch for me to use and put beautiful flowers along the arch that doubled as the decor for my head table. Kelly did such an amazing job and she was so affordable. I definitely would recommend her to anyone!
PHOTOS: KATHY GRINSTEAD: B-/C+
I definitely think that Kathy could have done a little better job with our photos. I had provided Kathy with a list of who I wanted to make sure to get pictures with the day of prior to our wedding and when she got there she didn't have it and we ended up not getting pictures with all the people we wanted. I felt as if I was having to tell everyone, family and bridal party, to put their beers down and come together for pictures when I feel as if that should have been something she was doing. I got extremely frustrated at one point because she was just kind of standing around and not getting pictures done. Luckily my dad was there and stepped up bc he saw my frustration, but still I feel as if that is something she should have done. Our pictures are good, however I feel like she should have done a better job organizing the people in the pictures so they looked better, not just people in random spots. There are also pictures where some of the groomsmen have beers, which I really wished she would have told them to put them down. I feel as if she could have been more aggresive I guess, not mean, but she could have taken more charge to get the bridal party and family in order. I also had to bug her a couple times for my wedding dvd and the other items she had promised. She had told me she was editing them, but when I got them, honestly I don't know what she was editing besides maybe flipping one of them to black and white. I definitely like our pictures, but I feel like my dad (who thinks he is a photographer) took a lot of pictures better than she did.
HAIR STYLIST: SHANNON GOODE A++
Shannon is AMAZING! I love her!! She cared about me being happy and liking my hair and the fact that she travels to you, is amazing! All of my bridal party had beautiful hair! My mom never gets her hair done and was nervous to get her hair done bc she doesn't like to have updos, but Shannon got her to trust her and let her try a hairstyle and my mom ended up loving it and looked beautiful. My hair was beautiful also and just what I wanted. She is really affordable too and has a great personality, which makes it good for the bridal party!
MAKEUP: TASHIA KAY (MAKEUP ARTIST AT SHISEIDO: B-
I met Tashia when my sister was in a fashion show and she seemed so nice and sweet and we hit it off. She seemed like she had a great personality and like she would be good with the girls in my bridal party. When Tashia got there, her personality wasn't the same as all the other times we had met and gotten together, she seemed totally different and kind of rude. To be honest, she seemed like all she cared about was money, not doing any of our makeups. Don't get me wrong, my makeup looked beautiful, my mom's, sisters, and the other BMs who got their makeup done looked amazing as well! The issue I had with Tashia was that there ended up being charges that came up that she never told me about. Also, once my makeup was done and everone had paid her, she sat there and counted her money in her hand like 3 or 4 times with a really crappy look on her face like she was disappointed with how much we gave her/tipped her. We didn't nickle and dime her, we paid her what she said was the price, had to come up with extra money for the extra amount she popped on us, and tipped her how we should have. My dad had even said something to me about it becuase he came into the room to take pictures and was apalled at how she sat there towards the back and counted her money a couple times with a nasty look on her face.