Cake, Anita Kline-A+: Anita is one of the, if not the, most highly recommended vendors on this message board and it is warranted. She delivers 100% all around. First, she is a joy to work with from the start. Even before booking for her services, she invites you into her beautiful home to sample her delicious cake, fillings, and icing. She is quick to respond to communications and very willing to be creative with designs. Second, as I mentioned above, her cake is some of the best I have ever had. She uses only butter cream icing (see below for comments on how gorgeous her decorating is despite not using fondant) and her choices are amazing. We had such a hard time deciding between all the great flavors that we decided on a five-tier cake, and she even split some of the layers between different flavors. Third, I gave her a picture of a cake I found on the internet and she nailed it! Not that my design was something super complicated, but it required some work and hers was an exact match to the picture. I could not believe how smooth she got the icing to look using just butter cream. Finally, Anita’s prices are very reasonable to begin, but she also works on her own and from her home, so none of the overhead from employees and storefronts are passed on to the client. I gave Anita a “+” because I feel that she goes above and beyond what other vendors do (ex. Letting you sample her product before committing to book her services).
Make-up, MelissaRoshan-A: MelissaRoshan was such a joy to work with. She is easy to communicate with and she has such a warm personality. She came to my parents’ home and did the make-up for my three bridesmaids, the mothers of the bride and groom, and me. We all looked like ourselves, but enhanced. Some of the women in the party do not typically wear make-up and their make-up looked very natural. I did a trial run almost eight months before my wedding and she kept very detailed notes about what I liked and did not like. When it came time for the day of the wedding, she knew exactly what I wanted and executed perfectly. I did think that the foundation was a little heavy on my trial run make-up and on my mother’s make-up the day of the wedding. I had false eyelashes and, although they take a few minutes to get used to, they really added something and they stayed on all night. She is very professional and makes you feel very beautiful; I would recommend her to anyone looking for make-up services.
Hair, Jennifer King-A: Jennifer was great to work with and also very professional. She works out of Salon Lofts in the short north, so she operates her own business. She also came to my parents’ home and did hair for all the women. She knew exactly how much time it would take her, which was awhile because she first set everyone’s hair in rollers and then went back and styled everyone, and she stayed on schedule, which was very important to me. My hair turned out great. It wasn’t exactly what I initially wanted, but I think it actually fit me better than the picture I gave her and turned out better in the end. I also did a trial run with Jennifer and she knew exactly what I did and did not like about that hairstyle and made those adjustments on the wedding day without me reminding her. I didn’t go with the traditional “up-do” and she was very capable. Also, all of the women went with completely different styles and they all looked great, so she has great range.
Transportation (vintage car for Bride and Groom), Mark Hagins-B+: Mark has a great selection of cars and we found one that looked perfect driving away from the church and in our pictures. He is not difficult to get in touch with, but he is a little too casual in his booking process for someone like me who is basically a control freak. He just confirmed the date through email, there was no deposit, no contract, and he was a little difficult to get in touch with in the weeks leading up to the wedding. With that said, he did a great job the day of the wedding, let us take pictures on the car, and stayed as long as we wished (he charged a flat rate).
Transportation (shuttle for guests), Urban Express-B+: The only reason that I give this vendor a slightly lower rating is that I feel they are a little unorganized. They never truly confirmed by reservation. They sent me an unsigned contract and had me sign and return it with my credit card information. However, they never sent me a signed copy or charged my card (as they said they would) until a few days before the wedding when I called to confirm. With that said, there were no issues the day of the wedding. I know this is a small complaint, but I like to be very organized and I like to have things in writing. They were the least expensive option for a shuttle between the reception site and the hotel and they have quite a few options. I would use them again, but would be more adamant about getting a signed contract from them.
Day of Coordinator, Heather Smith of Bridalsmiths-A: Heather saved us! We went back and forth on whether or not to hire a coordinator and I think it generally depends on your personality and needs as to whether or not it is a good idea. However, I am especially glad we hired her after our pastor forgot to show up to the rehearsal. Heather took over and ran the entire rehearsal and while we were at dinner she contacted the Pastor and made certain he was aware of the oversight and would be there the day of the wedding. And she was calm the entire time, which made me feel better. Heather was willing to work within our budget and instead of having her husband as her assistant, which would have been more expensive for us, she brought an intern (she teaches classes in event planning) at no charge to us. For me, I am a complete control freak, but I wanted to have zero responsibilities the day of the wedding. I also gave her a ton of things the night before the wedding to deliver to the church and reception site. Heather is very detailed, easy to communicate with, so pleasant to deal with, and executed everything perfectly.
Photography, Julian Allen-A: Julian has a great eye for beautiful pictures and he is fun to work with. He was quick to respond to communications during the planning process. He is a solo photographer, but he referred another great photographer (see below) when we wanted two photographers for the day. The two worked great together. Julian takes a number of days visiting the various sites of the day and planning the majority of pictures ahead of time. This makes for a very efficient day and a great variety of pictures. Julian edited our pictures and had them on his website to view and purchase the Wednesday following our Saturday wedding. We also purchased the rights to our pictures as well as the unedited pictures (which was not included in the package) and he sent them on a thumb drive a few days later. The pictures turned out great. I only wished we had more edited pictures. Nevertheless, even the unedited pictures look good. He is very professional and I would recommend him to anyone. Photography, Evelyn Kamaitha-A: Evelyn was a great second photographer. Her editing was not as creative, but she did a great job of documenting the day. She was also very sweet and fun to work with. She did a lot of preparation for the day, including going to every location the week before the wedding. She worked great with our primary photographer, Julian Allen. She did not have a website to view and purchase the pictures, but she does have a blog where you can see some of her work. She was also very prompt in delivering our pictures after the wedding. DJ, Chris Snodgrass of Capital City Sound-A: I wanted a DJ who would play what we wanted, would not play what we didn’t want, would talk as little as possible, and was not annoying when they did talk. Chris delivered on all points. He also arranged a song we wanted to use for our introduction so that the lyrics wouldn’t play (a little inappropriate for a wedding, but we liked the introduction to the song). Communication with him was not the best when planning for the wedding day; however, it was not bad either. Just ok. Sometimes he would respond to an email right away, sometimes it was over a week before he responded. I also sent him an email a few weeks before the wedding with the specific songs we wanted played during the cocktail hour, dinner, and the later hours. When I met with him a few weeks before the wedding I told him I would be sending the email. However, when my wedding coordinator called him to confirm all the details, he said he never got the email with the songs. However, those really are the only things I can complain about and everything turned out exactly how we wanted the day of. Reception, Pinnacle-A+: I cannot think of a better place to have a wedding reception than Pinnacle. I worked with Lisa and she does everything to make the day perfect. The food was excellent. I am a vegetarian and they had a few options to choose from (something other than the generic pasta that I usually get at weddings). The other two plates we choose were also great. We had the prime rib. Pinnacle orders their meat from Michael’s meats (the same place Cameron Mitchel’s orders their meats) and they also get the top prime rib that Michael’s offers. Pinnacle offers traditional dishes, but they also have some more creative dishes (we chose a ginger crusted salmon for our fish and it could not have been better). I received some feedback from two people who ordered gluten free options of both the beef and fish and they had nothing but good things to say. They both received their gluten free meals at the same time everyone else did, they were correct, and they both raved about the food. One said it was the best prime rib they’ve ever had and the other said the fish was perfectly cooked. We also had a cocktail hour with appetizers. The shrimp was the largest shrimp we’ve ever seen and tasted great. I was too busy to have any of the other appetizers right away, but even an hour later, cold, they were all awesome. The service was excellent. They were a little slow to clear away the plates, but that is the only compliant anyone had. Lisa was very conscious of the budget and her estimate was right on. She approached my father once we had reached a targeted number of mixed drinks and asked if we wanted to limit it to beer and wine. And, at the end of the night, we were less than a dollar off the estimate. Florist, Oberers-A: I didn’t look at any other florists, so I’m not sure how the prices compared to others around the Columbus area. The final product was pretty close to what I envisioned, but there were a few details that were missing from the centerpieces. In the end, I was the only one that noticed and it didn’t take much away from the final product. I feel like they are a little limited if you want more creative/modern options. All-in-all, they were great to work with. Rehearsal Dinner, Tony’s (German Village)-B+: The food was great, the service was perfect, the space is wonderful. The only complaint I have is with Tony himself. You must deal with Tony if you want to book a large party. He could take some lessons from his service staff in friendliness, but I guess if you’ve been in business as long as he is, he isn’t too concerned with making friends. He just comes off as if, even though you are paying a ton of money to host an event at his restaurant, he is doing you a favor. Also, there are two banquet rooms (one much nicer than the other) and he could not guarantee that we would get the nicer room even though we booked before anyone else. He said that if a bigger party also booked that night, we would be in the other room. With that said, I don’t have any other complaints with the dinner. We had appetizers, family style dinner, the sampler dessert (also family style), and a wine service. All of the food was excellent. The wait staff was very attentive, friendly, and they even bottled up the rest of an open bottle of wine for us to take home at the end of the night and sent us home with the leftovers from the meal. The dinner was a little more than I expected (I guess I didn’t factor in how much we would drink). But it was worth it to us. Photo booth, VIP Photobooth-A: The group at VIP was great to work with. Meredith, one of the owners, was great to work with throughout the process. She was prompt with communications and really cared about making our wedding special. Her husband, one of the other owners, along with another employee operated the booth the night of the wedding. Not that my wedding was particularly rowdy or anything, but they put up with people trying to cram eight or more people into the booth on quite a few occasions. We have been to a few weddings with photo booths, and I think VIPs is the most advanced I have seen thus far. The screen is very clear and easy to see, they have black and white or color options, and they print out two copies of the pictures, one for the guest and one for us. They will also put together a scrapbook for $50. They take our copy of the picture and stick it on the page and then the guests can write a message next to their picture. We did this instead of a traditional guest book. They also post the pictures on-line (with a password, so only your guests can see) and guests can order additional copies of the pictures. If you are thinking of a photo booth in general, I would suggest props. I am not that creative and so I bought a bunch of “things on sticks” like lips, mustaches, cat-eye glasses, etc. on etsy (from www.etsy.com/people/Joosycardco?ref=ls_profile">http://www.etsy.com/people/Joosycardco?ref=ls_profile) and also had some small chalk boards I got from Michaels and the pictures are so great. We have more fun looking at those than our actual wedding pictures. Hotel, Drury Inn and Suites-Grove City-B: I had a few complaints about Drury. Setting aside the block did not get us much of a discount; it was basically the same price one could get until about a month before the wedding when the prices went up a bit. They only let us block off 26 rooms at a time and released the rooms a month before, which I’m sure is common. They did tell us that a guest could get the lower price even if all the rooms in the block were taken if there were available rooms in the hotel. However, communicating that to all of our guests is not easy. In order to get the block, you don’t deal with anyone at the actual hotel, you deal with someone at their headquarters in another state. That may have lead to the other problem, which was our out-of-town bags. If our guest did not check in at the exact check-in time the day of our wedding (ie. They checked in the day before or early the day of the wedding), they did not get a bag and had to go back and ask for one. For all the work we put into the bags, this was very frustrating. Finally, this is a little picky, but the rooms themselves are just ok. This is a very new building, but the room looks like it is out of the eighties and very homey. The problem is, I still think that this is probably the best option for those looking for a hotel in Grove City.Ceremony Music, Columbus String Quartet-A+: I am giving this vendor a plus because they learned a few songs just for our wedding and I really appreciate how much work they put in to make our ceremony what we wanted. I used all classical music, but many of the selections (including the processional) were not your typical wedding selections, so they had to make some adjustments. I dealt with Charles who was very accommodating and very quick to respond to emails and phone calls. He was excited to play some different music for the ceremony and didn’t make me feel crazy for wanting something different. They all looked great and sounded great on the day of the wedding.