Hi Knotties! I never posted during my planning process, but I wanted to share my thoughts on our vendors for our 12/17 wedding. It helped me so much to read reviews during the planning process, so hopefully this helps out someone else.
Wedding/Reception Venue- Mansion at Judges' Hill: A++
Okay, MJH is pricey, but it is so worth it! Amy handled our account and she was always very helpful, informative and very quick to return emails. Brian handled our room block and was very helpful in helping me understand room nights and all that other hotel lingo. As another bride posted (who I believe got married there the day after we did!), the wedding coordinator we were initially using (Jennifer) left and was replaced with Lauren. At first I was a little worried because it was getting close to the wedding, but things couldn't have worked out better. Lauren is a complete doll and was a pleasure to work with. She is young, but is so professional and easy to relate with. She had wonderful suggestions and anything we needed, even during the wedding, she was quick to do with a smile on her face. She made our day go by so smoothly and even sent us huge hunks of our cake back to our room on our wedding night since we didn't really get to eat during the reception. As far as the actual hotel is concerned, it is a beautiful venue that has lovely options for indoor and outdoor festivities. We didn't even have to do much decorating as the venue is so beautiful on its own, especially with the Christmas decorations they had displayed. Our hotel room was great, we checked in on Wednesday for our Friday wedding. The entire time we felt so important by the staff! My DH and I agreed we both want to go back for our anniversary.
Dress- Victoria Nicole at Stardust Celebrations (Plano, TX): A++
I live in the DFW area, so it made sense to me to use a local salon for ease of fittings, etc. I read some not-so-great reviews about Stardust but I had a wonderful experience. Wendy was my consultant and she was so nice. She let me go and pull samples for myself and she pulled some samples for me herself after asking my likes/dislikes/budget. One sample she pulled was a Victoria Nicole mermaid dress, and that was the one! If you like designs by the JLM group (Lazaro, Alvina Valenta, Jim Hjelm) I highly suggest you check into her designs, as she was the founder and head designer for Alvina Valenta before she launched Victoria Nicole. The dress came in earlier than expected and alterations were a breeze with Kayla, the Stardust Alterations Manager. I also got my Toni Frederici veil there and it is beautiful. Great experience all around!
Photographer- Matt Montalvo: A++
Matt is freaking awesome!! We took our engagement pictures with him and had him for about 8 hours on our wedding day. He is SO nice and extremely easy to work with. He really is such a pleasant person to have around, which is great when it's your wedding day and you are feeling a little high strung.
He is very patient and handled some of our groomsmen and a bossy aunt (in law) with ease and grace. He is really wonderful in capturing candid shots, so never did we feel like we had to do things around him-he was always around to get the perfect shot but you never really noticed him. We had decided to book him after he did a friend's wedding in 2009. Even then he was great, but his talent has grown so much even though he doesn't charge what he's worth. If you think you are interested in having him as your photographer, don't wait to snatch him up! He's a busy guy in high demand. I'm so glad we had him to take pictures, as that's the one tangible thing you have after your wedding day...I'm so happy to have such beautiful pictures to look at for the rest of our lives!
DJ- Joel of Greenbelt DJ: A++
Joel is also awesome! He has a great personality and really knows how to read a crowd. We met with him 2 days before the wedding to meet him in person and finalize our music. He had wonderful suggestions for us and is so easy going. Even before then, he was so quick to reply back to my emails. With our ceremony and reception music he provided red uplighting (which looked fantastic) and dance floor lights. He gives his clients online access to his music database, which made things so easy to plan from out of town. He gives you 4 different lists to make: love it, like it, don't play, and music to buy. He has a very large and diverse database but will gladly buy any songs you want that he doesn't have. Another plus was that he and our photographer, Matt Montalvo, are good friends and love working together. It was great to have them both!
Food- Mansion at Judges' Hill: A+ (from what I hear!)
Okay, so we were so busy talking to guests and dancing that we never got to taste the fajita buffet we paid for. The food part I let my DH make a decision on and he really wanted the fajita buffet. I was afraid it would come out looking like the fajitas at Taco Cabana (though I love Taco C!) but it looked...gourmet! The food and sides looked SO good and guests kept telling us how wonderful the food was. It looked and smelled wonderful, so I'll take their word for it, especially since I never saw any leftovers on our guests' plates. We also had MJH provide hot chocolate and cider in leu of appetizers and though we didn't hear much about the cider we heard the hot chocolate was the best some people have had!
Cake- Michelle's Patiserrie: A++
Our cake was amazing! It was exactly how we wanted: simple, elegant, timeless. We picked different flavors for each tier: carrot cake, tres leches, chocolate indulgence, italian creme. Everyone commented on how wonderful the cake was and how pretty it was. Michelle is great at what she does and I'm so glad we went with her! The tres leches is my favorite flavor from her...it's unusual yet not so different that guests won't love it. I really recommend her!
Florist- Rebekah Fountain of The Glass Fountain: A+
I think with florists you get what you pay for. However, even though Rebekah is a relatively inexpensive florist, we were so happy with everything she prepared and really feel like we got a lot for our money. Months before our wedding I read a not-so-good review of her and it made me a little nervous. However, the day came and there was no reason to have been worried! Rebekah is very quick to reply to emails and was full of suggestions to help a couple not very picky about their flowers.
She listened to our wants/dislikes and offered suggestions based on those. She recommended flowers that were available during winter, suitable for colder weather, and that would hold up to being in a bouquet or boutenierre. She was so easy to work with even when we requested a large buffet centerpiece and an additional table centerpiece a week before the wedding. Again, she is super affordable. Our flowers weren't five-star arrangements, but well worth what we paid for and we were so happy. I loved my bouquet; I wish I had preserved it!
Hair and Make Up- Keep Austin Gorgeous: A
I booked KAG based on other reviews, before having my trial done. The salon is very cute and the receptionist is awesome and does a great job of keeping you informed. That part is great, since Brizy is really not good at replying to emails. I think they are competively priced for bridal packages. Brizy did a great job with my hair...my hair doesn't hold curl well but my hair still looked great the day after the wedding! The airbrush makeup was wonderful. My skin is very oily and she made it to where my makeup stayed on the entire time! Our moms and my bridesmaids got their hair and makeup done their also and everyone looked very good. Just be prepared to be bombarded by sales pitches while you are there. They aren't shy about trying to sell you their line of hair care (I did buy the Antigravity product and it worked very well) or eyelash extensions. I also had my eyebrows waxed by Alonda (I think) and she was so sweet and did a wonderful job!
Airbrush Tan- Aruba Tan: A+
Both my DH and I got airbrush tans at Aruba Tan for our wedding. A big difference from tanning booths! They turned out great and didn't rub off at all. They customized the tan to fit our needs and really made us feel comfortable while you're standing there, bearing it all.
The only negative about the experience was that the room I got sprayed in was SO cold! However, that's a very minor detail that wouldn't make me not do it again.
Bridesmaid and Flower Girl Dresses- David's Bridal: A
So we've all heard various stories about this chain but I had a very good experience with them. My MOH and I picked a strapless, knee length charmeuse dress in apple red for the bridesmaids and they all looked great! The flower girl dress complemented by gown very well and was so pretty. I had ordered the dresses in north Texas and gave them to my girls after I picked them up. Two of the girls ended up needing different sizes (1 had a baby so we were estimating her size and the other ordered a size too big) and it sounds like they had an easy time of getting that taken care of at the Austin stores and got them in plenty of time. The only downside of doing business with them is that while you're there it can be super busy and kind of hectic. Also, my only peeve with them is that they sell your info to their affiliate, a tux place. So I got numerous calls from their automated service but once I unsubscribed from them I quit receiving them.
Tuxedos- Al's Formal Wear: C+
We worked with three different locations, the first in Frisco (north Texas) where we ordered from, the second at Lakeline Mall and the third at Barton Creek Mall. It seems like all of our problems stemmed from the Frisco store. We wanted everything black except for the candlelight (offwhite) shirt. Turns out the manager that handled our order put in powder blue for the vests! Ugh, no thanks. So we caught that mistake and fixed that. When we ordered we told the manager that everyone would be picking up at Barton Creek, except for my dad, who would pick up at Lakeline. When we called the week before the wedding to review our order and make sure everything was correct, they had my DH and 2 others (everyone but us lives in Austin) picking up in Frisco! So we had them change that. Also, in October my DH's father passed away, so we contacted Al's to notify them to cancel his father's tuxedo. That somehow didn't go through because they still had his dad's order in the system. So, lots of mistakes that could have been huge, but luckily we caught them. The Lakeline store didn't give us any trouble at all and the Barton Creek store helped us catch and correct the many mistakes the Frisco store made. They have a big selection and are very accessible to people living in different areas, but just stay on them like glue if you use them!!! Luckily everything worked out the day of but they were a big headache to deal with.
Invitations- Wedding Paper Divas: A
We had initially ordered samples from a few different sites, including WPD. We liked the varieties they offered were more in line with what we wanted. Invitations weren't a really big deal to us as long as they did their job and incorporated our colors. The ordering process is super easy, they have lots of wording suggestions and will check your proofs to make sure spelling/etc is correct. Plus, they ofter have coupon codes which makes things pretty affordable. We got invitations/envelopes, extra envelopes, information cards, rsvp cards/envelopes, and thank you notes/envelopes for about $450 (we had about 110 guests).
Rehearsal Dinner- Spaghetti Warehouse (4th Street): B
We had the hardest time deciding on a place to hold the RD but finally decided on Spaghetti Warehouse because they didn't require a deposit, were located downtown, and wasn't Mexican food (since that's what we had for the reception). The food was really good and super affordable...the package we chose was $16/person. However, when we got there the banquet room was set up very strange for a group of only 20. All of the tables and chairs were set really far apart so we had to rearrange the tables. Also, they only had one waiter waiting on our group. We had a cash bar for our group and so lots of people ordered from the waiter with cash. He decided he had the authority to go ahead and take his tip before giving change back to our guests. That did not go over well, especially since our banquet package included gratuity in the price. So, he did not get a big tip from us when he presented the final bill.
Well, that's all of the major parts! I hope this helps others out. Also, my dad is a Justice of the Peace and was our officiant so of course he did a great job.
We went to Vegas for our honeymoon and stayed at the Bellagio. It was so fun, just expensive when you're there! We used Bed Bath & Beyond and Williams Sonoma for our registries and everything has been good with those. The only thing was that some of our gifts from the BBB registry weren't reflected as purchased so I fixed that myself.
Good luck to you soon to be brides! The day goes so quickly, so try to savor each moment and take mental pictures of what's happening during the day. Let the people around you do their jobs and let yourself be relaxed, there's a reason why you hire lots of people to help you out!!!