Vendor Reviews (part 1- very long)

Hi Ladies,

I want to start off by saying that all of my vendors were wonderful, and I give them all an A+. (I am not in the whole A+++++ thing, so please consider an A+ the highest ranking!) Below is my honest opinion of all the vendors I worked with for our wedding. I hope this helps some of you, as the other ladies vendor reviews assisted in my vendor selection! 

PS- this is the first half, the rest (photog, video, dress etc will follow soon)

Venue: The Ritz Carlton, Members Beach Club- Sarasota FL. I cannot begin to explain how pleased I am with the Ritz. From the moment we toured the venue, we were treated like royalty! We chose to hold our ceremony and reception at the Beach Club because we wanted the reception to be held on their second story terrace which overlooks the gulf (and provided for a beautiful sunset backdrop). A wedding at the Ritz includes the food, bar, cake, as well as complimentary room for the night of the wedding (which they upgraded to a suite for no extra cost). The food is prepared by their gourmet, five star chefs. It was beyond delicious, and the presentation was fabulous. We had a seated meal, which included menu cards (provided by the Ritz), so our guests were able to choose/personalize their meals as if they were at an actual restaurant. We had a full bar, which included top shelf liquors, Steven Kent Wines (exclusively made for the Ritz), and champagne. The Ritz also provides use of their round tables, chairs, and white linens, plates, and all the stemware and cutlery. We used their tables, but we opted to go with a linen rental service to personalize the wedding. Our cake was created by their gourmet bakery- and was delicious and beautiful! The entire experience was wonderful! When we checked into the hotel the day before the wedding, all of the staff knew who we were and congratulated us on our upcoming nuptials! The night of our wedding, we were surprised with champagne, roses and chocolate covered strawberries!  If you cant already tell- I was in love with the whole experience. I understand that this venue isn’t exactly the cheapest- but you do get what you pay for, plus more. In addition, it was great to have a one stop shop (ceremony, chairs, tables, food, cake, bar, hotel). It made the planning process that much easier! My tips if you decide to go with this venue: get everything you talk about with the catering manager and the event coordinator in the contract, this helps to ease the process and make sure you get everything you have discussed. Also, request Kathryn Sartwell-Bolcome as your event coordinator (see below)!

Event coordinator: Kathryn Sartwell-Bolcome of the Ritz Carlton: Amazing! That really sums it up J When we signed our contract with the Ritz, we were assigned a event coordinator to assist with the preparations for the wedding. While she is not a wedding planner, she assisted with picking out linens, suggesting vendors, and the overall planning and execution of the wedding. She was always on top of things, and kept me on track throughout the planning process. She was also very responsive and easy to get in touch with. The day of the wedding, some things went on ‘behind the scenes’ with my DOC, and Kathryn stepped up and made sure everything was executed flawlessly. I didn’t even know about the behind the scenes stuff until I got home from my honeymoon! Kathryn and my parents made sure that I wasn’t made aware of the circumstances (thankfully), and the wedding went off without a hitch- I had no idea there were any problems at all. Overall, I couldn’t say enough about Kathryn. She is highly recommended!

(on a side note- I am not going to mention my DOC at this time, or the circumstances surrounding the situation. I am still not fully informed on the circumstances surrounding the ‘issues’, as much of the details were kept from me. I do not think it would be fair to give a review, when I do not know the entire story, and while things are still being worked out. When (and if) all of this gets sorted out, I will post my review- sorry for all of the ambiguity!)

Flowers: Fishhawk Florist: Stephanie is awesome, and so creative. I didn’t really have a ‘vision’ or really any idea at all from what I wanted regarding flowers. I told her the colors I wanted, and let her have creative freedom. She came up with the most beautiful, simple but elegant centerpieces- exactly what I wanted! She also created beautiful bouquets, centerpieces for our gift table, escort card table, and dessert table. For the ceremony, she lined the aisle with white rose petals and created a beautiful draping at the altar site. She was also very responsive, very well priced, and very flexible (I changed my ceremony ideas a few times, and she made all of my ideas work with our previously established budget!) She is great and I have heard nothing but great things about her from the other ladies on this site!

DJ: Rob Sword- what can I say about him that hasn’t already been said? He was wonderful. He did the music for our ceremony, which was a combination of instrumental songs. He didn’t have the music I wanted, but he hunted it all down on itunes, and it was perfect! He was wonderful throughout the reception, and the dance floor was packed the entire night. He adhered to my list of do not plays, as well as our must plays. He even helped my father and my groom out with a trick they played on me J Rob was present throughout the night, check on the groom and I, as well as giving us updates on timeframes, etc. I felt like he was the wedding planner! He kept us on track throughout the night, and kept the party going. Rob also played at our after-party which was held in the bar/restaurant on the first floor of the Ritz Beach Club. The crowd at the after-party was mostly made up of the 20somthing guests, and he switched gears, and played a lot of current hip hop and club type of music. I was so pleased with him, and recommend him to any bride!

Officient: Pastor Calvin McIlroy- Pastor Calvin is such a sweet man, and truly a professional. He met with us once a few months before the wedding, and provided us with an array of different ceremony options and readings. Groom and I wanted a pretty non-denominational service, but something traditional. Calvin assisted us with picking the different elements, and I was very pleased with the results!

Hair and Makeup- Michelle Renee- Great! My hair and make-up artist was Meg, and Anne was her assistant the day of the wedding. They traveled down to Ritz and did our hair and makeup in our suite. Meg was so sweet, and provided a ton of great advice. I went for my trial a couple months before the wedding, and Meg did a variety of different hairstyles on me, and helped me to choose the best one. They also had a variety of hair pieces and veils to try on at their salon, so I could see what would look best (I didn’t have veil with me). I did airbrush make up and false lashes. They were great and lasted all night. Meg and Anne also did the hair and makeup for five of my bridesmaids, two flower girls, and my mom. They were very good with the time schedule and making sure we were all done in time. They are wonderful, and so are their prices!