Things to know before the review: This was a budget wedding. We had between $5,000 - $6,000 to work with. Also Ryan was laid off August 2008 with a non-compete agreement that didn’t allow him to work in the state for over a year. I was let go from my job a month before the wedding. So with our wedding we cut a lot of corners. Lilywedding.com : I found this website by looking for cheap wedding dress’. They have their own dress’ both wedding and bridesmaid. The feature I really liked is that you can e-mail a link of a designer dress and they will give you a quote. That is what I did with a David’s Bridal dress and it saved me over 50%! The dress was almost an extact copy with only one difference. (They didn’t do the side split, but I didn’t really care that much.) My bridesmaid’s dresses were copies of Alfred Angelo styles. Shipping is only $30 unless you spend over $500.00. I was in contact w/them through e-mail for month before I ordered and they were very quick to respond. A- The McFarland’s Catering : Talk about a knottie helping a knottie. Back in January when I posted my frustration about finding a cater, ollybgolly responded that she may be able to help. Andrea and Lucas are both Chef’s working here locally. At the time Andrea had been laid off and was in the final month of wedding planning for her own wedding. After several emails and a taste test (which was WONDERFUL) we set everything up for my wedding in September. While Andrea was unable to be there for my day, Lucas was there and in control. All my guest have commented to me on what a fanstatic job they did and how GREAT everything tasted, including my Aunt who works with the Amway Grand Banquet Team as a Captian. I can give out there info if you want just let me know. A++ Townsend Park : The wedding and reception was at this park and it worked out great. Was able to talk to Steve the Park Manager the week of the wedding and he let us in the night before to set up, which made the day of a lot easier. For under $500.00 I don’t think I could have found anything better. One note, if your using a Park for a large event make sure your guest know where to go. There was another wedding going on and several of that wedding’s guests showed up to mine instead and had to be directed to the correct location. Overall I give it an A Dennis Ables, Officiate : Dennis is the brother of a guy I used to work with. He has married several friends and family members since being ordained online. He was very easy to work with and pretty much let us lead me in what direction we wanted the ceremony. We met about two weeks before the weddings just for a final review. He was at the Park 2 hours before the ceremony was to begin and even help with the finial set-up. A- Sarah Ables, Photography : Sarah, Dennis’ Wife, was nice enough to do some of our photography. I made it clear to Sarah that our main photographer was in the wedding and would do a lot of the shots afterwards. Even with this be said she was able to get some great shots through out the day. Please visit her website to take a look at what she does.
http://www.sarahablesphotography.com. A- Horrock’s, Flower’s : I didn’t use them over than the day before the wedding myself and 2 of my girls went and bought the flower we wanted to use for the wedding. Ryan’s sister Nikki was going to do them that night. Nikki and I had made 2 previous trips out there including buying some flowers for a trial bouquet. The day before the wedding we bought small roses, baby’s breath, 1 hydrangea, carnations, and mums. Quality was great. A+ Cards of Woods / Richmond Stamp, Invitations: To go with our Park theme we found a place locally that makes cards out of wood. Literally a thin slice of a tree. While they have pre-made designs we were able to purchase plain wood stock and we created our own look to the invitations and then went over to Richmond Stamp on Ionia, where Paul was able to laser into the wood our design. They were our big WOW feature for the wedding. A for both vendors. Fryling Diamond Co. : Ryan’s best man recommended this whole in the wall jeweler to us. The ring we picked out was a two-toned gold/whit gold ring for Ryan. Mr. Fryling only charges a bit over his cost. A family business, he doesn’t keep a lot of stock but he ordered Ryan’s ring and had it in about 2 days. A Etsy.com, Girl’s Gifts : Found a really nice, handcrafted earring and pendant set. Newer company to etsy.com but worked with me for price and I was very please with the sets as were my girls.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27341820 A Dunhill Tuxedo : 28th Street location was great to work with; we got a discount from a wedding Ryan was in a few weeks before ours. They were able to fit our needs for a teenage boy to a 6’6” man. A Sam’s Club : 90 cupcakes for $36.00. Half chocolate, half vanilla. Buttercream frosting with a single rose bud off to the side. No complaints here. A The Catering Company : Smitty is a chocolatier that works here and he made chocolate shaped turtles with a caramel center. The Turtle’s back were blue to match my decor. This was our other WOW feature. A+ The Florida Keys : We couldn’t afford a nice Caribbean resort so we opted for as close as we could get. We took 2 days drive down and stayed 5 nights on Islamorada. We were able to visit all the keys from Key Largo to Key West. Our Resort was fantastic. We hated to leave.
http://www.islanderfloridakeys.com/ A++ Hair : Heather @ Hair Master’s on Rememberance Rd NW Walker MI. Heather and I did a trial run back in July just to see what we might to do. The morning of the wedding it turned out even better and went quicker than The trial. She did a great job. A+ I’m sure I may have left a few things out, but anything else we did on our own. Centerpieces, aisle décor, dessert table w/ice cream bar, music was done on our ipod. If you have any questions please email me : deidre522@gmail.com Good Luck to the rest of you knotties, I’m off to the nest.com