My husband and I had a wonderful day last Saturday. The weather cooperated, and everyone had a good time.
Rehearsal Dinner
Young's Dairy--A
We went with their picnic option and had a buffet with pulled pork sandwiches, fried chicken, potato salad, cole slaw and watermelon. They also had several flavors of their ice cream. Everyone got a wristband so they could participate in unlimited miniature golf, batting cages, driving range, etc. The adults thought the food was good, and they had fun. The kids loved it.
Dress
David's Bridal--B
I did not intend to buy my dress at David's, but my consultant, Mandy, won me over. She was bubbly, cheerful, very helpful and knew a tremendous amount about all of the dresses. I wasn't sure which style of dress I was interested in, but she helped narrow down the field. The dress I ended up choosing was actually picked by her.
Alterations were done properly, but some of the staff was a little hard to work with, especially over the phone. The quality of the work was very good.
Ceremony Musicians
Elegant Entertainment--A+
The string quartet sounded beautiful, from what others have told me. They have a rather large repertoire and they will try to accommodate any special requests. For our recessional, they played Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust."
I walked down the aisle to "Simple Gifts." I know they worked with me before the ceremony to make sure I liked the speed, but I do not remember them playing at all. I was too focused. My friends and family raved about them, so I'll assume they were great.
Florist
Sherwood Florist--A+
We worked with Jessie, and she was wonderful. She suggested several cost-cutting options and was so easy to work with. The flowers were amazing. Our FG was thrilled with her pomander. Jessie even arranged for my grandmother in Denver to receive a replica of one of our centerpieces. I would recommend Sherwood to anyone.
Photographer
Childers Photography--A+
Childers sent a photographer, assistant photographer and lighting assistant to photograph our wedding. They were professional, polite and HILARIOUS. Eileen (the photographer) and Christine (the assistant photographer) really listened to what H and I wanted. Our families loved them, and we cannot wait to see our pictures!
Caterer
Elite--A+
The day after our wedding, my FB wall blew up with comments about the food. Everyone was just blown away. To quote one friend, "St Peter probably hands out trays of bacon-wrapped dates upon entry to heaven." They were a dream to work with, were easy to get in touch with and did a phenomenal job. They covered our cocktail hour (complete with bacon-wrapped dates), dinner (duet plate with filet mignon and asiago-spinach chicken) and dessert bar (s'mores, mini lemon fruit tarts, cheesecake on a stick, etc).
Best of all, Elite was super-affordable and let us provide our own alcohol. Based on other catering proposals we got, choosing Elite probably saved us about $4K. Every time I mentioned them to another vendor, the other vendor always gave glowing reviews.
Reception
Cox Arboretum--A
The view was beautiful. We reserved the entire main building, so we had the 5/3rd Conference Center, Huffman Gallery and Mead Theater. We held our cocktail hour in the Huffman Gallery and the dinner in the Conference Center. We used the Theater to bustle my dress and freshen up after photos. The nursing mothers also went there.
The grounds of Cox are amazing and very popular with other wedding parties. Because it's a public park, anyone can go and take pictures. We saw two other weddings taking place when we were arriving (at the Pavilion and at the Arbor), but we also saw countless other wedding parties taking pictures.
DJ
Party Pleasers--C+
I would give our actual DJ, Kelly Shank, an A+. Her husband did the lighting, and they were both wonderful to work with. They were very professional, pleasant to be around and really made the day go easier.
However, Kelly was the second DJ assigned to us. The first, Chris, could not (or would not) understand or accept that we did not plan on having dancing. We wanted background music, lighting and an emcee, all of which Kelly understood. We nearly walked out of our meeting with Chris. He bordered on insulting and condescending and would not drop the "no dancing" bit. He also didn't know how to work the office's computers, didn't even glance at the music selections I'd already picked out, did not order my custom lighting monogram and did not know how to send us an updated invoice. I was not pleased, and my mother considered trying to get our deposit back and finding another DJ.
I would recommend Kelly in a heartbeat, but I would be reluctant to recommend Party Pleasers as a whole.
Cake
The Cakery--A+
H wanted a red velvet armadillo groom's cake, which The Cakery happily provided. It was a huge hit, and many of the guests wanted their picture taken with it.
The wedding cake itself was amazing. It was three tiers with buttercream frosting. The bottom tier was lemon with key lime filling, middle was strawberry with strawberry filling and the top anniversary layer (which we ate on our honeymoon) was chocolate with peanut butter filling.