Vendor Reviews from 5/28/11 (kinda long)

Hey ladies, I know this is kinda long, but wanted to share feedback about the vendors we used for our 5/28 wedding.  The wedding was gorgeous & turned out perfect! We were on a somewhat of tight budget as we were paying for it ourselves. I did not have a wedding planner, but had a TON of help from my wonderful Aunt! I used a lot of connections from friends and family to stretch my budget as well as I could and still make it awesome!   Here's how everything worked out:

Ceremony/Reception Venue - Pattison Park & Lodge, Batavia Ohio: A+  
This turned out to be the perfect venue for us!   Best of all, the price was so affordable, even on a Saturday in season. You get the area from 10am until 1am!  The gazebo area is where we had our ceremony, and we had the chairs set up on the lawn. Beware that they are brown metal folding chairs, but they come with the rental! I just used chair covers/sashes to enhance the look. The place really is bare bones, so you will have to do a lot to make it look nice, but a little can go a long way. It has a nice rustic feel inside the lodge with a big fireplace and mantle (which I covered in all different size ivory candles.)

Florist-Gretchen Van Sant: A
My flowers were AMAZING! They were exactly what I wanted. My friends all know how type A I am when it comes to planning/organizing so they were shocked to hear that I hadn't met Gretchen or seen any pics before the day of my wedding. I told her what I wanted and just trusted that she would make it beautiful. She communicated with me through the whole process and even added a corsage for my niece at the last minute. She dropped flowers off at the ceremony/reception site AND the hotel where the bridal party was getting ready for pictures. I would absolutely recommend her to anyone!!

Bakery-Flying Buttercream: A+ 
The cake was just fabulous (the little bit that I actually got to eat LOL.) Tiffany was wonderful to work with. She really has it together. From my initial contact to the last meeting I felt totally comfortable with her ability & designs. She did make one of my cake layers from a recipe of my husands mother, grandmother & great grandmother. It heard it was fabulous! I didn't actually get to try it that day, but am looking forward to our frozen top to try it out! In addition to the family recipe Blackberry Jam Cake layer I had white, and lemon with raspberry filling (sooooo good.)  Our guests gobbled up almost every single piece and are still talking about how great it was! Highly Recommended!

Photographer-Sasha Scribner (Creative Hands Art Studio-Bellevue, KY): A++
Sasha is a longtime friend of my new husband. She took our engagement pics as well as our wedding day pics & even came to the rehearsal and took pics there. In the beginning we talked about what kind of photos we wanted. She knew pictures are one of the things that were most important to me for my wedding day.  She did EVERYTHING the way we wanted. She has such a great eye for photography, after seeing our engagement pics, I knew she would be the perfect photographer for us. So far, the pics I have seen are just amazing. I can't wait to see the rest. 
 

DJ-F
I was not overly pleased with my DJ, but since he is a friend of our family and gave me the "family discount" I didn't want to smear their name online. They were very friendly and kept the party moving. He definitely LOVED to hear himself talk & hit on my bridesmaid who happens to be my sister-in-law.  After meeting with them for 2 hours going over our music selections, they pretty much just played what they and the 10-15 year olds in the room requested. I specifically said no rap, because we don't like it and don't listen to it. I did have a few songs picked for the 'rap' style but they played things I didn't even know who the person was!  So, needless to say I will not use them in the future.

Rehearsal Dinner, Wedding Reception Food & Table Linens - Jack's Catering: A

The rehearsal was held at my aunt's home due to the park already being rented out the friday before our wedding. So, we did a cookout menu from Jack's. It was GREAT!  We had a TON leftover so we ate on it for the few days before we left on our honeymoon.

They were VERYYYYY affordable to rent linens with! $6 per linen no matter what size. I looked all over and didnt find anything cheaper! They are nice standard white linens which is what I needed, nothing frilly since I had the chair covers & sashes!

The Wedding food was good as well. Nothing spectacular, but good dependable food! Everyone I talked to said that they liked the food and I am pretty sure it got divied up between family, because there were a ton of leftovers & I never saw any of them! haha.

The only thing I was disapointed with was my cake cutting. They did cut most of my cake, but there was some leftover and they just stopped cutting it up. So at the end of the night we had to cut up big chunks to send home with guests.

Hair Stylist - Lindsey Gore (my sister): A++ 
I chose my sister for obvious reasons, but she is awesome at what she does. She is just finishing up hair school at Regency Beauty Institute in Eastgate, so we did a trial run at her school. She did exactly what I asked for, found different ways to get the look I wanted and my hair help up all night without a single hair out of place! I even slept in it and woke up the next morning with it looking great! I could have worn it that way the next day and no one would have known!

Nails - Lovely Nails, Cold Spring KY-A
I always see Tony when I go there to get anything done. He did my nails perfect with the pink powder overlay on my own nails. He is always making sure that they are not too thick and just the right length. They looked great! He also did my pedi a few days before the wedding since I was so busy. It held up great all the way through the honeymoon! 

Makeup Artist – Lindsey Gore (My sister): A++ 
Knowing that I don't wear a lot of makeup everyday, she got me psyched up a few months before by telling me that I HAD to wear a little more makeup than I was used to. I finally agreed after seeing pics of people with a little more makeup on. My sister is an absolute genius when it comes to makeup! It stayed on all day/night, didnt sweat off and still looked great upon returning to the hotel with my new husband! It was soooo beautiful and yet very natural. 

Alterations - Pauline Miller (Stitches by Pauline): A
Pauline did a beautiful job on my dress, and 2 of my bridesmaids dresses!  She’s super nice and her work is great. The price was fantastic for both my dress as well as my bridesmaids. Probably the most affordable I found. She lives in Loveland and since I was from around that area I was familiar with where she was. My dress really didn't need a whole lot, but what she did have to fix turned out just right! She steamed it and I picked it up the day before my wedding. Definitely check her out if you want quality work at an affordable price!

Wedding Gown – Bridal Warehouse (Louisville KY): B
I didnt have a lot of contact with them. I went in there on a whim while in Louisville at a concert. Found THE dress! My dress was just gorgeous and I was so excited that it didn't look like every dress I'd tried on at david's bridal or bridal and formal (which by the way I will never give any money to-their policies are so uptight.) If you happen to be in that area, check them out!

Tuxes – Men's Warehouse: A-
There were a few hitches with some of the guys' tuxes but all in all they turned out fine many days before hand and looked great.

Bridesmaid dresses – David’s Bridal: C-
They did fine.  You dont really get personal attention there and they make everything just a little difficult.  I made an appointment with all of my bridesmaids to pick out dresses and ended up doing all the searching for dresses myself. I was kind of mad that the lady who was signed up to help us probably got commission for the sale eventhough she did absolutely NOTHING. The dresses were however affordable so in the end it is what it is. The girls looked great!

Save the date's & Thank You's-Vista Print: A
Very affordable, if not free! My save the date magnets turned out super cute and you can personalize them with 100s of options. I did postcards for our thank you notes. I had our photographer take a picture of us with a sign that said "thank you" and put that on the front of the card with our names and wedding date. They turned out SO cute and I have rec'd so many compliments on them.

Hot dog machine rental (for late night snacks): A1 Amusement-A
Rental was $75 for pretty much the whole weekend because it was a holiday weekend. that includes them cleaning it etc. Very easy to reserve and to pick up in the Reading area. My guests LOVED the hot dogs, expecally after dancing & drinking!

Chair Covers/Sashes-Sphire Elegance: A
Barb & Amanda were a delight to work with. The chair covers and sashes made my event look so nice! It really was an added cost that I didn't want to have but having brown metal folding chairs wasn't going to cut it! They worked with me right up until the few days before getting the numbers right. The reason no A+ was that we were missing some sashes (about 40) and some of the chair covers were not usable due to rips or stains that we couldn't do anything about since it was a few hours before the ceremony. I would recommend them, their customer service is great!

Wedding Gown Cleaning/Preservation/Boxing-Sunshine Cleaners:A+
Super affordable, family owned local business in NKY. They were VERY helpful after calling a few other places that were OUTRAGEOUS in their pricing I came across Sunshine. They were very affordable & they even told me about a coupon for $15 off they had online! It did take 2 weeks but it looks gorgeous, eventhough now it is just going to live in the box. LOL

Honeymoon-Sandals Royal Caribbean Jamaica: A+ 
Our honeymoon was SOOOOO great! The resort was awesome and the people were VERY friendly. There was some airport noise from Montego Bay, but we only had a 15-20 min ride to the resort which was nice after a day of traveling.  We worked with a local travel agent to make our reservations. Donna Parker with Get Outta Town Travel was great! I will definitely work with her again in the future for our next vacation! It was my first time at a Sandals resort and I couldn't have had more fun!


Glasses/napkins for reception-Smarty had a party (online): A+
Very affordable, fast shipping. Everything arrived as ordered!


**These are obviously just my opinions, but all in all everything was pretty perfect! If you have any specific questions, please feel free to message me!

Katie Jo Reeves