I'm just now getting around to all of this since I've been so incredibly lazy lately! My wedding was on July 2 and the day turned out to be beautiful. I woke up to a crack of thunder at 7:30am and was depressed because our ceremony was outdoors and we opted out of a tent since it would've cost $2000. Luckily, the ceremony wasn't until 5:30pm, so we had time for the rain to clear and the sun was shining by the time the ceremony started. I felt so much better around 1pm because before that I was seriously in the dumps about the weather.
The ceremony went a little longer than expected but it was beautiful. My husband bawled and I so didn't expect that! I saw a single tear on his cheek when I got to the "altar" and when I came and took his hand he cried even harder and cried all through his personal vows. All I could think was, gee, I hope these are happy tears! I had a hard time getting through my own vows and in the end everyone said that it was the most beautiful and heartfelt wedding they've ever been to and that there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd. Now for the reviews:
Heritage Golf Club: A++
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I have nothing but great things to say about Heritage. H and I live in Washington state so we had to plan from afar and the sales and catering director, Jody Unger, made my life so much easier. She was very quick to respond to my millions of questions and she has the perfect personality for the job. She's fun and upbeat and she always had a smile and a hug waiting for me when I visited the golf club. Jody's pretty much like a wedding planner so I didn't even need a day-of-coordinator since she was the contact person for all of the vendors. She contacted them a couple days before the wedding to get everything squared away and she was the go-to person the day of. If anything went wrong, I had no clue because Jody did such a good job. The golf club itself is beautiful and is everything you would expect from a private club. I liked that the ceremony site was on concrete so no one had to worry about walking in the grass. The great thing about it is that weddings are open to the public, so you don't have to know a family member or friend in order to have your wedding there. Everything was reasonably priced since they didn't have any minimums (I think this changed for their 2011 policies) so we didn't have to pay an arm and a leg just to have the wedding. We were the only event for the entire day, so it wasn't as though there was another wedding earlier that day. The food was absolutely AMAZING and I highly recommend Heritage for anyone's wedding.
Flowers on Springtree Lane: A+
I was so blown away at how our flowers turned out. I wish I had my pro pictures so you could see firsthand the amazing job that they did on our centerpieces. I had a mixture of tall and short centerpieces and I got many more flowers for what we paid. They went above and beyond my expectations and people raved about them. My bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquets were simple but beautiful. I have nothing bad to say about them. Anne and Robin are two of the nicest women you'll meet and whenever you meet with them they're always so warm and treat you like one of their own. You can tell that they love what they do and it shows in their work. I had 4 different quotes for flowers and they were much cheaper than everyone else and I honestly don't think that I would've gotten as many flowers as I did with another company.
Kelli Ramey - Beautimarkedbykelli: A+
I have to admit, I have such a girl crush on Kelli! You have to meet her to understand how much fun she is, as well as talented as hell. When I was searching for a MUA, one of the things I had to be concious about was someone who could do makeup for any race. I had to book someone based off of their portfolio since I wasn't coming home for a while so I didn't have a trial before I booked. I knew this would be a gamble, but I didn't have much of a choice since I needed to book someone soon since they get snatched up quickly and I wasn't coming home for several months. Obviously I'm black, but I also had 2 BMs who were black, 2 whites, and 1 asian (the Rainbow Coalition!), plus my mom and MIL. When I checked out other MUAs portfolios, all I saw was one race of people and was disappointed that not a lot of them have done a diverse group of people. The only person besides Kelli who I found had a diverse portfolio was Melissa Roshan, but she was already booked for my date. Anywho, Kelli is talented enough to where she can do anyone, no matter their skin color and she made my entire wedding party look amazing! I was worried about my makeup because my husband HATES makeup and he was afraid that I would have on too much, but to my surprise, when he saw me he said he loved my makeup and it's the best he's ever seen it. And trust me, he's not the type to lie about something like that, no matter if it was our wedding or not! So the fact that he loved it speaks volumes of Kelli's talent. I recommend checking out her facebook page (beautimarkedbykelli) since it's much more updated than her website.
Inlux Photo: A+
Inlux is a boyfriend and girlfriend duo, Jarred Wagner and Heather Hutmacher, who are based out of Canton. I went with them since I went to college with Heather and I've seen her work since way back when. Jarred and Heather are a cool couple who love photography and they make you feel totally comfortable in front of the camera. They're both very creative and have great ideas. One thing about photography that people have to understand is that you have to have more than a fancy camera to take good photos. Most of the work is done post-production and they're great at it. We loved the way our engagement photos turned out so I'm excited to see the wedding pics. We had them for 8 hours and I loved the fact that we had 2 shooters in order to get different vantage points.
Poetic Cinema: A+
I'm so so so happy that we got a videographer because I swear the day went by in a blur! The owner of Poetic Cinema is Dan Shallenberger and he's based out of Cincinnati. By the time I got around to booking a videographer, a lot of the Columbus ones were booked, and plus I wasn't too sold on everyone's work. Dan's work is amazing and he's not your standard cookie-cutter videographer. He's very up to date on the trends that's going on in videography and he uses the Canon SLDR cameras to shoot instead of the bulkier cameras that other videographers use. There's no comparison to the quality of video of a SLDR. If anyone wants to checkout his work just google Poetic Cinema. You get a second shooter in the package, so that was good to have to get the second vantage point and it also enabled Dan to be with me while getting ready and the second shooter was with my H. Dan is a super nice guy and very easy going.
Altar Bound Bridal: A
I went down to Beavercreek to get my dress since they carried both Maggie Sottero and BariJay bridesmaids dresses. I wanted to go to a place that carried both dress makers so my BMs could get a discount since I also purchased my dress from there. Wendy's and Alan Ray carries both designers too, but I had a not so great experience with Wendy's and I didn't even step foot in Alan Ray. I dealt with them back in 2006 for my cousin's wedding and I'll just say that they left such a bad taste in my mouth that I vowed to never return. The staff at Altar Bound was nice, but the only reason they didn't get a plus was because the manager made such a big deal about giving me a price on a BM dress over the phone (all of my BMs had different dresses). I know that's against a lot of store policies, but I explained to her that I live all the way across the U.S. and there's no way I was flying all the way to Ohio just to get a price. Even though several of my BMs had already paid for their dresses, she made such a big deal about how they don't give pricing over the phone because I could try to find a cheaper price on the internet and blah blah blah, but she eventually folded and gave me a price RANGE! WTF? She didn't give me the exact price so the best she could do was give me a range. That BM ended up getting that dress, but for Pete's sake she just wanted to know how much it cost before she purchased it!
Men's Warehouse: A-
I've heard so many horror stories about the tux experience at MW so I was super nervous about how they would turn out, and to my surprise there weren't too many issues. One GM's pants were HUGE and fit like Hammer pants and he wasn't able to pick up the correct pair until the morning of the wedding. There was also an issue with a jacket of anther GM, but they fixed that the day before. Since H bought his own tux during a buy one get one free sale at MW, he opted for the option for a free $400 suit instead of a free tux. He recently picked up his free suit and was happy with it.
Platinum Music Productions: A-
This DJ company was easy to work with and since the owner, Justin Markle, was already booked, he recommended Zac who also works with him. Zac is a cool, laid-back guy and planning was easy since they have the online planner tool and I was able to pick the entire list of songs for the dinner music and request songs for the dancing portion. The only reason I gave them a minus is because Zac TOTALLY screwed up our entrance. We had gone over the list of names and the order that everyone was coming in beforehand, so I thought everything would be cool. Not so much. H and I were supposed to come out after our MOH and BM, and right before they were to be introduced, I heard the music change to the song H and I were supposed to come out to and he introduced us when he was supposed to be introducing our MOH and BM. We told Jody that he screwed up and she ran over to him to tell him that he skipped our MOH and BM, so he corrected it and introduced them and then introduced H and I. H was so pissed off because we came out to What You Know by T.I. and the beginning of the song is the best part since the beat to the song is pretty sweet, so we missed out on the beginning of the song. When we got to our sweetheart table, Zac came over and apologized profusely. You could tell he was embarrased and he was so red in the face! I kind of felt bad for him since he knew he totally effed up, but it was totally his fault
The Cake Studio: A
Our cake turned out to be AMAZING! It was a simple design since all we wanted was white round tiers and I purchased crystal bands to go around each tier. I can't wait to post pictures because I was so in love with it! Also, the cake itself was delicious. We got the Cassata cake, which was french vanilla white cake with fresh strawberries and strawberry cream in the middle with buttercream icing. Normally, I absolutely hate icing like it's nobody's business, but this buttercream was so light and smooth that I ate it without having to scrape it off. The owner, Katie, is very nice, but I didn't give her a plus because her communication isn't the best. Sometimes she would respond to an email quickly, and other times it would take a week for her to get back to me. I know she's super busy, but there were times when I wasn't sure if she would respond at all. Her cake was a part of my package at the golf club so I have no clue if her pricing is reasonable.
Hair - Michael Matteson: A++++
Michael was my normal stylist when I lived in Columbus and he works at Square One downtown (formally 1400 Downtown). He came to the hotel to do our hair and dude seriously went above and beyond. He was only supposed to do my hair and 2 of my BMs and was supposed to be there from 9-11am. He didn't leave until 4pm because he wanted to make sure my hair was still good after getting my makeup done. He also touched up my MILs hair and a couple of other BMs for no charge who got their hair done somewhere else. He was also invited to the wedding and after the ceremony, he came over to us with his kit to see if anyone of us needed a touch up (it was quite windy and my hair blew all over the place). Michael can style hair for any race and he's a really cool guy. He's also very straight and VERY hot!!!!!
Ceremony music - Hawc and the F.E.W.: A+
I have to admit, I got the hookup on this one. My uncle plays the saxophone for the band so he played for free and Hawc, who does keyboard and vocals, played for a discounted price. I had them play 3 songs for the ceremony; the processional, bridal entrace, and recessional. The live music was my favorite part of the day because they sounded amazing. I had them play Come Away With Me by Norah Jones for the processional, The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson for my song, and Say A Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin for the recessional and I swear they made every song sound better than the original! Everyone was super impressed with the music and it added a nice touch.
A Supreme Limo: B
Since our ceremony and reception were in one location we didn't need a limo for too long, so we were able to book them for the early evening to take the bridal party to the golf club, and then later in the night to take my H and I back to the hotel. They made separate trips for the bridal party since H and I didn't see each other before the ceremony. I gave them a B though because my mom paid for the option to roll out the red carpet and they didn't do that. I normally don't care for that frilly stuff, but the red carpet would've actually came in handy because since it rained earlier in the day, the ground was still wet by the time we were headed to the golf club and I had to dodge around the water. I had a long train so it was difficult and awkward. My mom is currently dealing with getting her money back for that.
Red Eye Photo Booth: A+
The photo booth was a huge hit and all of the guests loved it. They were very easy to work with and they let me bring my own scrapbook since they charged $75 (ridiculous!) for that option. The guy running the photo booth organized everything with the scrapbook even though we didn't get it through them. I have no complaints about Red Eye.
Sorry this was so long, I just wanted to be thorough in order to help other brides. I have to admit that I do miss the planning and the excitement, but I am enjoying married life! If anyone has any questions about a vendor, feel free to PM me.