I'm writing these now so they are fresh in my head.
Dress- Arnella's Bridal, Butler ****
- It took me a long time to find the dress I wanted, and I found it online. I looked around for local stores to see if they had it, and only found one, in a size I knew was too small, but I went anyway just to see how it would look. I was still undecided, but they tried to pressure me into ordering it (this was NOT at Arnella's.) One of my coworkers told me about Arnella's and how alterations were included, so I went there, and the store owner, Tammy, was super nice. She didn't have the specific dress, but she had one in a similar style and by the same company to try on for size. Tammy was super nice, very flexible, and even dropped off the underskirt to the seamstress when I needed it. The dress was VERY reasonable priced. I got SO many compliments on it! I also got my flower girl's dress there, too, because she was a mini-bride, and her dress looked exactly like mine.
Hair and Makeup- Izzazu Salon, Wexford location- ****
- Izzazu set us up in the outside vestible. Makeup was by Rachel (me), Bernadette, and Judy (I'm not sure about the third name.) Rachel was super, super into detail. She took her time and make sure it was absolutely perfect. My makeup stayed on ALL DAY. I really, really couldn't believe. I was sure that by the end of the night, it would look like my face was melting, but when I got home, my makeup still looked the same. All my bridesmaids looked absolutely beautiful, too, and their make up stayed on all day. We also all got fake eyelashes, and they were very comfortable and stayed all day. That was very important for me, because I had eyelashes once that irritated my eyes and felt very heavy, and I was very apprehensive. But I didn't feel these at all.
- Hair- Jessica Heckman,(me) Karina, Tabitha, and Deb (bridesmaids) . Jessica did a most amazing job, and curled my hair and it stayed in all day. I was amazed by this, cause my hair is very, VERY straight and hard to curl. Every time I try to do it myself, it never works. Jessica is also a very detailed person, and when I went for the trial she took lots of pictures from lots of angles to get it exactly right.
Nails- Lucky Nail Salon, Wexford, PA ****
- My coworker told me about Lucky after my first selection fell through. I called Monday to make appointments for me, one of my BMs, and my friend on Thursday, and they fit us all in. I got pink and whites and love them. They were very polite, salon was very clean. I would definitely go there again.
Tiara- Clarissa Boutique, South Side ****
- LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my tiara! Earldine helped me pick the best tiara to match my dress, and since my dress was white and red, she accented it with red crystals. Customer service there is superb. The day after I ordered my tiara, I got a hand-written thank you card in the mail and 15% off my next purchase! I got my flower girl's tiara there, too, and it seriously looks like a piece of my tiara.
Rings- Frost & Company (E-ring), Clark Building, Bucci Jewelers (my wedding band), Clark Building, Moses Jewelers (groom's ring), Seven Fields ****
- Love my engagement and wedding rings. Awesome customer service. I would go into more detail, but it was really my husband (HUSBAND!!!) who dealt with my rings. But I cannot say enough good things about Moses Jewelers! Larry Moses is quite possibly the nicest, most helpful, politest man that you will ever meet! We wanted a unique ring, something a little different, but not so different that it looked like we bought it at Hot Topic. Larry brought us catalog after catalog until we found what we liked. This was after we had been to every store in the Clark Building and Jared's. We felt like we had seen every men's design there was, but Larry showed us something different! He ordered two or three rings in just for Ryan to try on, and even then, Larry said the one ring was just slightly too big, and he ordered it again. When I put it on layaway, he said I could put down as much or little as I wanted, pay however much I could, whenever. Larry didn't try to push a more expensive ring on us, he just wanted us to find what we wanted. Everyone who saw Ryan's ring said how unique it was. I love it!
Bridesmaids' dresses- David's Bridal *** 1/2
- Loved their dresses, the only reason they didn't get four stars is because my maid of honor got a hem there, and it was RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE. If you a dress there, I suggest going somewhere else for alterations. Customer service was good, though.
Ceremony- St. Colman's, Turtle Creek, Pa ****
- This was everything I wanted. You have to understand, though, I've sung and dozens of weddings and knew what I wanted my wedding Mass to be before I even met the groom! The music director was easy to work with, the singer was fantastic, and we had trumpet, violin, and flute. Truly, everything I wanted. Originally, we were supposed to have Come What May sung before Mass, but a few days before, the other singer (someone NOT associated with the church or the director, btw) backed out, and the director rearranged the song to be an instrumental with flute and violin, and it was beautiful! I actually think it worked better than it would have if it were sung.
Reception venue- PPG Aquarium at the Pittsburgh Zoo ****
Caterer (inhouse)- A Taste of the Wild ****
- Love, love, love the zoo. Our guests loved the zoo. So many of them said they loved the idea of having it there. Kristi was who we worked with the most. She was so helpful and friendly. The zoo looked beautiful. When we arrived at the zoo, Kristi met us and whisked us away to the office so we could regroup and got us hors d'oeuvres and drinks right away (and at this point we needed them!) The head server, whose name I unfortunately can't remember, was also super friendly. Everyone was easy to work with. Bob from A Taste of the Wild was great. Food was AMAZING. The crab rangoons for hors d'oevres was absolutely delicious. We were a little apprehensive because they do not offer tastings, but our doubts were for nothing, because everything was absolutely delicious.
The only thing I would say though is to leave EXTREMELY specific
written instructions when you drop your items off. There were a few little things that were not in the right spot, but so minor it didn't really make a difference. Kristi immediately took care of any issues before guests noticed.
Flowers- Gidas Florist, Oakland ****
- Worked with Carole, she was great! They did everything we envisioned.
Loved our centerpieces! Carole and Laurie (who we didn't work with directly, but communicated with via phone and email) were also great to work with. I LOVED my bouquet! Black magic roses (really deep red), and my bridesmaids had white roses. I'm drying my bouquet now. And they worked with our other vendors splendidly.
Lighting- Benack Lighting, Pittsburgh ***
- We loved the lighting aspect of it, the lights emphasized the right parts and it was very well-priced, but we were upset because there was a big screen TV that was playing a video of us in the front vestible, and the sound was horrible and no one could understand it. It wasn't the video, because we watched it and it was fine. He did, however, give us a very significant discount because we paid cash.
Menus and Placecards- Perfectly Put by Rachel, Pittsburgh ****
- We found Rachel when we went to pick out our linens. She was phenomenal to work with, and made our menus exactly how we wanted them. Extremely friendly and reasonably priced. The menus were black paper with silver ink, which added a very elegant touch.
Cake- Cakes by Tammy- ****
- TAMMY IS AWESOME. Cannot say it strongly enough. She is extremely nice, our samples were TWO FULL 8" CAKES of our choice! We shared it with the family before we decided what to go with, alternating tiers of yellow and chocolate cake, both with standard raspberry filling. Several guests said they usually don't like fruit filling cause of the texture, but this was perfect. It was delicious. The design we loved, Tammy was good good at trying different ideas, cause we had no idea what we wanted. We went through several designs and emails before we decided on a design, one she came up with on her own, but as soon as we saw it, we said, "That's our cake!" It was great.
DJ- Top of the Line Entertainment, DJ Michael Moats ****
- Really great. Played everything we wanted, kept the crowd dancing, read the crowd, kept it energetic. Just a really, really fun time. Went over the details with us, kept things moving. Great MC. He has a background in theater, as do I, so we both understand that a reception is like a production, and he is the stage manager!
Linens- Lendable Linens- Pittsburgh (Monroeville/Murrysville area)****
- Zoo's exclusive linen vendor. Ed was great to work with. We went to their showroom and looked at tons of linens, napkins, and holders. Our guests loved the linens. The linens had to be pretty spectacular if the guest specifically commented about them, right?
Videographer and Photographer I'm waiting for the final results, but can I just say they were awesome to work with, and I'm 99% sure they will get four stars too! Lauren Zurchin (photo) was an awesome person, and loved our e-pics, and Matthew Mastroianni (video) was also great, nice, easy to work with!
Sorry this is so long, but we are very detailed people, and we are glad. We had a lot of nice little touches and our guests noticed and appreciated all of it. If there is any advice I can give to anyone planning a wedding- DO YOUR RESEARCH!!! Look at The Knot! See who got awards! Read and Google reviews. See what the girls are saying on these boards All vendors are not created equal, and some downright suck. The reason our vendors were awesome is because we really researched them before we even considered contacting them. We are very, very happy with the way our wedding turned out. It really was perfect.
Good luck to 2012 brides!