Hi ladies... DH and I were married on March 24 in Mooresville, NC. I've been waiting a few weeks for the dust to settle and life to resume to normal before posting my vendor reviews.
Venue/CateringThe Point Lake Club, Mooresville
Disclaimer: Donald Trump (Trump Industries? or something) bought this property just days after we were married, I think we were the last wedding before the deal closed... so things could very well change there going forward.
The venue is breathtaking... there's really nothing else quite like it on the lake. It's elegant and open with a full wall of windows looking out on the lake from the reception space. The ceremony area is a beautiful covered veranda with high ceilings, also overlooking the lake.
The staff there is amazing, and their private events director Kelley made sure everything went off just as I imagined it. We had a crazy, brief thunderstorm roll through about an hour before the ceremony... thunder, lightening, hail, high winds, pouring rain... and the venue staff were out there as soon as it passed clearing the water off the sidewalks and veranda, and wiping down all the chairs. By the time our ceremony started, there were only a few puddles (dips in the sidewalk) and everything was perfect. The wait staff was very attentive and the food delicious. We did a plated dinner, everything came out from the kitchen hot and was served quickly to our 120 guests.
The in house pastry chef also made our cake... it was both beautiful and delicious. Their flavor selection isn't huge, but everything we tasted was amazing. The cake topper was provided by our florist.
Florist
Party Blooms, Charlotte
First off, let me say that I met with several florists... the flowers were important to me. Many of the florists I've met have beautiful shops where they'll let you look through books and books of their work... without seeing a single, real flower. Then I called Lorie at Party Blooms. Lorie's shop is in the basement of her home in North Charlotte. DH and I met with her at 8am on a Saturday when she was getting ready to deliver for FOUR weddings. She was generous in accommodating us on such a day, but not once did we feel rushed or pressured to make a decision during our meeting. She showed us the work she'd done for that day and listened to my vision... pink, ivory, and in season, incorporating some specific flowers... and then she gave us a quote that came in $1,000 under any of the other shops for the exact.same.thing. Guess those beautiful floral shops come with pretty high rent!
I had pretty high expectations for our flowers, and Lorie exceeded every single on of them. I could not be happier with the work she did for us.
Photographer
Emily Renee Photography - Winston-Salem
I found Emily through a google search about a year before the wedding. I wanted simple, photo journalism style pictures that captured my day just as it happened... not a lot of effects and crazy artistic shots. Emily's style fit my wants perfectly. Emily is very laid back and easy to work with. After getting the pictures back from our engagement session, I knew our wedding pictures would be simply amazing. She spent our entire wedding day with me, meeting me at the salon at 11:00am when our appointments started right through 10:00pm when we climbed into the limo. Having her with me all day felt more like having a friend around than a hired professional... something that was important to me.
She does all of her weddings with a second photographer. The one she worked with for our wedding, Chris, was equally personable and spent the time leading up to our first look with DH. DH was very nervous about having a photographer with him all morning, but was very comfortable and at ease with Chris.
Our Engagement Shoot Highlights <--- clicky
Our Wedding Highlights <--- clicky
Wedding Gown & Bridesmaids Dresses
New York Bride & Groom - Charlotte
Love this place! Their dress selection is great and no appointment is needed to shop. If you go in on a weekend, you may not have a consultant all to yourself, but they're very much available to help and ask questions.
I ordered my Maggie Sottero dress from them and all 5 of my BMs ordered their Bill Levkoff dresses there as well. Everything arrived on time or earlier than they said it would. We had one hiccup with a BM dress... it was ordered in the wrong size and was HUGE on one of my bridesmaids. The salon checked the measurements from the order and concluded it was their mistake, they took it in at no cost to my BM.
They did the alterations for my gown and also for 3 BM dresses, everyone was happy with the end result.
Tuxes
Men's Wearhouse
We went with Men's Wearhouse for the convenience. We live near Asheville, as does FOG. 2 GM near Charlotte and the other 2 near DC. They've got a large selection and were flexible with us on the pickup and return dates. Plus, DH got his for free because we had 5 GM paying for theirs.
DJ
DJ Marty Entertainment - Davidson
Marty is a hoot... no way around that. DJing is not his 8-5 and rather something he does on the side because he very clearly enjoys it.
He was very organized and easy to work with... even when I threw some last minute (read: as he was setting up his equipment day of) changes at him, it was no problem.
I gave him a very short list of must plays, and let him run with it from there. He did a great job reading the crowd and kept the dance floor packed all night. Other than the requested announcements we'd asked him to make, he kept the DJ chatter to a minimum so the attention stayed on us and our party, not on him.
His set-up is a lot more streamlined than what I've seen at some other weddings, so he wasn't taking up the whole dance floor, yet the sound quality and volume was still perfect for our space.
Ceremony Musicians
Elegant Ensembles - Winston-Salem
Live music for our ceremony was VERY important to DH. It doesn't come cheap, but the ambiance they added was wonderful. We hired a trio (violin, cello, viola) to play our ceremony and cocktail hour. They have a very user friendly online portal to make song selections and sample recordings of the actual songs.
Groom's Cake for Rehearsal Dinner
Creative Cakes by Allison - Mooresville
DH's birthday was the day before our wedding, so I wanted the cake for our RD to be extra special and all about him. He's pretty much obsessed with Cake Boss, so I knew I wanted a sculpted cake. DH and I fly hot air balloons, and so I knew he'd love a cake that looked like his balloon. Allison did an amazing job... and it was delicious to boot!
Hair/Make-UpBella Lago Salon & Spa - MooresvilleFirst off, the stylists and make up artists here are WONDERFUL... but the manager is a piece of work. The manager quoted a different price every time we discussed it... on the day of my trial, I almost walked out and found somewhere else, but with only a few weeks before the wedding and me in love with how I looked, I decided to suck it up and work out my differences with the salon owner. The owner resolved all of my issues and was very apologetic. On the day of the wedding, the salon had a private room for us to use between appointments and also to eat lunch (which I had delivered). We had multiple stylists assigned to us and they go me, 5 BMs, MOB, and MOG in and out of there looking fabulous in 2 1/2 hours. I'd recommend them for the end result, but be sure you get EVERYTHING in writing from the start.
Hotel for OOT Guests and DHHilton Garden Inn - MooresvilleIf you're getting married in Mooresville, there really aren't a lot of options for hotels. The Hilton is newer, and a beautiful mid-level hotel. They had some issues with the group booking... people calling and not getting assigned to our block... which I had to work out with the director of group sales (Denise is lovely work with!). We were just shy of the number of rooms we needed to book in order to get both nights free for DH... he stayed the night before the wedding, and I joined him the night of... but they gave them to us anyway. On our wedding night, they had us in a jacuzzi suite and there was cheesecake and a bottle of champagne waiting for us when we arrived. Our guests liked the hotel and appreciated the free cooked to order breakfast included in our block, but did wish that the hotel bar stayed open later.
Paper
Various Vendors - Online
Invites - Wedding Paper Divas Huge selection and great pricing. I ordered about 20 samples before picking one. They we flexible with me on changing ink colors and type face at no cost. Loads of compliments on them, and I really loved the way they turned out.
Pocketfolds - Cards & Pockets I really wanted a pocketfold invitation, but am not all that crafty and into DIY... C&P has pocketfolds that will fit the WPD invites, but at a better price.
Place Cards - Paper-Source This was as close as I got to DIY 
I ordered blank place cards in 3 colors (to indicate meal choices) and a pretty flower stamp and some inks. The paper for the place cards felt very sturdy and the colors were simply beautiful.
Programs - Office Depot Printing I designed these myself in MS Publisher and had Office Depot do the printing. The printing was perfect, however I paid for them to be folded as well... they use a machine for this and I wasn't in love with how the folds looked. If I had to do it again, I think I would have just spent an evening folding them myself.