Arizona-Phoenix

Vendor Reviews

Hi guys! I got married on 3/19, so I guess I should finally get around to doing my reviews. I know this is really long, but I wanted to get everything in there.

Venue: The Orpheum Penthouse - B
The venue itself was beautiful and the view was stunning. It was a bit pricey, though, and the venue coordinator was often difficult to get a hold of. Also, we asked about the noise ordinance when we very first looked at the venue because  the penthouse is at the top of a building of lofts (aka people's homes) and they said it would not be problem. Fast forward to 5 days before the wedding, they made us cut our reception 2 hours early (from 1:00am to 11:00pm) because the wedding the weekend before had gotten noise complaints and the cops called on them. They said they will reimburse us for the time we lost (although they haven't yet), but it was just a hassle to deal with that close to the wedding. On top of having to cut it 2 hours early, they also wouldn't let us play the music very loud, so it was hard to even hear it during certain parts. However, all of this is really moot, because after April they are not holding anymore weddings there, ever, because of the HOA.



Caterer: Copper Square Kitchen (from the Hyatt Regency) -  A+

The food was delicious! We got quite a few compliments on it. The entire staff was just great. The catering manager/coordinator was so helpful the entire time and so was her assistant. The rest of the staff was great on the night of. Everyone was friendly and efficient.  They were also very flexible with the changes we wanted to make. Overall, they were wonderful!

 

Photographer: Madison Kirkman -  A++

( http://www.madvisionphoto.com/MadVision/Weddings.html )


I love, love, love her. She was just amazing! We’ve only gotten a few teaser pics back from her so far, but they look incredible. She was so fantastic the whole time. She worked very well off of what we wanted, but had a lot of great ideas and suggestions of her own to help us. She was very easy to talk to and would make jokes to help me relax for the pictures. She even lugged all of her equipment across the street, so that we could get the pictures under the Orpheum Theater sign that I really wanted. Finally, we ran quite late with our exit (and over the 6 hours she was scheduled for) but she happily waited around for us. I really can’t say enough great things about her.

 

Makeup: Jennifer Bernhardt with Makeup by Jen - A++

( www.makeupbyjenb.com )

She is another one that I absolutely adore. My makeup looked stunning and did not budge all night. I even fell asleep with my makeup on and it still looked great the next morning. She is the sweetest and easiest person to work with. She listened to everything I wanted and made it happen. She even got me done on time, though I ran late getting to her. I very, very highly recommend her.

 

DJ: Rankin Shaver with AZ Music Man - C

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with the DJ. He was really easy to work with through the planning process and was flexible with my last minute changes, but at the actual wedding it didn’t go so well. He messed up a few of our songs, including our recessional song. He completely skipped my dance with my stepdad and I had to interrupt him and make him go back. Furthermore, my dad, (now) H, and I worked very hard to put together specific lists of songs to be played for the pre-ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner portions of the night and he completely strayed from those lists and played songs we didn’t even like. During the cake cutting, he had the song I wanted, but not in the right format to be played over the speaker system indoors, so we couldn’t even hear it. I know that the guests didn’t really notice these things, but the music was one of the most important aspects to me, so I was rather upset.

 

Calligraphy: Louise Smith through Thee Wedding Warehouse -  A++

Our invitations looked SO good! Everybody was impressed with the calligraphy. I originally wasn’t going to do calligraphy, but I’m so glad I did. Not only did it save me from having to address all those envelopes, but they looked so much better than if I had done them. Louise was great to work with, too. I kept changing/adding  addresses and she changed/added them for me with zero problems. I would most definitely recommend using her!

 

Photo Booth: AZ Sphinxx Photography -  A++

( http://azsphinxxphotography.blogspot.com/p/home-page.html )

This was a HUGE hit! I absolutely loved it and I’m so glad we decided to get one! Everybody had so much fun with it. Mostly, I loved that we were able to get pictures of all the guests that we would not have been able to otherwise. Christina and Cliff were great. They were both there attending the booth all night. They brought a ton of fun props, too. Not only did everyone get two strips of the pictures, but they put up an online album, and gave us a flash drive with all of the pictures, too. Finally, they were significantly less expensive than all of the other places I looked in to. If you are even considering getting a photo booth, I would strongly suggest that you do!

 

Alterations: Janet Kirkman -  A++

Janet is amazing! I completely agree with all of the other reviews of her. She made my dress fit perfectly. I was a bit worried about how well someone would be able to alter my dress and how much it would cost because it has a corset top, pickups, and a lot of beading, but Janet did a phenomenal job. She is so great to work with and the alterations ended up costing a lot less than I thought they would. I won’t make this one long because everyone else has already said such great things about her and they are all true.

 

Cake: Miranda Vasquez with Creative Cakes and Pastries - A++

I LOVED how our cake turned out! It was perfect. She made us a mad hatter style cake with a different design on each tier, and sugar gerbera daisies. The daisies looked so real. I couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out. I only got to try a bite of it, but we had a lot of people telling us it was delicious. Also, the cupcakes she brought us at the tasting were delicious. Miranda was wonderful. She did two tastings for us because we changed our mind on the flavors for one of the tiers. She brought us a dozen cupcakes at each tasting. Oh, and she was less expensive than the other bakers we looked at.

 

Eyebrow waxing: Monique Keller from Indulgence Med Spa - A++

I know this is kind of weird review to include, but I wanted to add her because she did such an amazing job on my eyebrows. And I am super picky about my eyebrows. I have actually been going to her for a few years, but she went above and beyond for the wedding. My makeup artist even complimented me on how good my eyebrows looked. So, if you are thinking about getting yours waxed for your wedding (or anytime) I would definitely recommend checking her out.

 

Dress & Bridesmaid Dress: David’s Bridal - A

I know a lot of people don’t like David’s Bridal, but my experience with them was perfectly pleasant. The girl that helped me out wasn’t over the top friendly or anything, but she was nice enough. I actually got my dress a week after I ordered it because they happened to have one in my size at the warehouse. I love my dress and got a ton of compliments on it.

 

Suit: Nick’s Formal Wear: A

I really liked this place. We had quite a hard time finding the suit that H wanted. The owner of Nick’s and his Wife were both very helpful and knowledgeable. They got H a suit just like he wanted and had it ordered, and altered within a week. They were great! (oh, and it was pretty inexpensive, too!)

 

Flowers: Sam’s Club – B+

I ordered gerbera daisies from Sam’s. They weren’t too expensive and they arrived right on time. My only complaint is that they just didn’t look quite as nice as they did in the pictures on Sam’s website. Nothing major, though.

 

Invitations, Save The Dates, Maps: Vistaprint – A

H designed all of our paper products and then we had them printed through vistaprint. I was happy with all of them. They looked nice, arrived in plenty of time, and saved us a lot of money.

Photobucket

Re: Vendor Reviews

  • edited December 2011
    I'm sorry to bump this, but I just had to add, the wedding you are referring to at the Orpheum Penthouse was a very close friend of mine's wedding. The place was beautiful, but yes they made them/us shut down early. My poor friend was in tears on her wedding day. They were reimbursed for it, but I found it completely ridiculous they would do that to her. Not to mention, one of the wedding coordinators was a complete nightmare and she had upset a lot of the guests/wedding party. I am glad to hear the other vendors good reviews though. I am getting married in Vegas, but am trying to find a photographer here in AZ for e-sessions but am having issues finding a reasonably priced photographer. I will have to check out the two photographers you had listed.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards