Wow, I didn’t expect this to be so long, but I wanted to rave about nearly all of my vendors! Feel free to ask if you have more questions or want to know about costs.Everything was wonderful on our wedding day, and I’ll never forget the moment of awe in seeing all the details and careful planning come to life. It’s worth it!Rehearsal Dinner: Chantanee Thai Restaurant in Bellevue (
www.chantanee.com): A+Our rehearsal dinner was at the newly reopened Chantanee in Downtown Bellevue. We've always loved their food and thought our out of town guests would love it as well. Since we had a rather large guest count of 48, we opted to pre-order several dishes family style to serve groups of 8. Julie, the owner, met with us the week before and helped us choose some of the dishes and made sure we were ordering the right amounts. On the night of the dinner, the service was impeccable! We were the restaurant’s priority for the evening. Each dish came out at the proper time, and everyone was quickly served the drinks they ordered. Julie was even there refilling our water glasses and continually checking with us to see if everything was going well. Oh, and the food: DELICIOUS!! Everyone was raving about it. We ordered 3 different types of appetizers, 5 different types of entrees, and 2 different desserts. The duck salad rolls and crispy garlic chicken were especially amazing!!!Venue: The Woodmark Hotel: A-The Woodmark is on the shores of Lake Washington, and the venue is absolutely beautiful. I always wanted to have a waterfront wedding, and their ceremony tent was the perfect location. The only problem was that their food & beverage minimums were higher than we budgeted for considering the number of guests that we could guarantee at the time (we were thinking anywhere from 40 to 100). After emailing a few times with the sales manager, they were really kind and flexible and offered a much lower food & beverage minimum for a Sunday daytime wedding. We were thrilled!The months before the wedding, we were assigned an event coordinator to help us with all the details. This was the only somewhat disappointing part of working with The Woodmark. This particular coordinator (Faith), was new and a little bit on the disorganized side. For most of our questions, she didn't know the answer right away and would have to go off for a few days to find the answer for us. She also forgot to reserve the hotel boat for us for the day of the wedding so we did not get to take a little boat ride, and we did not have champagne and chocolate strawberries waiting for us in our room that night. It was overall a little frustrating.The Woodmark still deserves an A in my opinion because of their flexibility working with my budget, and the catering staff was absolutely wonderful on the day of. The event space was set up exactly, everything was beautiful, the food was delicious, and they were able to accommodate a few surprise guests that showed up without an RSVP (children of some distant relatives). Another plus is that they're a small enough venue that there was only one wedding happening at one time. I would absolutely recommend The Woodmark as a great place to get married.Day of Coordinator: Laura Gram (Simplicity Events): A+++! I contacted Laura Gram based on the recommendation of several Knotties on this board who said she was amazing. She absolutely was! Laura’s fee was completely reasonable (I interviewed several other coordinators who were asking much more), and even though she was providing “day of” services only, we met several times in the weeks leading up to the wedding, and she was always very quick with email responses. Laura is highly experienced with coordinating weddings and used her knowledge and experience to create a detailed timeline of the day for us. One afternoon before the wedding, she also left her full time day job early to attend our final meeting with the venue coordinator. Several times when the venue coordinator asked us how we wanted to handle things like the toasts or wine service, my fiance and I looked at each other with puzzled expressions, and when Laura saw this, she dove right in with great suggestions. She even negotiated with our venue to drop the cake cutting fee they wanted to charge us for bringing in an outside vendor (this saved us $120!). The days leading up to the wedding, I felt relaxed and confident that Laura would do an amazing job and make sure the vendors knew where and when they needed to be on the day of. My day felt absolutely stress free in large part due to Laura’s help, and if there were any problems or issues that came up, I never knew about them because she handled them all seamlessly. Laura is extremely professional, but she took such personal care of us that I never felt like this was just a business to her!Officiant: Patricia Stimac (A Heavenly Ceremony): A We met Pat and Ken at a wedding show and really liked their personality. The thing that drew us most to their services was how they personalized the ceremony to fit each individual couple. The planning process was very thorough: Pat gave us an information packet with lots of different types of sample ceremonies from which we could pick lines we liked or didn't like. She also talked with us to find out our history, how we met, and what we liked about each other. After a couple revisions of the ceremony she created for us, the end result was something that felt very familiar and heartfelt. Pat has a great speaking voice, and by the audience reaction, you could tell that everyone really enjoyed the ceremony. In addition to officiating, Pat did other tasks like directing the rehearsal and setting up the wedding party for the procession and recession. She’s easy to work with and very quick to respond by email to any changes or questions that we had. A Heavenly Ceremony is one of the more expensive officiants that we found, but they were well worth the cost as we had a very personal ceremony that made it very memorable for us. Hotels: Courtyard Marriott Downtown Bellevue & The Westin Downtown Bellevue: AThe group rates we got with these 2 hotels were pretty decent ($110/night for the Courtyard Marriott, and $149/night for The Westin). Neither of the hotels required a minimum number of rooms for our group rate. It was easy to communicate via email with both hotels, their locations were perfectly convenient and in walking distance to most of the activities we planned, and they were both very clean and comfortable for our guests. The front desk staff at both hotels were also nice enough to deliver my gift bags to the guests upon checkin.Bridal Gown: Pearls & Lace in Burien: AI found the dress I wanted in California (a Maggie Sottero dress), then called around to local stores to see what their prices were. Pearls & Lace was the least expensive by far, even beating out RK Bridal, an online retailer! The owner was extremely friendly and helpful and didn't try to pressure me at all when I came in to look at the dresses they had in the store. The store was also clean, spacious, and comfortable. Compared with other bridal shops, I think the only downside is that you don't make an appointment to come in and have a consultant dedicated to help you with your selection; you just walk in and browse the selection yourself. The ladies there are happy to help if you ask though. My dress came in on time and there were no ordering hiccups.Two of my other favorite local shops were "I Do Bridal" in Wallingford and "Amanda's Bridal" in Redmond. They both have a pretty good selection of dresses and friendly and knowledgeable salespeople. Both of these stores recommend or require an appointment, which is a good thing because they will then assign a consultant to you for personal attention.Veil: BellaBridalVeils on Etsy: AI got my veil from the vendor "BellaBridalVeils" on Etsy. I ended up spending about $30 for a 1 tier elbow length veil with swarovski crystal embellishments... a much better deal than spending $150 at a bridal shop! Correspondence was easy and prompt with the seller. My veil arrived quickly and in perfect condition.Bridesmaid Dresses: RK Bridal: ARK Bridal has a physical store in New York, but they also have an online "no-frills" ordering service. Their prices were great for the bridesmaids dresses I wanted to order (Jasmine B2 dresses). Having heard that this place was pretty reputable, I decided to order through them. Their order forms were a bit confusing, so I called the store directly for help and was answered by a salesperson both times I called. The bridesmaids dresses came in exactly as ordered and on time.Alterations: Darcy Martin (A Fragile Fit): AI kept hearing 2 names come up over and over again on the Seattle board for highly recommended seamstresses. Since Lynnwood was more convenient for me, I took my dress to Darcy Martin with A Fragile Fit. Darcy works out of a little studio in her garage, but she always had a steady stream of ladies coming in for dress fittings. It sounds like she gets her business mainly by reputation and word of mouth. I have to agree with the recommendations! She did an excellent job on my dress, and she took the extra time to make sure the bust area on my dress looked right, even though it meant she had to go in and redo some of the work she had done the first time. The only weird thing that happened was that one side of my bustle kept coming unhooked during the reception. The stitches stayed in, but the bustle came off the little bra hook that was sewn in. (It was a minor issue though). I was a little nervous at first turning over a gown that I had spent a lot of money on and waited months for to a complete stranger, but I think Darcy is someone you can absolutely entrust your bridal gown to.Tuxes: Men's Wearhouse: A This review is for the Downtown Bellevue branch of Men's Wearhouse. They did a great job helping us select styles and gave a few suggestions for colors when our desired color turned out to be discontinued. They were always very polite and attentive everytime we showed up, and all the tuxes fit really well. I don't believe anyone needed last minute alterations. The prices were reasonable, particularly if you factor in their promotions. Other branches of MW were not as attentive though, so you may want to visit different branches and compare service. E.E. Robbins Bellevue: A-My engagement ring was from E.E. Robbins. I felt the price and the quality of the ring were pretty good, and each time we visit to clean the ring, they’re very friendly. My only complaint is that the first time I went there, I was basically ignored for about 10 minutes; no one even volunteered a "Hello, we'll be right with you". Maybe I caught them on an off day because I haven't had that happen since. Once I was actually helped, they were very patient and showed me lots of different stones, always kept in mind my budget, and didn't try to sell me on bigger or pricier designs. I didn’t buy my wedding band there, however, because the one I wanted was over my budget and the salesperson claimed that he could not offer me any additional discounts even though my engagement ring was purchased there. (I later remembered that my e-ring came with a $100 certificate off my next jewelry purchase, so this wasn’t entirely true).Joseph Jewelry: A- The wedding band I wanted from E.E. Robbins cost twice as much as I had budgeted for mainly due to the brand name. I was happy to find Joseph Jewelry, a small jewelry shop in Bellevue who could custom make the same band, even taking into account the measurements of my engagement ring to ensure the 2 rings looked great as a pair. During my visit, the salesperson took my fiance and me to their small workshop in the back and showed me how they could make a computer mockup and plastic model of my ring which I could approve and modify before they proceeded with actual metal work. The salesperson also told me about their 100% satisfaction guarantee policy, so if I didn’t end up liking the final product, I could always get it remade or return it for a full refund. I liked the satisfaction guarantee and the idea of seeing where my jewelry was going to be made, so I asked them to start the process. 2 weeks went by, and after not receiving an email with the computer mockup, I visited the shop to check on things. I found out that they had already started making the ring and for some reason they forgot to call me! I did get to see the mockup at that point and everything looked good, I was just a little put off that they hadn't contacted me like they said. Well the ring came in, and it was exactly like I had pictured so I was pretty happy. I never got to test them on their 100% satisfaction guarantee policy, so I don't really know if there were any strings attached. Overall, I got the ring I wanted for the price I wanted (the 20% wedding show discount helped). I just wish the communication was better and that they had involved me as much as they said they would.Hair & Makeup: Salon Maison: A I love the fact that Salon Maison travels to your location both for the trial and for the day of! The consultant they sent me (Reia) did an amazing job on both hair and makeup. I was amazed at how fast she could do intricate updos for all of the ladies even though we all had long thick hair. I also loved the way my makeup looked. It was very natural and not overdone. One of my wedding day fears was not being ready by the time the photographer came to take our pictures, but there were no issues with that. Reia was done 30 minutes early! I think the only thing I wish that was different was that Salon Maison only sent 1 consultant for 4 girls, and we ended up having to be up at 5:30AM to fit everyone in. They will send more if you have a larger bridal party, but they calculated 3 hours for us and thought 1 consultant was enough.Photographer: Tania Shepard (Azzura Photography): A+++ The first time I saw some of Azzura’s work, I was very impressed and knew that I had to hire them. (Just check out their blog at
www.azzuracafe.com; the work speaks for itself!) After hiring Tania, we were so excited when we showed up at the 2009 Seattle Wedding Show and saw that one of her photographs was being featured on all of the banners and printed material for the show. There were hundreds of other photographers at the wedding show, so this must have been a real honor and testament to her talent! Tania’s work is super creative, and I love how her photos try to tell the story behind the day. She has so many amazing ideas on how to get great shots and did a great job directing us so that we didn’t feel too posed or artificial. Aside from taking amazing photos, Tania is everything you would want in your wedding photographer: The photography timeline she created for us helped the day run smoothly, she has a great amount of energy and enthusiam, she made everyone feel comfortable and at ease, and she is also very effective at quickly directing large groups of people for family photos. She is even able to make babies smile! Our photos were ready for us soon after we returned from our honeymoon, and we had nearly 1000 terrific photos. We were every bit as impressed as we expected to be.Florist: Tanya Stone (Elements in Bloom): A+ I first talked to a florist that was recommended by my venue, and my jaw dropped when they told me how much they wanted to charge me for the flowers I wanted. I then spoke to Tanya, who was recommended to me by one of the coordinators I had interviewed and whose name I had also heard a few times on TheKnot. I’m so glad I did! Tanya works with any budget and has no minimum for weddings. She also works from her home studio and is able to pass her cost savings on to her customers. I had a pretty good idea which flowers and what colors I wanted for the bouquets and bouts, but left the exact details up to Tanya. I was amazed! Tanya put her own creative and modern twist to the floral designs, and they looked stunning in all of the photos. My husband told me that when Tanya and her assistant came to set up the ceremony tent, they were very precise with all of the details and spent a lot of time making sure everything was set up perfectly. I was blown away and thrilled the first time I saw everything I envisioned come to life on the day of the wedding.Wedding Cake: Starry Nights Catering: A+++ I love cake and always thought one of the most important and fun processes of planning a wedding would be choosing the cake. I wasn’t so much concerned with how it would look, it just had to be delicious! I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was the philosophy shared by Starry Nights as they describe on their web site. At my cake tasting appointment, Matt Jones, the owner, personally met with me to describe and show off the 8 different cake samples. All were delicious, but the one that stood out was their popular elegant lemon chiffon cake with raspberry jam. I was totally impressed but still a year out from the wedding, so I continued cake tasting at many other places. Ultimately, I kept going back to my Starry Nights cake. It was perfectly moist in the inside, the lemon curd had just the right amount of tartness, and the buttercream frosting wasn’t overpowerful or oversweet. Also, Matt made sure to stay in contact with me in the next few months which I appreciated. When I sent in my deposit and a photo sample of how I envisioned the cake to look, Matt said “we’ll match the design exactly”. And they did! So not only was the cake absolutely delicious, it was also a beautiful beautiful cake!Ceremony Music: Greensleeves Harp & Flute: AWe were planning on hiring a string quartet, but then we went to the Seattle Wedding Show and met harpist Susan McLain. I asked her to play Canon in D (my favorite) and was happily surprised! I decided I loved the sound of the harp and flute combination, and I could completely picture myself floating down the aisle to her beautiful music. We listened to a few other harpists at the wedding show and asked them to play the same song, but didn't quite get the same happy/floaty feeling. We met with Susan a second time and really enjoyed her quirky/fun personality. Most of all, we loved her talent and enthusiasm for playing at weddings.DJ: Tom Denman (A Sound Celebration): AThis was one of the preferred vendors for our venue, and we can easily see why. We had an initial meeting with Tom, who is also the owner and DJ, and decided to hire him for the reception music by the end of the meeting. His personality was very friendly, prices were very reasonable compared to the competition, and they were able to work with us to modify their default package to suit our needs. The day of the wedding, Tom really shined as a DJ. He required very little direction and always seemed to pick the correct songs as background music for the event (cocktail hour, cake cutting). We actually forgot to mention several songs we did not want played at the reception. As soon as one of the songs came up, I motioned to Tom my decision to veto and he quickly and smoothly changed tracks. We also got the karaoke package and Tom did a great job transitioning from dance songs to karaoke, depending on what people seemed to want to do. We were very pleased with our choice and would definitely recommend them.Linens: L&M Chair Covers: AI was originally going to hire Seattle's Best Chair covers after meeting with them at the wedding show, but they never responded to my phone calls or emails! I think they had written me off after finding out that I only needed their minimum order amount. I also tested their "price match guarantee", but found out they don't consider certain vendors to be competitors since they claim their chair covers are a higher quality. While this may or may not be true, I felt slightly deceived. After shopping around a bit more, I was happy to see that L&M Chair Covers was recently added to the "preferred vendors" list by my venue, and I remembered talking to Lizz Eng, the owner, at the wedding show. She was offering a special rate which included delivery, setup, and pickup, and the price was much better than other places I looked (even less than Seattle's Best Chair Covers). After hiring her, I sent her a fabric swatch, and she said she had the perfect color sashes to match. She was right! When we made our entrance into the reception room, the first thing I noticed was how great all of the chair covers with the plum sashes looked! Paper & Crafts: CardsAndPockets.com – I got my metallic pocketfolds from here on sale and at a great price (around 75 cents each)! Shipping was expensive though and bumped up the average cost per pocketfold. The overall pricing was still great though. Michael’s – Lots of good stuff here for great prices. Sign up for their emails to get 40% and 50% off coupons sent to you. I went in there many times with many coupons! Packaging Specialties (Bellevue) – Very friendly people and best place to shop for ribbon! I custom ordered Midori ribbon from them for my invites. Paper Zone – Very helpful staff. They never charged me for sample sheets of paper. They occasionally have coupons you can get in store or at the wedding show.