I’m procrastinating on going in to set up my classroom today, so I thought it was about time for some vendor reviews and pictures. More vendor reviews to come, but here are the major ones. Here is the link to our professional pictures- taken by Chantal Andrea photography.
http://tinyurl.com/mef6sm Venue: Twin Willow Gardens- A Jessie and her husband opened there venue to us when 2 months before the wedding we had lost the venue we had already booked. We were in a really tough situation and desperate, thinking we were going to have to change our date, or relocate to my aunt and uncle’s house and lose our money for our hotel block. When DH called Jessie she agreed to let us have the wedding there even though they are not open until next summer. We arrived to see the place for the first time and she had talked to our previous venue and arranged for us to have the same package for the same price. I cried when I got home because her kindness was overwhelming. We had lost our venue and two days later had nothing to worry about. It just got better from that day on. We were able to come in Thursday before the wedding to set up tables and chairs, came in before the rehearsal on Friday to do more set up, and were able to come as early as we wanted before the wedding to get started on things for the day. Jessie has her eye on details and wanted to make sure everything was exactly how I wanted it. We hired her brother as the bartender and everything went perfectly. The different areas they had worked wonderfully for all the events and we were able to get a tremendous variety of photos all in one place. We had so many complements on how beautiful Twin Willow Gardens was – and they weren’t even ready to be open yet. I would highly recommend this venue for its beauty and the flexibility of the owners. Chantal Andrea Photography: A+ Chantal photographed both our engagement pictures and our wedding pictures. We love them all so much! She is very creative and has ideas for photographs I have not seen before. She asked us to do some interesting things for pictures- like row a boat into the lake for engagement pics, and lay on the ground on our wedding day, but those pictures turned out to be some of my favorite, beautiful and very unique. Working with her for formal photos was very fun and relaxed. During the wedding and reception, I hardly noticed she was there and yet she captured all the important moments and details. She recommended areas at our venue for the different events in order to get the best pictures and they all ended up looking amazing. She is very reasonably priced for the quality of work she does. We were thoroughly satisfied and impressed with all of the pictures. Wild Rose: A This was the venue we had booked previously and they unfortunately lost their lease which caused us to scramble to relocate the wedding. The couple who owned it at the time, Marty and Jeff, included their services at our wedding at the new venue at no cost to us. The new couple who now own Wild Rose came as well, so we had extra support and twice as many hands to help out. Marty and Jeff were wonderful and experienced in the business. Jeff was our officiant and read the ceremony we had chosen perfectly. They have been working closely with the new couple to ensure they know all about the business and are set to continue having wonderful weddings under their name. Wild Rose is now located in Arlingtonty> and they have added the service of bartending to their packages. David’s Bridal Lynnwood : F- All of our bridesmaid dresses were ordered in the wrong style by the consultant. They were unable to get the correct dresses in for us before the wedding. They altered the necklines of the new dresses for free, which made them look better, but were not the dresses we wanted. After many conversations with the corporate people, we were unable to get any kind of refund for their mistakes, unless we returned the dresses – which wasn’t an option so close to the wedding. The manager of the store was helpful and did what she could to solve the problem, but was unable to convince the corporate people to do anything to compensate us for their mistakes. Please do not shop here! Cynderellie’s Closet: B Barbara’s Bridal Alterations: A I enjoyed going into the small shop and trying on dresses in a calm atmosphere, with no pressure to buy. I found the dress I wanted and placed an order. It was supposed to be ordered with the hem already at the correct length- since hemming the dress with a lace bottom requires too much work. The dress came in standard length, which was 3 inches too long, and I had to wear flats so I wasn’t taller than DH. The owner called the manufacturer and was unable to get a new dress sent, but no one took responsibility for the mistake. Barbara, the alterations lady for the store, worked miracles on my dress to make it look almost as if nothing had been done to it. The store paid for the work to be done but I was still a little disappointed as I lost some of the lace at the bottom of my dress. Theflowerexchange.com: A I decided to DIY flowers for the centerpieces and bouquets. The flowers arrived on time and in good conditions. I ordered them to arrive on Wednesday before the wedding and they were open and ready Saturday at the wedding. I received compliments all day about how beautiful they were and people were shocked to hear I arranged them myself. The best part was they were much cheaper than a florist. Top Foods: B We ordered corsages and boutonnieres from here. They looked great in the morning and all of the roses used held up throughout the day. The daisies on some started to lose petal by the end of the night, which is why they get a B from me. Fiftyflowers.com: A I ordered rose petals from here. They arrived looking great and were a perfect addition to the wedding. MODA hair cafe in Edmonds: Katie- A Everyone else C-My hair was done here by Katie and turned out amazing. It lasted throughout the day and I was complimented on it multiple times. My BMs and MOB hair were done here by other stylists. They had to recurl and fix their hair before pictures because they were all falling out. They all looked great when they left the salon but their hair should have been able to hold up for a few hours. Makeup: Sephora - AI did a consultation at Sephora to help pick out maekup for the wedding. They recommended the Makeup Forever HD line which is designed for photographing. It worked perfectly and now I can still look great after the wedding too. Nails: Alderwood Nails: AI had a manicure and pedicure here and they turned out great. They were reasonably priced and I had a wonderful massage included.