Ok, I was going to hold off on doing reviews until I received photos & video, but it's on my mind right now and people seemed interested.
Wedding was 9-4-10
Flowers: Hafner Florist- A
They did a great job! My bouquet was gorgeous and better than I imagined. The bridesmaids' bouquets were exactly as I wanted them. The flowers lasted great too- I just threw them out over the weekend as they just now died, so they lasted 2 weeks!
Cake: Cupcake Station (Ann Arbor): A
If you've never been there, it's completely worth the drive. The quality of their product is so good, and the prices are great too! The staff was super accomodating, even let us eat as many full-size cupcakes as we wanted at our tasing. We chose 4 different flavors, and the guests all raved about them.
Hair: Attitudes Salon (on Heatherdowns)- A
I go there regularly, so I went to my usual stylist, Schuyler. She's amazing and worth every penny. I have long, unruly wavy hair, and she got it all up into a sleek 'do that stayed put all day, despite tons of wind! Highly recommend her.
Makeup: MAC- A
I got my make-up done at the MAC counter in Dillards. You do'nt have to pay for the makeover, just have to buy $50 worth of products, which is easy to do there. Makeup looked great and lasted well. I was nervous b/c I got it done early in the day, but it was not a problem.
Ceremony music: Toledo International Youth Orchestra- A
We hired a quartet of high school students to play at the ceremony. They play all over the world, so the have great skills, and are about half the cost of a professional group.
Reception music: Decorative Sound- B
The owner, Mike, is a super nice guy who is very easy to work with. He's always accomodating and willing to help out. I gave them a B for the guy we got that night. I honestly don't remember his name. He stuck to our playlist but made 2 mistakes that bothered me. For one, he introduced us as "Mr. and Mrs. Hislastname" ,which upset me b/c I'm not taking his name and this was written down on our information sheet. So I had to listen to people call me "Mrs. Hisname" all night. then, we decided to do our first dance right after we entered. One of my bridesmaids was lingering on the dance floor, fussing with her bouquet and was in our way. The DJ started our song anyway, and we missed our cue. This is important b/c we did a choreographed swing dance, that starts immediately when the song does. So we messed up our dance, that we had been working on for months. I feel like the DJ should have been paying better attention and waited a minute to start our music. It was obvious we weren't ready, I was yelling at the bridesmaid to get out of the way when he started the song.
Ceremony/Reception: Nazareth Hall- C
This was a hard one to grade. Prior to the wedding, I would have given them an A, but on the night of the wedding, an F, so that averages out to a C.
Before the wedding, the staff was helpful, nice and organized. Everything fell apart the night of the wedding, I don't even know where to begin. First, it was a superbusy day there, so there were guests from other weddings wandering into our room, which is unncessary (they didn't have to go anywhere near our room to get to theirs), so my parents had to wait to set up the cupcakes- they didn't want to do that while other people were wandering in our room. I feel like a staff member should have been keeping others out of our room. Ceremony went great, but the staff didn't really have to do anything there.
Our wedding hostess was terrible, there's really no other way to put it. She was hardly aroud all night. Whenever I needed her, I couldn't find her. She didn't bring us champagne before the ceremony (which they are supposed to, and I asked for it), she never brought me water before the ceremony, which I also asked for. She LOST a family heirloom cake cutter. I never even got to cut my cake with it. It was a chilly day, but they had the air conditioning on in the hall, which was completely unncessary. The guests were complaining about it, but she told the guests that my husband and I wanted the room that way, which was a complete lie!! So we may have had guests annoyed at us for something we never knew about (we were taking pics at the time). She then finally relented and turned off the A/C, but then said she wouldn't turn it back on that night. It got hot & stuffy in there later on. I think that's completely unacceptable, as we were paying a great deal to be there and deserved to be comfortable! The waitstaff was no better. My cousin saw one of them (before the ceremony) take one of our cupcakes and eat it! If the guests weren't sitting when they served dinner, they didn't get food. Now it's obivous that someone was sitting there if they had a dirty salad plate, but they had to chase after the staff to get their food. Again, unacceptable. We paid for those plates! I called to complain to the managers there, and they apologized, but I feel like they should have called my parents to apologize (they paid) and haven't gotten back to me about our cake cutter. Another word- my parents actually looked in the dumpster for the cake cutter, and saw tons of wedding decorations thrown out in there. It looks like if you accidentally leave something there, they just throw it away that night. So pick your stuff up pronto!
Bridesmaid dresses: Myperfectbridal.com - F-
Don't, don't, DONT shop there! 2 of my bridesmaids got the wrong dresses, TWICE! They finally got their dresses 5 days before the wedding. They also got full refunds, only after they filed a BBB report. Stay far far away!
My dress: Gallippos- A
I had a great time at Gallippos, and everything there worked out well for me.
Mom's dress- Atlas- C
The dress was great, but the staff was terribly rude there. They didn't give me the time of day when I wanted to try on a bridesmaid dress for another wedding, and convinced my mom to buy a dress about 5 sizes too big, probably so they could make money off the alterations. She wisely went to Pam Thomas, who did a great job. She even offered to make bridesmaid dresses overnight if my girls' dresses didn't come in.
Tuxes: Men's Wearhouse- B
They were fine. Nothing special, but I wasn't looking for anything special or fancy there, so it was sufficient.
Invites: Sublime designer & Vistaprint- A
I hired a graphic designer on Etsy and then had the invites printed at Vistaprint. The design was exactly what I wanted, and they printed up on Vistaprint really nice and was very affortable. I paid the designer $30 to design the invites, then paid about $0.60 each to print the invites.
Photos: Everlasting Images- thus far, A
Engagement pics were great, so I'm sure the wedding ones will be too
Video: Showcase video productions- dont' know yet, don't have video yet
That's all I can think of for now!