I can't believe the wedding has come and gone. It really does fly by fast so make sure you enjoy every moment! Ceremony & Reception Venue- Clarendon Ballroom My fiance was skeptical of the nightclub/bar at first, but after looking at pictures of the ballroom transformed, we were sold. The ballroom also holds sentimental value for us as we met there and later had our first kiss there. The location was super convenient for us and many of our guests who live in the area. I liked having one flat rental charge for the venue which included linens, chivari chairs, tables, candles, etc... They didnt even charge extra to have our short ceremony there. I hate seeing charges broken down at hotels (my husband works for a hotel in the area and he clearly didn't want to get married in a hotel for this primary reason- they charge you for everything). The ballroom does their own catering and we got our cake from them and the food was amazing. We continue to receive compliments about the large portions of food and how great it tasted. The staff was friendly and attentive and met our needs perfectly. RATING: A definitely. I am only regretful of the weather that prevented us from using the rooftop for our cocktail hour. They say rain is supposedly "good luck"... Officiant- Rev. John Hoffman Referred to us by another officiant who was unavailable on our wedding day, Mr. Hoffman basically created our entire ceremony from scratch. I liked how he made an effort to make each and every one of his ceremonies personalized so it wasn't cookie cuttered. It felt special and like it really characterized me and my fiance. RATING: A String Quartet- Cherry Blossom String Quartet This was a splurge I randomly went for one day at work and it was probably the best money I spent even though I hardly got to listen to them. I wanted the music for the ceremony to be timed perfectly having witnessed a few weddings where there were awkward lulls during the ceremony and the Cherry Blossoms did not disappoint. My uncle is still raving about the music. I hand picked most of the songs and I loved how they had all the traditional ones for the ceremony and I picked a more random modern assortment for the cocktail hour (think broadway show tunes, beatles, etc... You must consider them if you have an extra couple hundred $$$ to spare. RATING: A+ DJ- Michael Valenti (Bialeks) I delegated this task to my fiance since it was not something I was terribly interested in. He did a good job overall. He pronounced all of our wedding party's names correctly (which we had a few odd ones) and had a good feel for the crowd. He threw in slow songs when I needed a drink break. I think my fiance wanted him to keep the fast songs going more but I think the breaks were necessary. No one wanted to leave the dance floor by the end of the night. My first experience with Bialeks (not Mr Valenti) was negative since Bialeks basically booked the DJ we were talking to and in the process of meeting without our knowledge and the DJs (he didnt even know he was already booked). Therefore, I am disappointed in the customer service and lack of professionalism in the company. I would recommend Mr. Valenti on his own (try going outside of Bialeks if that is even possible). RATING: A- Flowers & Uplighting - Da Vinci & DIY from "Sam's Club" Sharone at Da Vinci was awesome. The flowers exceeded my expectations and were totally worth it. I spent a long time looking through his numerous books and pointed out exactly the centerpieces I wanted him to recreate so it was pretty easy versus me having him come up with something completely new. The red color of the flowers was perfect and matched our wedding colors exactly. We had all red flowers and sometimes red roses and hydrangeas can be a little darker red but the centerpieces Sharone did were a brighter more vibrant red. Better than I imagined. We also rented our uplights from him but delivered them and set them up ourselves at the ballroom to save 50% of the cost of them. I also saved some money on the bridesmaids bouquets and a few smaller table arrangements for the guest book, entrance table and bar tables by ordering bulk flowers from Sam's Club. The flowers arrived early Friday morning for a Saturday evening reception since I heard you need to let roses open up for a day. Everything worked out great but it was a little stressful not knowing exactly when the flowers would be delivered by fedex. I did save some money and put all my nervous energy towards doing something good the day and morning of the wedding. RATING: A for Da Vinci and A- for Sam's Club due to problems registering for an online account and the fear of not knowing when the flowers would arrive exactly. Doubt they could change the last one. Favors: Engraved chopsticks and red candy bar My mother in law purchased the chopsticks overseas in China. They were engraved with our names and our wedding date and laid on each napkin at the reception. We also had a red candy colored bar as favors and this was a huge hit. I got red Chinese food take out boxes from Uline (the packing brand) very cheap. I ordered about 50 lbs of candy from candywarehouse and metrocandy online. It was hard not to eat the candy beforehand but there were so many red colored candy options the hardest part was narrowing them down to 10 or so choices. I wish I had saved some candy for ourselves because by the end of the night there were only twizzlers left. Anyhow, it was a huge hit with everyone and it you can do it to match your color scheme, it looks awesome. RATING for bulk candy online- A Photographers & "Photo Booth"- The Happy Couple- Joe & Kayte Brier My fiance shot down every photographer I liked and we could afford so I eventually gave up on this one and had him find the photographer. I think he found them on the knot and he loved their work. Both are actual photojournalists for major newspapers and we really liked that style of photography. They didn't try to sell us on expensive prints and photo albums since that's not what they are into but they will give us high resolution copies of all our photos in color and in black and white and we don't have to wait a year like some places make you. I think we get them back in the next few weeks. They are a super nice couple and both have two different styles so it's like you get two photographers for the price of one. They also put up this backdrop with a remote camera so our guests could take pictures of themselves like a photo booth. we are excited to see how the pictures progressed over the course of the evening. RATING- A (the engagement session pictures were great so we have no doubt the wedding day photos will be awesome) Videographer- Dolce Video- This was a last minute decision for me to have our wedding videographed. I think I contacted about 4 different videographers late on a Friday night and Dolce responded to my inquiry by the next day (not even a business day). I received a sample video shortly thereafter and my decision was pretty clear. I hadn't even heard back from all of the other videographers before I put the deposit down on Dolce. I think responsiveness is very important to me. I hope I will enjoy watching the video or I may cringe from embarrassment. Either way, I liked how easy Haynal was to work with and how they can work with almost any budget. Our day of videographer was Kris and he was very easygoing and unobtrusive. I actually didn't really see him or our photographers much throughout the night which makes me worry if I'll be in any pictures but maybe that's how you are supposed to feel. Anyhow, eagerly anticipating the video. RATING- A for ease of working together and professionalism and friendliness of the company Bridesmaid Dresses- JCrew Everyone loves their dresses since JCrew always has a sale and has dresses people can actually wear again. I chose the cotton cady styles in holiday red and told my bridesmaids there were 4 different styles to choose from. it was pretty painless and their return policy is great. they now have some of the dresses in stores so you can try them on for size before ordering, which would have helped my ladies out a long time ago. RATING- A- (I wish there was some sort of bulk discount or maybe a little perk for the bride who gives Jcrew all this business- like a giftcard or something) My gown- Bella Rosa in Richmond, VA- Paloma Blanca I tried on dresses at about 4 different stores up here so I wouldn't be under fire when I went with my mom over the holidays. Bella Rosa is your traditional wedding gown store with all the big mirrors and fancy decor. Of course, you pay a little more to get all that service and atmosphere but I am happy with my dress. I actually had tried it on up here at three different places I went to so I knew there had to be some reason I kept going back to the dress. I went with a Paloma Blanca dress because it was the most comfortable one and it was the dress I had torn pictures out of even before I was engaged. The staff at Bella Rosa was nice but I didn't feel like I was waited on hand and foot. Maybe it was because I didn't spend thousands on my dress. They didn't do anything wrong at all but I just didn't get that extra TLC I would have liked for what I think is the most expensive dress I will ever own. RATING- B (but in comparison to some of the stores I went to up here, they would definitely get an A) Rehearsal Dinner- La Tasca in Clarendon I originally wanted to have our dinner at Maggianos in Tysons but when we found out they were booked, we thought about using Wildfire at Tysons Galleria. But since we already had our engagement party there and concerns about traffic in the Tysons area on a Friday afternoon, we chose La Tasca. The food was good. Service was decent. The sangria was flowing so I think it was a good decision overall. My only concerns were that it took the food a while to start coming out of the kitchen and the top floor we had reserved was so loud we couldn't speak to everyone at once so we had to go table to table. Also there were some random Spanish dancers that came to our reserved area at least twice and I didn't know if we were paying for them or who asked for them or what on earth they were doing but I think it entertained people. RATING: B (no beverages of any type were included in the meal price for our guests so our bill racked up pretty quickly even though we said only sangria, beer or wine for our guests. sodas, teas, and coffee were all extra for us, too.) Registries- I have said and I continue to say that Macys has not been a pleasant registry experience for us. We registered at the one in Tysons Galleria and the lady was super nice the first day. She was not so nice when we tried to return things we decided we did not need. She said we needed an appointment to return... so we waited and waited and waited forever to return an item... Again, we went to return something today at the Macys in pentagon city mall (why people buy things for you that are not on your registry boggles my mind) and this man in the kitchen area said "no, can't help you, you need to take it to the registry to return" and we tried to tell him it wasn't on our registry. he had nothing else to do but definitely gave off the impression that he just didn't want to deal with us. so we went to the registry lady and she waved us to another cashier because it looked like she was busy shopping online. so the register we end up at is empty and it's a regular register much like the one in the kitchen area. we wait and wait for an employee to arrive. she is very helpful and nice (seems like macys needs more of those). even though we didnt have a receipt for the gifts, they had the macys return label, which the first guy in the kitchen area said wasn't good enough for a return. i told the nice lady that the other man said it wasn't good enough for a return and she said it totally was. i just get so many conflicting experiences with macys that I cannot recommend them to anyone. they certainly have a good rewards program but their prices really aren't that great if people shopped around or used the bed bath & beyond coupons. I have had very good experiences at Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn and Bed Bath & Beyond for my other registries. RATING: Macys- D- and the rest A Makeup- Purchased hundreds of dollars worth of makeup at the Bobbi Brown counter at Tysons Corner- A few weeks before the wedding I had a complete makeover done by a Russian lady at the Bobbi Brown counter (I think her name was Irina). I bought almost everything she used on me since I reasoned it was more cost effective in the long run to purchase the makeup. I also have control issues so I knew I would want to do my own make up the day of. The lady at the counter was very nice even though I didn't have an appointment. She made a point to give me extra tips and pointers for applying the makeup myself the day of. She was more than thorough and I loved the colors she picked out for me even though they weren't what I would have picked for myself. Now I can use the make up for months to come. RATING: A I think that's all I can think of for now. Hope this helps!