Sedona Wedding - Vendor Reviews

janjan550 · October 2010

We got married on 10/9/10 and everything was perfect. I expected there to be more stress or problems on the day of, but everything went wonderfully as far as I could tell. I posted a link to some pics in a prior post if you're interested.

Here are my vendor reviews:

Venue – Poco Diablo Resort in Sedona, AZ (www.pocodiablo.com/">http://www.pocodiablo.com/) – The grounds at Poco Diablo are beautiful and the layout of the resort is great for a destination wedding weekend. Many of the rooms surround the small golf course, with patios that open up to the course for a great atmosphere for hanging out with the friends and family. The ceremony itself was in front of the gazebo which is beautiful. The ceremony was followed by a cocktail hour on the Rose Terrace, followed by the dinner on the Canopy Patio. The remainder of the dancing and other fun was back on the Rose Terrace. The entire event was outside, which I LOVED. I was somewhat worried that having separate areas at the reception might be awkward, but it was not a problem at all. I did not want a ballroom reception at all, and this was the ideal solution for us. I would not change the decision we made to pick Poco, or the decision to have the entire event outside. We have received many compliments from wedding guests about how beautiful the place was and how much they enjoyed being there. Absolutely no regrets about making the decision to get married in Sedona, instead of Phoenix, and no regrets about choosing Poco Diablo. We had two others venues we liked, and specifically one other that I kept wondering about even after we picked, but when all is said and done, I am 100% sure we made the right choice. From the time that we booked until our wedding seven months later, the person in charge of the weddings changed. The new person, Jill K, is great to work with. There were a few things that the original person promised that were not in the contract and were not able to be fulfilled, but they were relatively minor and barely worth mentioning. It seems as though the real problem may have been the original person promising more than was normal for no additional charge. Also the resort changed ownership during this period which caused some frustrations relating to the hotel room reservations for our guests. This were eventually all sorted out, but was a headache at the time. Aside from these few minor frustrations, everything was wonderful. I know every wedding has some stresses or issues, so the fact that we had so few is a positive reflection on Poco Diablo, and most of the stresses related to transitions within the resort, which are unlikely to recur on a regular basis.

Photographer – Danielle Daigle (www.danielledaigle.com/">http://www.danielledaigle.com/) – We LOVE Danielle. We met with a few other photographers in the Phoenix area. We loved her work and found her to be very comfortable to work with. Her style is awesome, and she is the perfect balance between a photographer that completely takes charge of everything, and a photographer that looks to you for all the ideas. She definitely has her own ideas and suggestions, but she is not domineering or controlling, and is very open to understanding any vision you may have. We actually had multiple people tell us at our wedding how cool the photographers were and have had tons of compliments since then on the actual pictures. She was so accommodating with our engagement pictures, which we did in Sedona, and in fact she spent more time with us for our engagement pics than some photographers would have spent with us on the actual wedding day. I can’t say enough good things about Danielle.

Flowers – Mountain High Flowers (http://mountainhighflowerssedona.com/) – We decided to just go for bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages for flowers for the wedding to keep the cost down. We met with one popular flower shop in town and thought the prices were way beyond what we felt was reasonable. They had very “couture” vision and we were not able to work out a plan with them. We were looking into just doing something ourselves or going with Safeway flowers, when we were referred to Mountain High Flowers. They never made us feel uncomfortable about wanting to keep things simple and budget friendly. They were super nice and accommodating, and the result was some very lovely flowers. For us, this was a great option. Neither of us had any real vision for flowers, beyond colors, and could not justify a big portion of our budget on what we perceived as a small part of what makes a wedding great. We also had our whole event outside, so a ton of flowers seemed unnecessary. I am happy with the flowers, and they looked great in the pictures.

Officiant – Anthony Flesch from Weddings in Sedona (www.weddingsinsedona.com/">http://www.weddingsinsedona.com/) – Anthony has a lovely South African accent which is very calming to me. We selected Anthony based on research and referrals and he was a good blend of the Sedona vibe, without being too “earthy” as I call it. Weddings in Sedona was easy to work with and provided suggestions in other areas of our wedding, even though we only contracted with them for the officiant services. They also provide wedding planning services, which it seems like they would be good at. The officiant only pricing was more than I would have anticipated, but the cost is consistent with the other officiants in Sedona, so I believe the price is fair. Cake – Sedona Sweet Arts (http://sedonaweddingcakes.com/) – Cake was lovely and tasted great. Sedona Sweet Arts was easy to work with and delivered a cake that was delicious and exactly what we asked for.

Hair – Heather Tomasek from Head First Salon in Flagstaff ((928) 779-6949) – Heather works in Flagstaff but lives in Sedona. I was referred to her by a friend in Flagstaff and it worked out perfectly. She came to the resort in Sedona to do my hair, the bridesmaids, and my mom and sister. She was creative with and did a great job with a wide range of hair types and styles.

Rehearsal Dinner – Cucina Rustica (www.cucinarustica.com/index.htm">http://www.cucinarustica.com/index.htm) – My husband’s parents, generously hosted our rehearsal dinner at Cucina Rustica. The food was awesome and the restaurant is beautiful, We had a large group (around 35), so my husband’s parents had made the arrangements well in advance and had a special reduced menu for our event. On the day of, when we arrived, it became clear that they did not have us in our own area as it had been indicated, and the restaurant was very busy and loud. The reduced menu was very nice, but was not the agreed upon menu, and the service was slow. Our guests all commented on how wonderful everything was, so I don’t think the problems were things that would be noticed by a guest who did not know how it was supposed to be. But as a person in the know, it was clear that it was not exactly as planned. The food really is spectacular, there is no denying that. I wish the execution had been a little better. The servers all tried to pull it all together, and I have no complaints about them. I think the issues stemmed from poor communication on how things were intended to be executed from the person who coordinates these types of events. My husband’s parents let the manager know of the issues on the rehearsal dinner night and in a follow-up e-mail, and the manager was very apologetic. I would definitely eat there again if I was in town, because the food is so good, but I might avoid having such a large group there on a busy night. DJ – Our DJ was a family friend of my husband’s who used to be in the business, but now mostly just does stuff for family and friends. He was awesome and kept the crowd going. I am glad I didn’t know in advance all of his plans because I probably would have vetoed some or at least worried, but I am glad he did all the things he did. He proved to me that it is better to just trust the professionals you have hired and not try to control everything yourself.

janjan550 · October 2010

I guess it looks all funky, not sure how to fix it.

731brnigirl · October 2010

What a great review. Lots of good info for Sedona brides (a few less of us now!)
I am so happy to hear it all went well and you are pleased with your choices. The pictures were wonderful! Please keep in touch.

guamibear · October 2010

Fantastic reviews!!! Congrats and thank you for sharing!

katylady106 · November 2010

Hey!
Thanks for all the reviews.
We are getting married April 16, 2011 at Tlaquepaque.
We to are using Mile High for flowers, sedona sweet arts for cake and Wedding in Sedona for the Efficiant (still haven't decided on who will be our efficiant yet).

Question about Heather that did your hair...I've been looking to find someone to do hair and makeup.
You said she did a good job was she a decident price? I've got myself, 3 bridemaids, mom and maybe grandma.
Did she also do makeup or did you have someone else?

Thanks for any info!!
Congrats on being Married!

janjan550 · November 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_arizona-phoenix_sedona-wedding-vendor-reviews?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:71Discussion:6cde2878-73b6-4e02-a755-d2f9d23882e8Post:fd9bbee1-b6a9-44d7-9ac9-5abd9bb52fda">Re: Sedona Wedding - Vendor Reviews</a>:
[QUOTE]Hey! Thanks for all the reviews. We are getting married April 16, 2011 at Tlaquepaque. We to are using Mile High for flowers, sedona sweet arts for cake and Wedding in Sedona for the Efficiant (still haven't decided on who will be our efficiant yet). Question about Heather that did your hair...I've been looking to find someone to do hair and makeup. You said she did a good job was she a decident price? I've got myself, 3 bridemaids, mom and maybe grandma. Did she also do makeup or did you have someone else? Thanks for any info!! Congrats on being Married!
Posted by katylady106[/QUOTE]

She did not do make-up, there are a couple people I talked to up there about make-up, but ended up just going to the MAC store in Phx the week of the wedding with my bridesmaids. They taught my MOH how to do it, and I bought a bunch of make-up from them. The recommended make-up people that I contacted were.

Patricia Vega - <a href="http://www.sedonahairandmakeupartist.com/">http://www.sedonahairandmakeupartist.com/</a>
Liz Margin - <a href="http://www.lizmargin.com/">http://www.lizmargin.com/</a>

Patricia wasn't available for mine, and Liz was out of our budget, although I spent more on MAC make-up than I planned, so it wouldn't have been too different, just now I have make-up to use in the future too.

For Heather, she charged me as fiollows:

<div>1 Bride ($75)</div><div>4 Bridesmaid (4 X $35 = $140)</div><div>1 Mom ($35)</div><div>1 Sister ($35)</div><div>Plus off-site fee ($45)</div><div>Total: $330

So, it all adds up of course, but the individual prices and the total were much better than the other quotes I got. Here's some of our pics, if you want to see the hair-do's.
<a href="http://www.danielledaigle.com/2010/10/john-and-janelle-married-sedona-wedding-photographer/">http://www.danielledaigle.com/2010/10/john-and-janelle-married-sedona-wedding-photographer/</a>. There is a link to a slideshow in the blog, if you want to see more pics of he hair.

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