We were married on 12/19 at Jumer's in Rock Island. We had both the ceremony and reception there. Our event was an evening wedding with a cocktail party style reception immediately afterward. Here are my vendor renvews:
Jumers Hotel & Casino- The location was great. The hotel rooms were reasonably priced and beautiful. Everyone raved about the rain showers and jacuzzi tubs, comfortable beds, spacious rooms, etc.
Event and banquet staff were great too. The banquet staff are experienced and made things very easy. They made it a seamless evening. The food was great too- we got a lot of compliments on the heavy appetizers. The bartender was fun and the staff made it so we did not have to lift a finger during the reception. You pay a bit more for the space at Jumers but there is room to negotiate. There is so much to do at the casino that most of our guests made a weekend out of it. It was like being a way but it was only a 1/2 hour from home.
John Taylor Salon and Spa in Jumers- A BM and I had massages on Friday afternoon. Those were worth the money! It was agreat way to kick everything off. We had four hair appointments on Saturday which was a bit packed for their small two chair salon but it worked out. Everyone was happy with their hair and the service.
Desserts- We did not have a cake. We provided a candy buffet (a huge hit and most of the candy came from Oriental Trading!) and three desserts. The Rendezvous from Muscatine, IA catered the desserts - red velvet cupcakes, lemon bars and caramel brownies. She decorated the cupcakses to look like little snowballs. The prices were very reasonable, delivered to the event and set up,and tasted great. Cindy at Rendezvous is a great baker.
Music- Glynn's Groves out of Muscatine provided the DJ service for the ceremony and the reception. They did a great job doing sound for the ceremony, followed the timing of the event as we laid out it and were professional. We had one of the staff, not the owner, and the service was still top notch. The price was very reasonable and we got a little discount for it being winter.
Photography- William Baumgartner out of Muscatine did our photography. Bill handled the formal shots well but is not too creative with poses. I ran out of time to do a "pose/photo" list for him. One of my BMs has been in a ton of weddings and had suggestions to add to the shots, which helped. Bill's strength is the candids. He worked the room and seemed to be everywhere for hours. I cannot wait to see the photos next week.
I got my dress online and had it altered with Cindy Bleecher in East Davenport. She was timely and the work was high quality. Her shop "Special Effects" in the old school has lots of special occassion jewlery.
Our colors were red, black and antique gold. My dress was ivory with silver and gold bead detail. We did artificial flowers in dark reds and burgundy for bouquets, corsages, boutineers, and floral arrangments. We also did the decorations ourselves. I saved money by buying metal candle holders at second hand and charity shops, painted them all black. I also used textured paper under the candle holders to bring color onto the tables. I bought bulk candles at Quick Candles dot com. Gold tone Frames for signage and small vases came from the dollar store. Lots of other odds and ends came from craft stores on sale and with coupons. We incorporated a bit of christmas with three coordinating wreaths and three small christmas trees decorated in gold and red.