I got married on April 3, so this is a little late, but I wanted to wait and see how long it took us to get stuff back before I posted!
Venue/Caterer: The Bolger Center (Potomac, MD)
We chose the Bolger Center because we wanted an outdoor ceremony and indoor reception, and they were able to accomodate the number of guests we had for that. They had LOTS of options for ceremony location (literally anywhere on the grounds!), and were accomodating when we had to change it last minute due to the weather. Our first contact person there, Annette, was very nice, but not very organized and hard to get ahold of, which was a problem for us since we were planning from a distance. We ended up switching to Debbie, who was MUCH more organized and easier to work with. The food at the Bolger Center is AMAZING! Our guests are still raving about it 4 months later! They have lots of options and are very accomodating of special dietary needs.
Grade: B+ for venue, A+ for food
DJ: Chris Laich
I had reservations about Chris before we hired him, but my mom was convinced he'd do a good job, so I said ok. He was very professional and did do a good job at the reception. He was unobtrusive and accomodated our volume preferences, made announcements as we requested, and did a great job with the playlist we gave him. My issue with him was a personality thing. He's very confident, which comes across as cocky, and he's kind of bossy and made a few comments that just rubbed me the wrong way. But, like I said, he did the job we asked him to do, and he did it well.
Grade: B+
Photographer: Steve Canning
I was very picky in choosing a photographer, because I had a bad experience with the photographer at my Bat Mitzvah that I didn't want to repeat. I also am not a fan of getting my picture taken in general. Steve was AMAZING! He got all the photos we wanted and was very unobtrusive. He was also very accomodating, and allowed us to do pretty much everything we wanted to do, even if it wasn't in our contract. He's really easy to work with, and a nice guy, and I definitely recommend him. The photos turned out great, too!
Grade: A+
Videographer: Tom Bowen\
This one is a little weird, because I never actually MET Tom. My mom dealt with him mostly through email (I think she met him once before the wedding day). He was very unobtrusive (I know, this is a theme for me) on the wedding day, I didn't even notice him most of the time, but he got GREAT footage and the video turned out beautifully! He also created a photo montage for us to show at our rehearsal dinner. My only issue is that we got NO say in editing the video. He sent us the final edited version about a month after the wedding, and the raw footage a few weeks after that. So we got to keep all the footage, BUT the edited version is HIS edits, not ours (although I will say that he really didn't leave out much, so I can't say I would have edited it any differently).
Grade: B+
Cake: Creative Cakes (Silver Spring, MD)
We really only dealt a little bit with them, my mom did most of the communicating. Anne was our contact there, and she was very knowledgable and helpful. They have lots of interesting cake flavors, including their specialty - mandarin orange! - which we ended up using because it was SO good! I don't like cake, in general, and I LOVED their mandarin orange cake! The cake turned out exactly how we asked for it, so I have no complaints.
Grade: A
Flowers: DaVinci's Florist (Silver Spring, MD)
I am not a flower person. I couldn't tell you the difference between a rose and a delphinium. That being said, DaVinci's wins the award for my favorite vendor! Sharone was so helpful and accomodating, changing our arrangements several times over, and SO funny! And our flowers turned out absolutely GORGEUS. Many of our guests asked us about the flowers, and complimented us on them. I highly recommend DaVinci's, and especially Sharone if you can get him!
Grade: A++
I think that's all the local vendors we used. We got our invitations, programs, save-the-dates, etc. done for free because DH's dad owns a print shop in Florida. I got my dress and had it altered and everything in Georgia, and I got my veil and shoes online. So, I hope these reviews are helpful to some of you! I know the ones I read as I was planning were very helpful to me
Happy Planning!