Hello future brides/grooms!
I've been here on and off and totally forgot to do my vendor reviews. I'm so bad.. it's been a little over four months now since the wedding and finally going to put these reviews up! These are my honest opinions and how I felt about each of them during the big day. Hopefully these are helpful to you guys.
Day of Coordinators - Happily Ever After (A++): When I first met Shannon and Teasha we automatically clicked! I felt so relieved because I'm very anal and picky when it comes to organizing and esp for our wedding. I wanted everything to be exactly how I wanted it to be. I planned it for almost two years and I didn't want anything to go wrong. Well Shannon and Teasha both assured me they had it under control. During the whole year up to the wedding, all I did was email them all of our vendor contracts and they kept it on file with them. They were super organized!
When it came to the big day, Teasha wasn't able to make it due to maternity leave but Tami was her replacement and she was just as awesome! They got down to every detail that we gave them and they did it ALL. Everything even the dress rehearsal went perfectly how I had envisioned and without them, I don't know what I would've done. I literally didn't think about anything but just enjoyed the moment without any worries. They were amazing and totally worth it!!
http://www.perfectionisplanned.com/
DJ - Jeff Hill (A): Jeff is an awesome guy with the right beats to go with our dance floor. At first, communication was a little delayed but eventually things went well. I think I just got a little paranoid because I expected all of the vendors to answer right back. But Jeff was super friendly and had people dancing away. We didn't have a lot of dancers in our families but he was able to play songs to get them out of their seats. Also, he provided our mics for our ceremony which was so nice of him because it was last min that we had found out we needed it. Overall his process of having you put together your playlists was extremely easy on his website and very seamless when it came to the big day. Impressive.
http://www.jproductionsonline.com/
Venue (for Ceremony and Reception) - Harbor Club Bellevue (A): We searched forever to find the right venue to fit our taste and style. HCB was exactly what we were looking for even though we didn't even think about it. I just so happened to stumble across their site from a magazine and the pictures on their website doesn't do justice to what they exactly provide. Our wedding package included all of the linen, silveware, glassware, etc so we did not have to worry about the 'little things'. We originally checked out the Seattle location which had a beautiful view of elliot bay but the Bellevue location sold us because of the gorgeous interior decor they had. You didn't need much for decorations. Communication with the catering manager was on point and everything we had negotiated and put in contract was exactly what we had discussed for the big day. The only down-point was that they increased their prices per person by quite a bit after we had signed with them but in our contract it said "subject to change" but they gave us a reasonable increase ($2 pp more) which wasn't the full increase they had for 2011 brides since we had signed earlier with them. Thank goodness! The view they had was perfect and on our day we had a beautiful sunset surrounding us up on the 25th floor where the club is located. Our guests were in awe by the view. They also provide complimentary validated parking in their garage so your guests doesn't have to go thru the trouble of finding parking. So convenient.
http://www.harborclub.org/
Wedding photographers - John & Joseph Photography (A): Before I was even engaged I knew who our photographer would be for the wedding. We met with Joseph (Joey) at their studio home and was super impressed by their images and photobooks. We didn't hestitate to sign with them and knew we made the right choice. They photograph weddings and photoshoots all over the U.S. including over-seas so we knew if we didn't book them right away, there's a slim chance we would get them for our date. So we booked 14 months out from our wedding. haha.. crazy huh? Their prices are a bit steep, we paid about $5200 for our package but the quality and photos we've received are amazing. I cannot ask for a better photographer. They have a keen eye for artistic poses and they even have a self-protrait photobooth that they included for us which was a big hit at our wedding! All of our guests LOVED it and kept shooting away. They still talk about it up till this day!
http://jkhphoto.com/
Engagment photographer - Tiffany Tong Photography (A+): We contacted Tiffany for an engagement photo session and came up with the idea of having a 'four seasons' theme due to the fact that we had a year and half engagement to plan our wedding. So each of the season that went by we met up with Tiffany and took photos at different locations. I would say the Fall and Summer were the hardest due to the cold weather but Tiffany was very accommodating and was extremely helpful. She has a great personality and captured really great photos! In the end we had a lot of cool photos for each of the season and were able to print those out to frame around our reception and lobby areas of the venue. Our guests loved the 'four seasons' idea and thought it was clever! She even showed up to capture photos at our tea ceremony on the morning of since we didn't have our wedding photographers come till later on in the mid-day. She was so nice to come and take photos for us. Highly recommend her!
http://www.tiffanytong.net/
Videographer - Pixel Seattle (A++): In prior to setting our budget, we had not discussed about having a videographer. We definitely didn't think too much about it until it got to be 7-8 months away from our big day and we went to the Seattle Wedding Show back last Jan. There we met with all of the videographers that were there and the one that caught our most attention was Pixel. Their personalities and style fitted perfectly with us. One thing that sold us was that they provided unlimited hours to follow you around anywhere you went. They have a team of four videographers which two follows the groom and the other two follows the bride. They showed up at my parents' (where I got ready) at 7am to film the bridesmaids and I getting ready. We had a tea ceremony early so they drove from the east side to seattle and then back to the east side for our ceremony/reception. That day was really trafficky and had some traffic jams but they didn't mind at all. They wanted to capture every moment and they literally followed us everywhere. They started from 7am and ended at midnight. Amazing for the price and they also provide same-day edits to the package so during dinnertime, they worked hard to finish editing up our same-day edit video and showed it to us that night! I cried just watching it and it was just that half-day that flew past us. Well worth stretching our budget for. I am so glad we were convinced to get a videographer because you will not remember everything that goes on. It will go by quickly!
http://www.pixelseattle.com/
Dress (Bride and BMs) - I Do Bridal (A): I searched high and low for THE dress. I had my first appt at I Do and went through about 15 dresses and was hestitate between two of them. I came back for a second appt and found out one of them was sold and the other was available. I didn't have my heart set on it anymore and decided to try on more dresses. After the 10th dress, I almost gave up because none of them fitted my petite body right and looked off. My consultant, Mary Catherine was super helpful and made sure I didn't give up. On the last dress, she told me she had it in mind but waited till I was completed with the dresses that I had picked myself. She pulled it out and clipped me into it and it was perfect! It was exactly what I was looking for and can't beat it for under $1k too. How great is that? When I received my actual dress, I didn't even need much alterations because the size she chose fitted my body perfectly. I was thrilled! I came back with all of my BMs to choose their dresses and within that hour we were able to find the dress all three girls liked a lot and the price was hard to beat. And it matched my color, Tiffanys blue. It's hard to find a BM dress in that color. -_-
http://www.idobridal.com/I_Do_Bridal/Home.html
Alterations - Darcy Martin (B+): I was recommended to Darcy from I Do Bridal because the dress I chose had a very fragile lace trim and they told me Darcy can definitely work with it because all I needed was a hem, bustle, and cups sewn in. So I didn't want to take any chances for another person to alter it so I went with Darcy. I had to schedule three appts for my dress fitting. Somehow during the first two appts, they didn't measure the length out correctly and it would still be long even though I was wearing the right shoes... I almost got frustrated. I panicked and even bought another pair of shoes that had a higher heel just in case. I requested for another fitting just so I can make sure the length was ok. It was still a tad longer and I was less than a month away! I just told Darcy to please hem up another inch and despite her hestitation on doing so, she did it and it was actually the right length with my shorter heels! I didn't get to try it on when I picked it up because she was busy and it was already two days away so I found out on the day of whether the length was right. I took a huge risk on that but it worked! Whew! I also went with Darcy for my BMs' dresses because they each needed a hem as well. Overall the prices were reasonable and her location is far out in Mill Creek/Lynnwood so it was quite a drive for me each time.
http://www.projectwedding.com/vendor/show/fragile-fit-darcy-martin
Cake - Mike's Amazing Cakes (A): Sent them an email on the cake I wanted ours to look like and made it look exactly to it. I was impressed. All I had to provide was the ribbon for each tier and they took care of the rest. Their base prices were lower than other bakers we checked around with plus we had a Seattle Wedding Show discount which helped! Their delivery fee was only $50 because they are based in Redmond delivering to downtown Bellevue, not bad.
http://www.mikesamazingcakes.com/
Florist - Valentina's Floral Design (A+): Jing is super sweet! She's only been in the business for a few years but her work looks lke she's done it forever. She listens to your details and puts together a beautiful centerpiece. She even has great suggestions if you want to save some money. Her visions are well put-together. I was really happy on what I saw that day. Even our bouquets was more than I had accepted and couldn't be happier. Her prices were lower than other florists and she buys her flowers from wholesaler which provides the freshest flowers that week. We had some of our guests take home the pomander balls we used for both ceremony and reception and they loved it. Oh! And at the last min, I had to add some more changes and Jing was able to add it in even though she already put in the flower order for me. I couldn't thank her enough.
Tux Rental - Tuxedo Club - (A): Bob the owner was extremely knowledgable when we first met him at the Seattle Wedding Show. PLUS he had a great wedding show discount that even Mens Warehouse or the Tux Shop couldn't beat. Each of the tux we rented included everything except for the socks and underwear (as Bob said). The tuxes were great quality material even the cuff links were nice! We had to order eight tuxes and we were able to get my hubby's tux for free and his was the most 'pricey' tux too! Bob was able to find the right Tiffanys Blue ties for each of the groomsmen and even found the right tux for the little ring bearer. We were very happy with the customer service and how fast they were able to get our tuxes in and have the fitting go seamlessly. All the guys were able to pick up their tuxes fast and return without any issues.
http://tuxedoclubkirkland.com/
Thanks for letting me share and good luck with your planning!
