Hubby and I were married on 4/23 at the East Lake Woodlands Country Club in Oldsmar, FL. It was a sunny, warm day and almost everything went off perfectly, at least to my knowledge!
Ceremony & Reception- East Lake Woodlands Country Club Oldsmar, FL A+
Paul is the venue coordinator and he was wonderful to work with. There was no need for me to hire a wedding coordinator because Paul took care of everything! We designed our own centerpieces and he actually set them all up for us based on my detailed instructions. He was very serious about sticking to the timeline the day of and even got on the photographers case when we were taking too long with pictures after the ceremony. I wasn’t even aware of how long we were taking so it was good to have someone who kept good track of it! Paul was truly a blessing throughout the entire wedding planning process.
Flowers- Northside Florist Tampa, FL A+
Kathy was absolutely wonderful and you really couldn’t beat her prices! The flowers were absolutely beautiful, better than I had imagined! Kathy also decorated our arch with an arrangement on the top and white fabric and silk ivy…it was perfect! She even stayed to help pin on all the bridal party flowers. She was wonderful to work with and really knows what she is doing!
Hair and Makeup- My friend and her assistant A-
My friend, Melissa, did the hair and makeup for myself and the bridesmaids and my mother. She works for Destiny and Light but she worked our wedding on her own. She did such an amazing job! Due to the large group, she brought a friend to help with the makeup. Her friend did a good job except she ran over her time for each girl and then never finished my mom’s makeup, which was a bit upsetting. My mom ended up finishing her own makeup right before we had to leave. Everything worked out in the end though.
Photo/Video/DJ- Celebrations of Tampa Bay A+
Celebrations was absolutely wonderful!!!! Johnna Brynn was our photographer and she was absolutely amazing! She put up some preview shots on her blog and I can’t believe how good they are! I can’t wait to get the rest of the pics in the next couple of weeks!
London was our videographer. For being so young, he did such an amazing job! He was all over the place during the reception but never where I really noticed him or felt him being obtrusive. From what I could tell, he was getting some really good shots.
Randy is the owner of the company and was our DJ and 2nd videographer during the ceremony. He really knew how to get everyone onto the dance floor! He had tons of props and crazy hats to wear. Even got my hubby and the best man decked out to dance to Michael Jackson!!! It was great! He also handled a very awkward moment for us during the anniversary dance when hubby’s aunt was dancing with the best man (not her husband) and she is separated from her husband for many years now but still counted it as being married. We really wanted my parents to ‘win’ the anniversary dance because we gave the longest married couple the throw bouquet instead of doing the bouquet and garter toss. He really handled it wonderfully without us even having to say anything to him! Gave him an extra tip for that one!!!!
Cake- Publix Bakery A+
Our cake was beautiful! It tasted so good that even my mother, who doesn’t like cannolis, loved it! We had a marble cake with cannoli and chocolate chip filling. No one could believe that it had come from a grocery store. They delivered it on time and I couldn’t have been happier!
Wedding Dress- David’s Bridal B+
I know many girls have had bad experiences at David’s but I had a great one! My tip: never go on a weekend! They are so busy!!! Also, ask for Jenny when you make your appointment. She was amazing and such a big help! I gave it a B+ though because of how expensive their alterations are. I took my dress somewhere else for alterations because of that!
Alterations- Emelina’s Bridal and Boutique/ Alterations and Creations A+
They did such a good job on my dress! Very helpful with trying to decide on a bustle and teaching how to bustle the dress to one of my bridesmaids. They had great prices, especially for being a bridal shop!!
Tuxedos- Men’s Wearhouse A-
All the guys looked great in their tuxedos! However, when we set up our account everything seemed great. About two months later, we decided to switch the shirts to ivory so I go to the store to make the changes. The only tuxedo registered was the groom. All the groomsmen’s names were in the system but nothing was listed for them. Luckily I remembered what we had picked out so it was easily fixed. If I had not gone to change the shirt color, we never would have known until the guys went to order the tuxes!