I've had these typed up for a few days, but I couldn't find my flash drive, so I've been waiting.
Coordinator: Meredith Commender (Significant Events of Texas) A+
WOW. I could not have asked for more. I hired Meredith for full-service coordination because, aside from having no concrete vision for my wedding/reception, I teach, which is pretty much a 10-hours-a-day job. Meredith recommended all kinds of vendors to me, including DJ, photographer, and florist, and she basically ran point between me and several of the vendors from whom I really had no clue what I needed, including our reception venue. She answered every text with love and confidence, she explained everything to me in great detail, and she fought hard for everything we wanted. She negotiated a private tasting with Cityplace (which they apparently don’t do), she got a ton of flowers for our centerpieces for free, and every vendor she recommended gave me a discount just for knowing her. I can’t say enough about her expertise as a coordinator. She was with me every step of the way, talking me down from my little freak-outs, keeping a drink (mostly water) in my hand all night, and just providing lots of love and hugs all along the way. She’s become so much more than a vendor to me – she is a friend, and I am sad to see the end of our working relationship because I’m afraid it means I’ve lost my excuse to text her at 4am. =(
Photographer: Stefanie Hampton Morrow A+
So, when I first met with Meredith, she made up an inspiration board for me (I think the pic is in my bio) and then after I hired her and asked her for photography recs, she sent out the inspiration board to a few of her favorite photographers. She linked me to Stefanie’s page, and I liked her work, so she was on my list of people to call, but I didn’t have to. One day during my conference period, I noticed I had a voicemail. It was this adorable message from Stefanie telling me she had seen my inspiration board, had totally nerded out over it, and could she please please please shoot my wedding? I almost hired her sight-unseen right there. The day of the wedding I hadn’t seen her since our initial consultation, but she greeted me with the BIGGEST hug and then got right to work. I can only describe her as an extremely hyped up pixie – she talks a mile a minute, she’s got a million ideas, but she always worked us into great photos. I haven’t seen any, except a few she showed me, but it was so great working with her. She doesn’t get much love on this board, so I’m really hoping some other girls will consider it. She was worth every penny!
Save-the-Dates/Escort Cards/Table Numbers: Heather Stoner (distinguishedinvites) B-
Our save-the-dates were a HUGE hit – Trivial Pursuit-themed, and she even threw in this neat engraved wood card for us to keep. If that was all she’d done, her grade would be so much higher. A few weeks ago I asked her to also make our table numbers and escort cards (periodic table-themed). Despite emailing, facebook-messaging, and Etsy-messaging, I had a hard time hearing back from her on occasions, and so we ended up being right down to the wire on this, to the point that I had to make a very rushed approval of the proof she sent me (and that’s MY fault – I should have taken my time). When the proofs arrived, H noticed that the atomic symbols for Xenon and Neon were incorrect (one was my mistake, the other was hers). We also realized we were short two elements, and then we found out the atomic symbol for Palladium was correct on the table number, but incorrect on all the escort cards. Again, I should have taken my time in approving, BUT, I emailed her about this on Monday (October 31) and did not hear back from her until Wednesday (November 2), at which point it was too late for her to even make new ones for me. I know much of the fault lies with me in approving the proof (which she was sure to point out to me), but I just felt very let down. It was as though she wrote me off as soon as my money was in her account.
Invitations: Danielle Marino (Now the invitation designer for Significant Events – Significantly Said) A+
In addition to invitations, Danielle stepped in at the last second to fix the table number problem, finding the time during some other big projects she was working on to make up new ones. She started on them Wednesday and I picked them up from Meredith on Thursday. It was amazing!
Now, the invitations. Invites were a huge hassle for me. I wanted just simple and inexpensive, but MIL reeeally wanted nice, letterpress invitations, so she offered to pay for them. I finally convinced her that 325 letterpress invitations were actually outrageously expensive, so I set to work finding something that was equally beautiful. I had the worst time, ending with some “graphic artists” in Uptown actually having the nerve to ask for four thousand dollars for a design “experience,” and then they’d make me some invitations. So I did what I do, and called Meredith. Danielle was just starting out at the time, but her work was amazing. She designed beautiful lace-wrapped invitations in our color scheme (even incorporated a logo one of my bridesmaids designed) for under a thousand (which, with our guest list, was all I’d hoped for). She also designed our thank-you cards, which I will post a picture of later, but they spell out the words “Thank You” using elements from the periodic table (and since there’s no “A,” she made up an element using our names and wedding date – perfect).
DJ: Cratin Sheffield (LeForce Light and Sound) A+
Just an amazing guy to work with. Another person with whom I feel like I’ve become friends. We play Hanging with Friends together, we share incredibly nerdy references on Facebook, and we cheer for our Baylor Bears together. The day of the wedding, he had the whole place going the whole time, almost. He even worked in some of the obscure songs my DH requested, which made us incredibly happy. Once dinner was over and it was time to party, he literally had the dance floor packed all. night. I was amazed. After it was over, he even checked football scores for us and showed me a picture of the new stadium Baylor is building. Everyone commented on how great he was and how much fun they had.
Alterations: Becky Fowler A+
What can be said that hasn’t been said? My dress is all lace, and Becky had to make it about an inch shorter. Rather than cut off the bottom tier of lace, she hand-tacked the whole row up to the second row, in a way that one could not tell it had been done if one was not told. And all for a ridiculously low price. She also worked me in WAY early, as I did not want to be driving out to Irving once school started. And she worked two of my bridesmaids in (including an incredibly pregnant one) about three weeks out. I just adore her.
Ceremony: Christ the King – Can you rate a church?
Amazing. The coordinator there (Colleen) LOVED Meredith and wanted her there every step of the way. She invited our photographer and videographer to the rehearsal so they could get a feel of where they needed to get pictures. She ran the rehearsal without sounding like a Nazi. She got us everything we could need on the day of, even handling a huge mix up with the music director. He had apparently forgotten that I’d asked for one of my bridesmaids to be the cantor (even though I have emails from him stating when he’d practice with her, et cetera), so the day of, she’d still not seen any music. So Colleen was a rockstar and liaised between us and the music director, then found my bridesmaid some music so she could practice, and all went off without a hitch. At one point in the ceremony I saw the music director at the back of the church waving his arms frantically, apparently telling the bridesmaid to move over to the harp AT THAT MOMENT to sing, and it was distracting, but only the people on the altar noticed (and maybe not all of them). As for Father Tony – WOW. He’s just an amazing priest and we are so blessed that he agreed to celebrate our marriage. We've love being members at CTK -- Cathy Hare, the Pastoral Associate, has been a wonderful, loving mother figure since the day we met her and we are very fortunate to be a part of this community.
Reception: Cityplace A+
We ended up with way more people coming than we expected, so at the last minute, we had to move from the ballroom to the loft (same floor, different views of Dallas). I was heartbroken – the ballroom had the views of downtown, it was gorgeous. So Meredith actually got them to agree to let us use the ballroom for cocktail hour, and then keep it open all night so our guests could see downtown after the sun went down. The food was AMAZING – our guests all went back for extras, the risotto station was a huge hit (one guest said she had that for dessert). The booze flowed freely, and I’m pretty sure they worked in some cocktails that we didn’t pay for, which was, well, awesome. They prepared plates for us so that we didn’t have to go through the line, and if I hadn’t been so amped up, I’m sure I would have really enjoyed sitting down and eating it. 
They also made us a cute to-go basket with champagne (chilled), plastic glasses, two water bottles, grapes, cheese, crackers, and granola bars. If we hadn’t been exhausted, we would have torn into it right away. Alas, we did not realize there were perishables in there until about 9 Sunday night, so we lost the grapes and the cheese. Several people told me it was the best wedding/reception they’d ever attended. I originally was afraid we were spending way too much on Cityplace, but it was so worth every penny.
Rehearsal Dinner: Times Ten Cellar/Celebration Catering A+
DH and I love Times Ten, so this was actually one thing we knew we wanted – rehearsal dinner there. We showed up the day before the RD for a tasting (which we found out was included in what the ILs paid!), and even though they were packed because of an event, the two girls working that night kept us well-stocked with wine. As far as the actual RD, they were great. We invited around 85 people and ended up with close to 70, I think, and no one ever wanted for anything. The wine was a huge hit (by the time we got to the RD they were apparently down to one bottle of our favorite viognier). The dinner was great. Celebration has this amazing chicken lasagna… I think I had two plates-full. It’s like crack. Eat some. Now.
Video: Jeff Coombes A+
I love Jeff and Amanda. We had a mixup where I told Jeff the wrong time to be at the church, and then when I found out I was wrong, I had neither my computer nor my phone, so I couldn’t correct myself. Luckily they were already at the church doing some shooting, so they just hopped right in and got to work! They were so professional, and I often forgot they were even there. My grandparents ended up not being able to make it, so this video is going to be their way of experiencing the wedding, and I am so happy we got such a talented team.
Floral: Out of the Garden A
Another Meredith rec. I really wasn’t sold on flowers until the actual day of the wedding. I just don’t get flowers. Happily, when they showed up, everything was gorgeous. The bouquets (though HEAVY) were beautiful and the table arrangements were amazing. I wished I could have kept one. They were a pleasure to work with, although our original consult was with one woman, who then handed me off to someone else without really leaving any notes. Fortunately, this was one of the vendors Meredith coordinated, so she dealt with the hiccups and everything was awesome. They wholesale their flowers, so they always have a stocked freezer with samples of what they can do – they are great for a consultation!
Hair/Makeup: Angie Williams A+
Dude, this girl is too cute. I do not know hair, so I basically asked her what all my bridesmaids should look like. She asked me a few questions and then got to work, and all the girls looked absolutely beautiful. My hair and makeup was great (and didn’t run when I cried sixty times), and she REALLY did a number on my mom. Everyone complimented her on how great she looked.
Hotels: Doubletree/Palomar B-/A
Setting up a block at the Doubletree and actually staying there was great. The sales girl who handled my account was not. There was a mistake where our e-events page (a site created by the hotel for our guests to book their rooms) said the cutoff date was November 1, but the hotel released all our unsold rooms on October 20. I didn’t know about the mixup until really close to the wedding, and when I tried to clear it up, the sales girl acted like she really didn’t care if any of us had a place to stay. I was quite disappointed. Fortunately, she works behind a desk for a reason, and all of the staff with whom we dealt was more than pleasant. The girl who checked us in sounded so excited that I was there for my wedding that I almost invited her to come just so she could see everything. I was just really annoyed that some of our guests had to find some other place to stay.
I didn’t stay at the Palomar, but ILs and some of their friends did, and it was gorgeous. ILs also reserved some sitting area in the restaurant for an afterparty, which was lovely, but by that time we were too tired to enjoy. Everyone who was there said it was incredible.
Gown: Mockingbird Bridal A-
LOVE my dress. LOVE my consultant Maggie. DID NOT love the elderly Asian alterations woman pinching my stomach and telling me to lose an inch so I’d fit in the size they were ordering for me.
I think I got all the big'ns. Jeff said he hoped to have our highlight video by today or tomorrow, so I'll be sure to post it when I have my hands on it.