Although I was not a frequent poster during my engagement, I definitely checked in on the boards from time to time especially for local vendors. I was really happy with all of my vendors, so just wanted to sharing some thoughts
Venue: The Heldrich Hotel, New Brunswick, NJ A+
I worked with Nicole and Andrew at the hotel. Nicole was there with me the day of and she was fantastic to work with. The Heldrich is a unique location, very modern and one wedding at a time. We wanted a hotel due to a large number of out of town guests.
We had 150 people and the ballroom fits up to 300, but they made the room look great. The uplighting package was not as expensive as other places and definitely added some drama. Also, people really liked their rooms and they do a really great block rate.
Invitation/Paper Designer: Wubby Designs (wubbydesigns.com) A+
Carolyn is a friend of a friend, and when I saw the friends invitations I knew I wanted to work with Carolyn. However, I also knew I was going to be a total stickler for invitations and paper and Carolyn far surpassed any expectations I had. I still am totally in love with the invitation suite she did for us. t wound up being just a really nice thing to have a totally custom invitation. Also, we had a sort of yankee theme underlying to our wedding and she was able to do the pinstripe motif in a totally classy way. Everything Carolyn did was incredible and those personal touches really made it a perfect day. Carolyn also did the "do not disturb signs" signs for the reception (signature drinks, guest book etc.) I felt like every other week I was turning around saying "do you think we can do this..do you think we can do that? and Carolyn never batted an eye.
Photography: Timothy Martin Photography A+
Tim is FANTASTIC! He is very artistic and on the day of our wedding it was close to 100 degrees but he was all over the place. We loved Tim's personality, he was so easy to work with. He already gave us a bunch of "teasers" and based on those alone I would absolutely recommend his work. You can see for yourself here:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/set=a.10151237587139972.557787.378520514971&type=1Make Up: Cristina Pignataro A+
I definitely paid close attention to the boards and reviews for this and they did not steer me wrong with Cristina. She is amazing and made everyone look absolutely stunningly gorgeous. I also loved that she was able to tailor the looks for each bridesmaid according to their preferences. Even with the heat and 100% humidity, my make up stayed flawless the entire night. I also did a trial from another artist who is very popular on these boards, and honestly it paled in comparison to Cristina. Amazing. I cant wait to have somewhere else to go to have Cristina do my make up again.
Video: Warger Productions A+
I will start by saying that Greg from Warger Productions was our best man. However, I do know alot of people getting married saying theyre not doing video because they dont want cameras all in their face or bright lights in their guests faces. I am telling you, it was not like that at all. I barely knew they were there for the most part. I have not seen our video yet but I will say that I have seen a ton of Greg's work and he really does capture all of the beautiful moments of your wedding day. His team is a really nice group of guys and they definitely do not feel "in your face". I am sooo excited to see the final product.
DJ: Elite Entertainment (Chris Monaco) A+
Chris is Incredible. Absolutely Absolutely AMAZING. Our experience with Elite overall was top-notch. They responded back to every email we sent right away. Meeting Chris was like talking to an old friend. He made us definitely feel like we were in good hands, musically. We really threw some curveballs at Chris with different song requests, but he was able to make everything work--I still have people telling me how they had blisters for a week from dancing so much--and funniest of all, am yet to hear of anyone who ate cake--since everyone was up dancing all night.
My dress: Castle Couture A
I was hesitant to go there at first because I thought everything would be super expensive but I was so surprised and I absolutely loved my dress (CB Couture) , and it was very reasonably priced. I will say that for a fairly simple dress it took 5 alteration appointments to get it so that the top of the dress fit (and I am a very average shaped person). But, in the end it looked amazing. Also, a word of advice, dont skimp on your bustle hooks. My bustle hook literally broke right after the first dance. But, I didnt want anything substantial on the back of my dress, so, kinda my own fault.
Mother's Dress: Hearts For You C/D
My mom had a terrific consultant who helped her find a dress, however, it all went downhill after that. When the dress arrived it was actually short--and my mother was told she should "get a shorter heel" and they actually said to her "look at your husband, he's not that tall" HORRIBLE customer service in my opinion. They ordered the dress way big, but didnt have the thought to order it for a taller person. After many alterations, the dress was fine for the day, but I really wasnt happy with them.
Bridesmaids Dresses: Bridal Suite of Hamilton A
Bridal Suite has a pretty tiny bridesmaids department but they really have a good selection. The trick is to go on Black Friday weekend they do a 25% off sale--we had the first appointment of the day--It gets crazy in there since its so tiny. But, I was happy my girls were able to save some money. All of the dresses came in before the expected date.
Just make sure to hold on to your paperwork--they can get a little disorganized.
Menswear: Jos. A. Bank A+
We started off at Men's Wearhouse in Freehold Mall, and I swear to you they could not take their eyes off the tv for a second to help us. Also, I wanted a gray tux and what they had was hideous. (Pre-Vera Wang). We went across the way to Jos A Bank and it was a different ballgame. Must better quality in my opinion. The night before our rehearsal dinner my husband decided his shirt was too tight, so he called them and they rush shipped the larger shirt to the closest store to us so that he would have it on the morning of the wedding. Overall really great experience and all of the groomsmen (in different locations and states) and the fathers were taken care of.
Rings: Roman Jewelers (Flemington, NJ) A+
My husband had a great experience with them picking out my engagement ring, and it is absolutely beautiful. He brought them in a ring I had showed him and they ordered the sample just so he could see it since they didnt carry that particular style. When we went in after we got engaged, his consultant was so happy to see him and even hugged me. It was nice to have that personal touch. They really helped him alot and were very helpful when we went back in to pick out our bands as well. Because it is a higher end store, you expect it to be more of a hard sell, but they really were wonderful.
Bridesmaids Gifts: Kreations by Anne Warren, NJ A+
I was able to find really pretty necklaces and earrings for my bridesmaids at Anne's boutique for really great prices. I saw the exact necklace I got there in a bridal store for double the price!
Photobooth: njphotobooths.com A+
We loved having the photobooth at our wedding! Its expensive but so worth it!!! People loved it! Adds such a fun element to the night. Im really excited because we get a disk of all of the pics. I cant wait to see them. Also, this photobooth just had the option inside for color or black and white (not sure if they all do) but it was nice to have the options.
Etsy Vendors:
I didnt wear a veil for my reception so I didnt want to spend alot, so, I ordered a plain 2 tier ivory fingertip veil from
Bella Bridal Veils. It was very simple, but my mom wasnt happy with it. So, we were able to get one from Castle Couture when they were having a sample sale. But really it was totally fine for under $70.
Silverpencils-I bought a beautiful fake flower that I wound up wearing in my hair after the veil came off. Really pretty and totally unlike anything else I had seen.
Itty Bitty Woodshop-Cake topper was AWESOME. They customize it to your photo and we had a yankee theme so they put a little yankee pinstripes under the grooms tux. It's awesome. Only thing, they process orders by wedding date, so this was the one item I was stalking my mail lady for three days before the wedding.
Clegg Farm Creations-Our card box was designed by them, it was incredible!!! They do houses that have a slot in the roof, and even customize them to your colors. Such an awesome addition to our wedding and people loved it.
Embroidery by Linda-I ordered a custom embroidered handkerchief as a gift for my mom. It came really fast and was just the perfect touch.
I think thats it! LIke I said, I found these boards very helpful in my planning and just wanted to pay it forward. Happy to give any further feedback!
Happy Planning :-)