Hi Knotties-
I was married this last Saturday, and wanted to do vendor reviews becuase they helped me so much when I was doing my planning. I thought everything was fantastic and it was in no small part because of the terrific vendors we used.
Food-The Cooperage A+- People have been raving about the food! It was great. The service was fantastic, they were so easy to work with, and compared to the other caterers I talked to, they were very reasonably priced. Really, I couldn't recommend them more.
Venues: Hotel Albuquerque for the ceremony. A+ They were easy to work with, the venue is beautiful, and they are on top of it. We were married in the chapel, and their was another wedding scheduled for the same time as ours in the pavillion. (this may bother some people, so it's good to know) But I don't think that either wedding even noticed one another, that's how good they are!
New Mexico Museum of Natural History for the reception- A+ The venue was gorgeous. Beverly the wedding coordinator was super great, and everyone seems to have had a blast, especially the kids. They have a room that you can you use for on-site babysitting. You can choose to have the museum exhibits open during the reception. We even had docents in the naturalist room so our guests could go in and hold the animals, etc. I loved it because it was beautiful decorated at night, and it was so memorable for people. We were worried that all of the distractions might keep people off the dance floor but that didn't appear to be the case. (The aucostics can be funny...see DJ review)
Flowers-Melba's Flowers A+ Melba is fantastic. She is so sweet, and she does a beautiful job, and looks out for your budget. Our flower arrangements were gorgeous and smelled fantastic. I love Melba and her staff!
Cake- Just a Bite Bakery A+- I had read online that a couple of people have had not so great experiences with just a bite, but I went with them anyway because they make the only frosting that I actually like eating. We did a cake as the centerpiece at each table, so they were a definate focal point. They were beautiful and delicious! We ordered a different flavor of cake for each table and then encouraged our guests to mingle and share with ohter tables. A couple of people went table to table to try all the different flavors. We got rave reviews about the cake. We took some home from the reception and now we have guest coming over asking if there is any left! Good job Just a Bite!
DJ- Evan's DJ Service and lighting- A-
Evan is great to work with. He's on the ball and listens and is really familiar with all the different wedding traditions etc. The aucostics in the museum were wierd so even though Evan was on top of things, people had a hard time hearing his announcements during the cocktail hour and during dinner. They gave us a house mic. for toasts, and that was fine. The lighting was beautiful, and I thought his prices were great, especially because he does all of his own events. We didn't want to end up with someone we hadn't even met being the dj.
Photographer-Autumn Oglesbee ??- We hired her out of Craigslist and really liked her style of photography. She has been great to work with and literally stayed til the end of the night, but since we haven't actually seen the pictures yet (it's only 2 days later) I can't give her a grade.
Those are the big ones.
Rentals- Garcia Tents-B +-easy to work with, reasonably priced, we used them at the very last minute and everything went smootley, but service on the phone wasn't always the most reassuring.
Officiant-Alison Owens- A
We found Alison on the Alumnni Chapel website. I really liked her. It helped that she was really on top of things because sometimes I wasn't. We wrote our own ceremony (based on some examples she gave us and some web searches) and she performed it and we got so many compliments on how meaningful if was. She was late to the rehearsal, but traffic was bad that day, so she wasn't the only one! It made us nervous because she didn't have the updated names of people doing readings and so on at the rehearsal, but in the end she did a really great job, and we got the ceremony we wanted. It was perfect.
I think that is all. Thank you past knotties for all your help. I wouldn't have known about most of these vendors if it weren't for this board. And to the knotties that are still planning- all the best to you during this time and on your big day!