Hi ladies! I hope everyone is enjoying their wedding planning! I've been MIA posting over on The Nest but I thought it was about time to put up my reviews. I've also included a pic from our wedding day. Here ya go!
Carol Lucara (Wedding Coordintor) A+
Carol is a close friend of one of my BMs and is starting out in the business. I "hired" (she didn't actually charge me anything) her initially to coordinate my wedding day but she did SO MUCH MORE! Carol was my backbone the last few weeks before the wedding. She is extremely thorough and made our day so special. I was truly able to relax and enjoy our day knowing that she had everything covered.
Acalia (Venue, Catering) A-
Acalia was fabulous! We had a few sanfus, one including miscommunication about how many actual people would seat comfortably inside the venue, leaving me to make last minute phone calls confirming people. However, they were extremely flexible and accommodating toward our needs, or whatever we wanted. They took care of absolutely everything! Included in our rental fee were chairs, tables, linens, dishes, drinkware, and silverware. They have on-site catering and the food was delicious! Everyone raved about our appetizers! They also provided us with a Beer/Wine package that allowed us to choose two reds, two whites, and two beers… whatever we wanted. They ordered a decorative piece that we realized last minute that we needed. Although our indoor wedding of 71 people worked out well, I would definitely recommend this venue if you have a bit smaller wedding or would like to use their outdoor area for a spring or summer wedding.
Bonus: They packed us a “To-Go” box for our wedding night which included portions from our meal, two slices of cake, two plastic champagne glasses, and a small bottle of champagne. They also followed up after the wedding with a thank you card. Awesome!
Rebecca Jane Photography (Photography) A
Rebecca did a great job. She showed up approximately an hour before formal picture time to take a few last minute “getting ready” pictures. She was completely professional and stayed the extra hour or so I asked her to stay in the evening. Our pictures took about 4 weeks to be completely edited and loaded onto the website. The quality was excellent and so were her prices! I feel like we got a steal on our pictures for the price we paid.
Kelli’s Cake Creations (Cake) A
Delicious! Amazing! We ate the entire cake! Our cake looked beautiful and I swear, I have never had a creamier, more buttery buttercream icing than Kelli’s. Nor, have I ever had a more moist cake, which was still moist 2 days later. Our cake flavors were white with lemon filling, champagne with raspberry filling and almond with Bavarian cream filling. I will definitely be purchasing cakes from her for future events and celebrations.
Shelby Miller (Bridal Hair) A+
Shelby is a family friend who I have trusted to cut my hair for years. So, of course I trusted her for my wedding hair. She currently works at Blanc N Schwartz Salon in Kent. She did a fabulous job and even though we were running short on time, my hair turned out perfectly. She spent lots of time with me and my bridesmaisd, arriving at our hotel very early in the morning. Here rates are EXTREMELY reasonable.
David’s Bridal (Dress, Shoes) B
I didn’t have any horror stories like other people have had at DB. I found the Southcenter staff to be extremely accommodating and flexible. I give them a B for two reasons: 1) I wasn’t completely thrilled with the way the hem of my dress turned out, but at the wedding nobody noticed or cared, including me. 2) They kinda lost my shoes, but not really. I had left them to be dyed when my dress was altered and the alterations specialist never filled out a dye slip. My shoes were found, and dyed, in time for the wedding and they didn’t charge me the $3.00 dye fee.
Amber Hyatt (Make-Up) Incomplete
I wish I could give Amber a review, but I can’t. I found her on Craigslist and she came to my house for a make-up trial. My make-up turned out really lovely and she left that day not charging me a deposit because she felt like she trusted me to hire her for my wedding day on my word. A week or two before the wedding I e-mailed her to confirm the date, time, and place for make-up and she confirmed back to me.
Fast forward to the morning of the wedding. Amber is supposed to be there at 10:00am but she doesn’t arrive. At 10:45 I text her to find out if she’s coming and she lets me know that she had written down my wedding for a different date. So, needless to say I can’t really give a review. I think she would do excellent work and that it was truly and honest, unfortunate mistake. She was extremely apologetic. Luckily, my BM had brought a ton of make-up so we figured it out.
Hotel Monaco (Bridal Suite) A-
Lovely, very friendly hotel! My BMs and I stayed here the night before the wedding and everyone was accommodating and made our stay very comfortable. Room service is a bit pricey, though.
Hotel 1000 (Wedding Night) A+
FI (now DH) and I stayed here for our wedding night and it was absolutely wonderful! Upon arrival, the valet offered me a red rose. During check in we were both offered free champagne and automatically upgraded to a huge suite. The room is gorgeous and the bedroom was separate from the living area, which made it extremely dark and allowed us to rest up and get a good night’s sleep. Room service was reasonably priced, much better than Monaco. We have decided we want to stay here on our 1st anniversary. WELL worth the money!
Costco (Flowers) A-
Hundreds of white roses! They came packaged nicely and saved us a huge amount of money for our DIY flowers. Actually, my aunt left some in her garage and they were STILL perfect a few weeks, yes weeks, later!
Oasis of the Seas – Royal Caribbean (Honeymoon) A+ We had a BLAST! Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Maarten… so romantic! Even though this ship is enormous and has 6,000 guests or some crazy number, it is so big and efficient that you barely notice. They offer special newlywed things like a free bottle of wine, a newlywed reception, and free internet access. Take a cruise if you can!
Here's us, a little blurry...
