Hope these help some of you who are deciding on vendors (or help you feel better about vendors you've already booked).
Rating Key:
Recommended--If I were planning my wedding all over again, I'd book them without hesitation.
Highly Recommended--Vendor went above and beyond. Exceeded expectations.
Super Star Vendor--If I were planning my wedding again, I wouldn't do it without this vendor.
Cake: Cake Lava
Recommended
Yummy flavors. Beautiful design. Excellent communication during the planning process. What more could you want?
Catering: Poke Stop
Super Star Vendor
We both felt that the caterer was the most important wedding-related decision. We wanted to treat our guests to a fabulous, beautiful meal. Elmer is an amazing chef and one of the nicest, warmest people I've met. We didn't change anything on the menu after our tasting, because it was perfection. The guests LOVED the food. The sushi bar was a huge hit, and the dinner was the highlight of the night. It tasted amazing, and the presentation was impeccable. The servers were CRAZY GOOD. There weren't that many of them, but they were everywhere. I called them the waiter ninjas.
Ceremony and Cocktail Music: Slack Key Guitarist Jon Basebase
Recommended
Jon learned three songs for the ceremony that I requested, and he performed them beautifully. I was surprised by how full he sounded with his audio equipment. His voice and guitar sounded even better in person than in his demo. His cocktail hour selections struck just the right tone. Great value for the price.
DJ: Troy Michael
Recommended
Great song selections. Our guests were on the dance floor from the first song to the last. His website is user-friendly, and he followed through with all of our requests.
Floral and Event Design: Yvonne Floral
Highly Recommended
Yvonne and her team did an amazing job. They brought all the ideas in my head and in my bio to life, and the result was stunning. I was blown away (and so were our guests).
Transportation: TPT
Recommended
Coco is easy to get in touch with. On the day of the wedding, the driver showed up with the wrong bus--not quite big enough for all our guests. I'm still recommending them, because they switched the bus in a flash and were professional and apologetic according to everyone I asked. Everyone got to Lani on time, and we started on time despite the mix-up.
Wedding Coordination: Sandra and Tristin from Finishing Touch
Super Star Vendor
I couldn't have planned this wedding without Sandra. She never got annoyed with my million detailed emails (well, maybe she got annoyed but she never let it show). She helped me with so many aspects of the wedding--from choosing vendors to timeline logistics to design elements. I'm so glad I had here there on the day of the wedding while we were deciding what to do about the rain plan. Thanks, Sandra!
I've only reviewed my Hawaii vendors. If you're interested in any of my other vendors, feel free to contact me. Someday I hope to get a married bio together, and I'll repost these reviews there.