We got married last Saturday at Sunset Station in downtown SA. I can't say enough great things about it. Our coordinator there was the absolute best. Elvi made me (the most frantic control freak) calm. I put my trust in her and her team and everything came out beautifully like I planned. The Dinner Captain was marvelous. Luis really took everything else into his hands and made it perfect. I found out he even set up the decorations for our cake table. It was beautiful.... then Elvi had to tell him he forgot my personalized table cloth (I painted in a similar fashion to the aisle runners on DIY). He apparently said "Are you kidding?". She had to tell him no to which he replied "It's ok. I'll fix it." It was great! He even put colored twinkle lights under the cake!
I had Mary Coop do my hair and makeup. She also did my bridal portraits and on the wedding day did Mom's makeup and two of my bridesmaids' hair. Everyone was so pleased with her work. It was so relaxing to have someone on site. I didn't have to worry about getting to the venue on time or anything. Mary is excellent and I recommend her to anyone still looking for a hair/makeup artist. She is so sweet and funny and put us all at ease. She looked at each of us getting hair or makeup and came up with the perfect styles on the spot. For mine, she matched my inspiration photo exactly!
Photography: Moving Pictures: Juan and Nancy Ibarra. EXCELLENT! Juan and Nancy are so nice to work with. They did our engagement photos, my bridal photos and our wedding. Nancy was unable to make it to the ceremony but they made sure we had another shooter in her place. I wasn't worried at all about it since I trust Juan and know he wouldn't lead us the wrong way. I have yet to see my wedding photos as it's only been a week, but I know I will love them the same way that I love my engagement and bridals. Juan and Nancy blended in so nicely David and I had no idea Juan was taking so many photos at the ceremony until we saw a friend's video posted this morning. I never even saw him. At the reception both Juan and Nancy were able to slip in and get photos without distracting the party. So many of our guests told me that when they were taking photos Juan or Nancy would quietly slip in and get a shot too. Everyone commented that they loved our photographers. I was so pleased to have picked photographers that blended in nicely and became part of the party instead of sticking out and being obtruesive like I've seen at so many weddings. It was a joy seeing their smiling faces at our wedding.
Nadler's Bakery. Before we were engaged I knew I wanted a Nadlers cake. We have them for every birthday and celebration and knew it would be delicious. The cake came out perfect. They only offer Chocolate and Vanilla (with a variety of fillings) but they do those so well that we didn't need different flavors. I have had several guest tell me they wished they could have some every day. The cake was perfectly light and just the right amount of sweet. The almond cream is just right for a wedding cake... the fruit fillings would be great too.
Eden's Echo. - Flowers. - I love Erin. She did such a great job with all our flowers. My SIL told me an aunt thought the flowers must be fake since they looked so perfect. She thought that only silk flowers would look so healthy since she is used to seeing signs of wilt with live flowers. Those comments made me laugh. Erin did a beautiful job with a huge variety of flowers. She was able to use creamy colored flowers and avoid all the white just like I requested. My dress was champagne colored and I didn't want any stark white anywhere. I was really impressed. Erin has a nack for using lots of different textures and not only flowers. I was delited to see the black lace (my girls wore black) on my bouquet stems and the black skeleton leave and peacock feather spears (the girls wore peacock feathers in their hair and they were in the alter pieces) around the outside. Everyone's favorite part was the monkey tail mixed in my bouquet. It was classic but also had a great hint of uniqueness. - We also had her make a toss bouquet since I didn't want to toss mine and didn't want to ask the bridemaids to give up theirs. I was amazed. I threw that thing from the second story pretty hard and it didn't even loose a petal.
Thank you to all my wonderful vendors!
As for my DJ.... I was going to have a live band (boyfriend of on of my bridesmaids) but that fell through as they would be travelling from Pittsburgh and were unable to make the trip due to some great gigs they couldn't pass up.
My dad hired DJ Masquerade. They were recommended my the venue and also did my sister's wedding. I was very pleased with Ernest (the owner) and put my faith in his team (they have several DJs). I ended up being incredibly disappointed in our DJ though. Elvi (Sunset's Coordinator) told me that she didn't think the guy who showed up was who he said he was. On the phone the week before the wedding I talked to our assigned DJ and was told that he's done lots of weddings at Sunset Station and was prepared. On the day though, he was asking my groom right before the ceremony where he was suppossed to set up. We had discussed this on the phone and he told me he knew where to set up and would be ready to go with our songs. I was almost a third of the way down the aisle and Dad asked me if I could hear the music. I didn't hear it until a few seconds later. I'm still not sure if he started it when we came in. No one heard it. At the reception he set up in the wrong place too. Elvi talked to him and told him that they usually set up in the opposite corner but he was already where he was. I only heard one of my must play songs the entire night and was told he was playing the dance songs during the cocktail hour. We took a CD with a couple of songs to be played. One of them was only played because my groom went up and told him it was the next to last song and he really wanted to hear his CD. My bridal party and guests had to come to me and tell me that they requested about 15 different songs and were told that he wasn't allowed to play them since "the bride doesn't want it". I had specific instructions on the forms that any requests were fine as long as they weren't offensive. Apparently every song from the 80's can be found offensive. I told the DJ to just play what they want. He didn't even look at me but said "Are you sure?" Finally he played some requested songs but didn't play any slow songs or any of my must play list. We were unable to understand him on the microphone and no one knew we were doing any of the important stuff until we walked around telling them. The only parts we could hear loud and clear were "This is Depot 1. Depot 1. House lights up" and another set of what I call backstage instructions. We were supposed to have a microphone when we came down the stairs but ended up shouting "Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming". To top it all off, the DJ was supposed to be in a suit but showed up in a white button down and jeans. I'm really disappointed with them. I wasn't really happy with them at my sister's wedding but figured it would be a different DJ and where she had requested more subdued we requested someone very lively. We didn't get lively at all. I have yet to talk to Ernest but right now I do not recommend DJ masquerade. Perhaps I just got a dud, but as much trust as I put in them... I was not pleased. The only negative comments from ALL of our guests have been about the DJ.
I hope this helps some of you ladies. As I said, most of my vendors were excellent. I will (and have) recommend them in a heart beat!
Congratulations and good luck on your weddings!