Viva Las Cake Pops and Retro Bakery: A+
VLCP was so great to work with. It was a very last minute order (like 3 days prior) and Jackie and Ashley were very accommodating. They were willing to pick up an a 6 inch round cake top at Retro and put it all together with 70 cake pops into a cake pop tower and deliver it to the HOB for less than $250. The cake pops were delicious, too! We got red velvet cake w cream cheese frosting. SO GOOD!
Angie Kelly of Peachy Keen Unions: A+
She was a dream to work with. We skyped with her a couple times before the wedding, and I filled out a worksheet to help her make our ceremony unique and "ours". She also suggested a "ring warming" ceremony that I loved! My guests are still talking about what a cool idea that was. It was a very hectic day and she was a breath of fresh air! She took care of everything with the marriage license after the ceremony, too. I would recommend her to anyone who wants something out of the ordinary for their non-stuffy ceremony She also does same-sex ceremonies which I think is VERY COOL!
House of Blues, Crossroads Room for ceremony, and reception part 1:
Jon and I had our hearts set on this place for our reception from day 1. We ended up having our ceremony here as well when I found out that we could. They set up the Crossroads room for us and the atmoshpere was PERFECT. It was everything I wanted for the "look" of our wedding. I dealt with Amber Zeller through the majority of the planning process, and she was great about responding to emails and getting my questions answered. They were some things I wish had been handled better, but I won't mention them bc 1) they have to with money and 2) probably partly my fault as well.
Our guests were given the option of NY strip, rosemary chicken, or pesto penne pasta. I have heard everything was really good. I got the steak, but I wasn’t really able to eat any of it bc of nerves, but the few bites I did have weren’t very good. Everyone else I spoke that had it said it was very good, so idk if it was me, or if people were just being polite when they said it was good. I tasted the pasta and it was really good.
It was an open bar and the drinks were still strong! I was drinking “Tequila Neat” all night and the bartender made no issue of it (eventhough shots were not included in the bar package). I was actually sipping it, though, not shooting it.
*A little FYI: The House of Blues has a big venue for live music and also a bunch of other little rooms w/ stages for smaller acts. Kid Rock was playing a show the night before, and the night of my wedding in the big auditorium. *
DJ Godzilla: BIG EFFING F!!!
I don’t know wtf is wrong with this dude, but he had the audacity to come into the “holding room” where I was waiting with my bridesmaids, just moments away from walking down the aisle, and say “Sorry I was late, I had a really rough day. My equipment got mixed up with Kid Rock’s, so I don’t have all the music you wanted for your ceremony. I hope what I do have will be okay.”
First of all, YOU’RE having a rough day? I am getting f**king married in 2 minutes and it is taking everything in me not puke on my dress right now. 2) Your <$1k worth of equipment got mixed up with Kid Rock’s ? Do you seriously think I am a f**king moron? 3) Get your dumbass out of my dressing room and play some f**king music for my guests ASSSHOLE!!!!
I still don’t even know what songs my bridal party entered to, but it wasn’t anything that was listed on the program. Then he played some GAWD-awful version of ‘Here comes the bride’ for me to walk the aisle to, which is the last thing I wanted, but I got over it quickly as I saw Jon at the other end of the aisle.
Fast forward through the ceremony, and on to the cocktail hour… he did alright with this music. Nothing too fast, but nothing too slow.
Next up dinner music: He played “I’m sexy and I know it” during dinner. That’s when I had my MOH go tell him to slow it down a bit for the duration of dinner. He did… he played some stupid, sappy-ass country love song. I was VERY clear in the very beginning that I didn’t want ANY COUNTRY AT ALL!!!! Jon hates it, and I think it all sounds the same. We didn’t want it! So my MOH goes back up there to tell him no country… and what does he do? He stops the song abruptly in the middle and cuts to another sappy-ass country song. WTF, dude? Eventually he got it through his airhead that slow, dinner music does not mean country love songs.
Next up, first dance! Our song is Harvest Moon by Neil Young, Guess what! DJ F**ktart doesn’t have it. Thankfully one of my guests (MC) is a computer whiz and was able to play it on his phone and hook it up to DJ’s equipment for our dance. Well I guess there was some technical difficulties bc the song stopped and started over 3 different times. Eventually Jon and I just quit dancing. He also didn’t have the Mother/Son song, Father/Daughter, bouquet toss, or cake cutting song. He did have the garter removal song. He offered to give us half our money back since we had paid in full upon booking him. We took it, but it really doesn’t help the situation at all.
DON’T BOOK THIS DOUCHBAG!!!
House of Blues, Courtyard Room, for reception part 2:
The reason Jon and I wanted our reception at HOB so badly is bc we love live blues music. I had been told that we could have the reception in the courtyard room and that there would be some kind of blues BAND playing in there the night of our wedding from 9-12. SO WE PLANNED OUR ENTIRE WEDDING AROUND THIS FACT!!! Our ceremony was to start at 5:30, cocktail hour 6-7, dinner 7-8, 8-9 cake cutting, bouquet, garter, first dances and then at 9pm everyone would move into the Courtyard room for the BAND.
Well at 9pm we were all ushered in the courtyard and instead of a BLUES BAND, there was a single dude on stage with an acoustic guitar, I was so PISSED! At this point there was too much that had gone wrong with the music at my wedding, so I started drinking a lot of tequila.