Hello! We just got married this past weekend at Lakeway Resort and I wanted to share some vendor reviews since I've gotten such great advice from this board
Lakeway Resort & Spa... A for the resort but C for our coordinator.
Loved everything about the actual venue (A+++ for the view and facility itself) but we weren't so happy with the service received. Our coordinator was pretty unresponsive and not as helpful as we hoped she would be. She started out great but was slow to respond to emails, hard to get a hold of through phone calls, and didn't always send us what we were asking for. We always felt like we were inconveniencing her or bothering her by asking her questions... we didn't even ask that many! Just basic questions and requests (requesting room list, asking for catering menu, scheduling a tasting) seemed difficult.
Getting room blocks here was a pain, too! We got a great rate through hotelplanner.com (MUCH cheaper than what our contact initially quoted us) for our room block, but then our Lakeway coordinator was in charge of securing rooms and sending us a room list. That part ended up being a lot more stressful than it should of been because of her.
We never received a floor plan of how the tables would be set up so our layout was COMPLETELY screwed up on the day of. She was having issues getting her software to work a week before the wedding and it's almost like she just gave up and didn't even bother to keep trying. Our day-of-coordinator (Rachel @ Buon Affare Events) was our lifesaver here - she mocked up a floor plan that we used to assign tables, and I know she did her best to make our assignments match the actual set-up, but there were still some major mistakes all because of Lakeway's incompetence.
We did our tasting 3 weeks prior to the wedding and had sent our menu selection months before that. We didn't get the final pricing/bill of our menu choices until THURSDAY before the wedding as we were driving to Austin. It ended up being more than we expected to pay but by that time we had our heart set on the menu and felt it was too late to make any substitutions or subtractions. Very disappointing.
The last straw was our cake. We had a huge cake - 6 tiers plus a large groom's cake - so that we could have generous portions for our guests. They sliced thin pieces for out guests and didn't have a lot left over so we aren't sure where the rest of our delicious cake ended up...
It really is a beautiful venue and I don't regret our choice to get married at Lakeway. Chuy and the rest of the staff were wonderful to deal with, we were just so disappointed with our catering manager/main contact.
Buon Affare Events - A+++!
Rachel was my lifesaver. BAE did a great job in helping us plan the flow & timing of the wedding (we received many compliments on how nicely everything flowed), they set the ballroom up nicer than I could have imagined, they took all my stress away on the actual day... we agree it's the best money we spent! I highly highly recommend Rachel and her team! We wouldn't have had as great of a wedding without her.
D&H Lighting - A+++!
D&H was actually a little pricier than Ilios when we were shopping for lighting, but we chose them because of their responsiveness and service. Ilios is the big dog in town but you can tell by how slow they are to respond and how hard they are to get in touch with. Daniel and Hilda met up with us twice before the wedding and were always available and willing to help.... I shipped something I bought online directly to D&H and it ended up being the wrong size. Hilda shipped it back for me and was SO nice and considerate about it! She even emailed me when she was on vacation with her children when I had a question about payment. They did an awesome job with our lighting and even hung some candles up in the ballroom for us. They really went the extra mile for us and we loved working with them! Love love love.
Pinspot lighting on the tables:
Dance floor pattern:
They gave us a free monogram for the entrance:
Simon Lee Bakery - A+++!
Seriously the best. cake. ever. Judy and Jad were so great to work with, very sweet and understanding. I changed my mind AT LEAST 5 times before I was set on what I wanted my cake to look like and she was so patient and helpful. We are still getting compliments on how beautiful AND delicious our cakes were. Simon Lee is the best in Austin, you can't go wrong.
My gorgeous cake:
And here is Daniel's awesome cake:
Greenbelt DJ - A+++
Joel was awesome! He did a great job reading the crowd and was really great to work with. We hired him for an extra hour to play music for our ceremony and he really made it flow well. I was worried a DJ would be corny but he really made the party.... the dance floor was packed all night and we wished we had contracted Lakeway for longer because we didn't want the party to end!
Example of the packed dance floor... it looked like this all night!
Rev Michael Boles... A+
He was great and I would give him more +'s except he pronounced my last name incorrectly at the beginning of the ceremony. But he is the sweetest man and was really a joy to work with.
Bouquets of Austin... A+++
Loved my bouquet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really wanted peonies but they are not in season - but they still made me a gorgeous bouquet that was exactly what I wanted! It didn't even matter that I didn't have peonies because they found seasonal flowers that fit what I wanted. Stephanie and Shannon were very helpful and were willing to work with us to make the flowers work in our budget. I even requested changes 2 weeks before the wedding and they were very accommodating. They were sweet and not pushy like another florist we met with.
My bouquet:
Bridesmaid bouquets:
Keep Austin Gorgeous... A+
Loved the great job they did on our hair & makeup! I had to add a bridal hair on the day-of and they were great in making sure everyone got their hair/makeup done in time. Everyone looked beautiful thanks to KAG!
Me & My BMs
Partybooths... D
I should have gone with a local vendor. But instead I found this company (
www.partybooths.com) and really liked what I saw on the website. The photobooth was fun, yes, but the printer was broken so no one got copies of their photos!!!!!!!!! My stomach feels sick just thinking about it
I feel like more people would have used the booth if they saw others walking around with their prints. But instead I think we wasted our money. And now we have to spend MORE money to mail everyone's prints to them... he said he was going to mail me everyone's prints once he could get the printer to work. I haven't heard a peep from him since Saturday and emailed him myself a few hours ago to check in. Bleh. Those who did use the booth had fun, at least. And he did stay an extra 30 minutes, I guess...
Marquee Rentals... A+
Our chairs were delivered in time and looked great! We took advantage of the chiavari chair sale. They were responsive, easy to work with, we were happy!
Pink Tulip... A+
We got our invitations from the pink tulip. They were a bit pricey but we LOVED our invitations! Everyone else did too, we had so many people tell us they were the nicest they've seen.
DFWVases.com... A+++!
Great prices, friendly service! I live in Dallas, so I came across this site - but they were so responsive and easy to work with! Couldn't have had a better experience and highly recommend them for all your vase needs.
Table4Photography... A+++!
Our photographer is the best.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Thanks for reading! Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions or need more explanation on my reviews