Photography- ArtByKriea (A+) I highly recommend Kriea. She is amazing. My sister used a less expensive photographer and ended up spending much more because of ordering prints. Kriea is really a great bang for your buck as far as packages go.
Reception- Hamilton Event Center (A) We booked with The Hamilton very early and were going to use a church next door for the ceremony. The church ended up leaving the building and we had to find something else for the ceremony. Jennifer, the owner of The Hamilton was very professional about the whole situation and did everything to help us. We were very impressed with the quality of our flowers (which are included in the package) and how organized the day was.
Ceremony Rental- Crossland's Party World (C) We rented a tent, chairs, and generator to set up outside the event center once we were unable to use the church. There is one lady that handles all the tent rentals and I found her very difficult to get in touch with. When the tent arrived it had mold, and dirt on it. There were also coke cans, and snack wrappers spread around from the workers setting up the tent. I would have given them a lower score, but they immediately came to clean the tent when we called to tell them how dirty it was and replaced on of the moldy panels.
Catering- Ribs N More (A+) They had attractive displays, and excellent food. We got a lot of compliments on the food!
DJ- M&M Productions (A+) The DJ did a great job. There were people on the floor all night long. We didnt realize that there were different versions of our first dance song and got a version with a long intro. The DJ cut the intro out perfectly! He was really good!
Premier Wedding Dances- (C) I was really happy that we had a fun first dance, and we were being taught by Debbie. The owner Sheila is incredibly serious about the first dance. We were only doing it for fun and Sheila thinks the first dance is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. We are glad we did it, and we loved Debbie, but had we been taught by Sheila we wouldn't have continued with the lessons. (When I originally called and talked to Sheila she could tell I was apprehensive about doing it on the phone and said, "So what are you gonna do? Just sway side to side at your wedding?" I should have known then)
Invitations- Vistaprint.com (A+) The invitations that I wanted were pretty simple, but when I went to a consultation to see how much they would cost it was going to be well over 400 dollars. I asked Kriea to make me a file from our engagement pictures to upload to VistaPrint. I got the EXACT invitations that I wanted for 130 dollars (including shipping! Go to retailmenot.com for coupon codes to use upon checkout) from VistaPrint. I got a ton of compliments on invitations that were so inexpensive!
Alterations- Lynn from Tom's Formal Wear (B) Lynn was incredibly inexpensive and basically had to remake my entire dress (David's bridal failed to tell me that they had my dress in a petite). She had to take it in 2-3 inches all the way down to the butt, reform the waist to where my real waist was, and take up the lace sleeves. She also added tulle to make it fuller. All this was around 150 dollars. (DB WAS GOING TO CHARGE ME MORE THAN I PAID FOR THE DRESS) The reason I gave her a B was because she forgot to put in the bustle. I took it back for her to put the bustle in and when I got it back it was awful. It was still on the ground and just didn't look good. So I took it back to add a second bustle and told her I didnt want it to touch the ground. She added the second bustle (which made it look MUCH better) but it still was dragging the ground.
Tux's- Tom's Formal Wear (A+) They were very easy to work with!
I had a lady I work with make the cake so I don't have anything for that. I will say that I do not think cakes are worth 300-500 dollars. So many people make amazing cakes. My cakes were AWESOME and half the cost. I highly recommend looking for somebody you may know make the cake. Ask around church, or work I almost guarantee you will find somebody, who knows somebody who is a FANTASTIC cake baker.
I think that is it! If you have any questions about any vendors let me know!