Hi all,
I don't post often but I always found these kinds of posts helpful when planning!
We were married in Hamilton, ON on Aug 4, 2012 and overall, had a phenomenal day. Some brief reviews on our vendors:
Reception venue: The Art Gallery of Hamilton
Mostly, the venue was fantastic. Our coordinator was Jodie and she was great over the last year, very responsive and helpful. She even sourced a hot dog cart to come onto the property for our late night snack for us. The food was pretty good, aside from my beef main being slightly overcooked but most of the wedding party's beef was cooked to a perfect medium. Also, most of our guests commented on the quality of food. The "look" was perfect, everything was set up as I had hoped it to be.
Florals: Sue Gallo Designs
I had given Sue mostly free reign on my flowers, telling her colours and that I wanted "fullness" but not much else. My bouquets, centerpieces, and other floral decor were gorgeous. The bouts were also great, something different as I had asked for (berries instead of flowers) but she used a different colour ribbon than I requested. Also, the family corsages were not what she had depicted to me because she wasn't able to get this specific type of flower in the days before the wedding. However, I guess these are fairly minor things that only I noticed and she was pretty great at setting up the church, transferring flowers from the church to reuse at the reception, etc.
Limo: Symphony Limo
Fantastic. Early pick up prior to the church. We had various stops throughout the day and our driver was always exactly where he needed to be. They even emailed me the day before to ask our wedding colours, and coordinated decorations inside the limo bus to our wedding colours. We booked them at the wedding show and they gave us the best pricing: incl taxes, $1050 for a 20 person limo bus including a late night pick up for the two of us. Also, the next day we used them for airport service and they gave us a half price discount for booking both.
DJ: All Things Music
A team of 2 brothers, who were reasonably priced, very responsive to my numerous emails, did not stray from my directions of what kind of music to play, and had the dance floor packed all night. They also threw in uplighting in our pkg for free. They were great.
Cake: Just Temptations
Terrible. Our cake was the only part of our wedding that we were really disappointed in. It was a pretty simple design but they couldn't recreate it from the photo. I guess they have their 6 standard cakes or so that they can do well but can't really stray from those. I understand this to an extent but I feel they should have explained that to us, instead of telling me how great their decorators are. Further, our cake was leaking, the cake flavours were all inverted, and where one piece was supposed to be grey, they made it purple. The cake tasted decently but a true disappointment. Sidenote: I have followed up with the office in regards to my concerns and they advised that since the wedding has passed, they simply don't care to respond any further to my emails.
Photo and Video: Xero Digital
So so so incredibly fantastic. We had a photographer and 2 videographers, plus an editor on site for a same-day-edit. It was the highlight of our wedding, and the team is just so creative. They have an editorial style and I am in love with our photos and video. I can't wait for the rest!
Slaintes
As tribute to our bartending and bar-hopping days when we met, one of our photo locations was at Slaintes, an Irish pub. Not only did the management not mind if we took photos in and around the pub, they allowed us full range (going behind the bar, upstairs, etc). They also provided food for our wedding party to snack on and while we paid for drinks, provided the bride and groom with free drinks. Not really a "wedding vendor" per se but more of a shout out for being great.
Hope this is helpful to someone out there!