I got married on October 23 and had a beautiful wedding! Our vendors were amazing!
The Riverhouse at Goodspeed Station, Haddam: A+
The Riverhouse is a beautiful venue right on the CT River. Perfect with the fall foliage! Their main business is weddings and they know exactly what they're doing. While planning for the wedding, they were very quick to respond to questions and helpful in the planning process. The only issue I had was that the manager told us we could get there at anytime in the morning to get ready, but the wedding coordinator told us we were allowed in just 2.5 hours beforehand. In the end, they let us get there as early as we wanted, so it worked out! During the wedding day, the entire staff was amazing. Matt, the banquet manager, was always nearby to let us know where to go, what was happening next, etc. And the assistant banquet manager, Hattie, was also our personal attendant, always making sure we were happy and had everything we needed. She even had appetizers for us while we took formal pictures on the balcony. I HIGHLY recommend them!
DJ: Powerstation Events : A
We had Rich as our DJ and he was really easy to work with. We never actually met him before the wedding day because his office was too far from our home. But we really didn't need to! We had a phone meeting to confirm everything. He played music we requested and nothing on our do not play list. Our guests all said they loved the music. One minor issue: he interrupted both speeches to ask everyone to raise their glasses because he thought they were over, but they weren't. It wasn't a big deal, and it was still awesome!
Photography: Mike Ross Photography, Hamden A+++
Mike is amazing!! He never got in the way of anything we were doing, we hardly even noticed him! He was so flexible - even suggesting that we go down to the docks after the wedding instead of during cocktail hour like we planned because I was stressing about time. He told us not to worry about it and spent an extra 45 minutes with us for no extra charge. Our teaser pics were beautiful and I can't wait to see the rest! He set up his laptop near the bar and played a slideshow of the pictures from earlier in the day. Unfortunately my husband and I didn't have time to see them, but guests said they were beautiful!
Flowers: Madison Flower Shop: A+
Our flowers were absolutely beautiful. The owner, Donna, took my description of what I wanted and made it ever better than I imagined. Almost every female guest I talked to told me how beautiful the flowers were!
Cake: Creative Cakes by Donna, Haddam: A
We got two cakes from Donna. One was our wedding cake, which was included in our package at the Riverhouse. The other was a groom's cake for the rehearsal dinner. I know Donna hasn't always gotten the greatest reviews on here, but we had a great experience with her. Our florist did supply the flowers for our cake because the options Donna had didn't match our other wedding flowers. But Donna arranged them on the cake beautifully.
I got the groom's cake as a surprise for my husband at the RD. It was a replica of his favorite soccer team's jersey. And it was incredible! Better than I thought it would be, honestly. It looked exactly like the real thing.
Officiant: Rev. Jim Francek: B-
We found our officiant through my SIL, who used him for her wedding, and loved him. We didn't have that great of an experience with him. He was nearly impossible to get a hold of, never returning emails or phone calls. There was an almost 2 month period where we couldn't reach him. I got really stressed out and wanted to find a new officant, but kept with him. He did create a beautiful ceremony for us and gave us good ideas for how to customize it. He was losing his voice on the day of our wedding but did his best to project his voice and everyone said they could hear him fine. The end result with him was great, but the process was quite stressful.
Dress: April Rose, Guilford: A
I went to April Rose because I knew they had the designer of the dress I wanted. They did have my dress and I bought it from them. I did try on other dresses, and she did a good job of choosing dresses to fit what I said I wanted. They were really easy to work with and recommended my seamstress (see below).
Alterations: Alterations by Michelle, Branford: A+
Michelle works out of her home. She did a beautiful job on my dress and she was patient with me when I got picky :-) Her prices are extremely low, especially for the quality of the work she does.
Guest Book Tree: Etsy seller AbsintheCustomPrint: A
We ordered a tree as a guest book - she printed our last name and wedding date in the corner and the large tree in the center. Guests wrote a message on a leaf and stuck the leaf anywhere on the tree. I love it because it went nicely with our theme and we can hang it in our house and look at it all the time. And she was able to create the tree anyway we wanted.
Ring Bearer Dish: Etsy seller wiseimpressions: A
Rather than using a traditional ring pillow, we got a dish with our wedding date and a pair of bunnies (meaningful to me and my husband!) on it. It was adorable and very reasonably priced.
That's what I can think of right now :-) Thanks for reading all the way through! I'll try to post some pics soon.