We loved our vendors all-around -- they did fantastic work even though we were contending with a blizzard the entire week before the wedding (our wedding was 14 February). I wanted to take a moment to give them some credit and give others some tips:
Venue: Carnegie Institution for Science -- A
A gorgeous space, made very convenient by the very helpful staff. You get the run of the building, so there's always extra rooms you can use if you'd like, even though we technically only rented the rotunda, ballroom, and board room. They don't schedule any other events on your day, and they'll work with your needs. They'll also let you store your things in a room there so you can bring them over early and pick them up the day after. So convenient. The only thing I think could have been better is if we'd met with them in person during the week before to go through the building and get a last understanding of where everything would be. Unfortunately, we were in the middle of a blizzard, so they were closed most of the week and so there were some surprises and a little confusion that could have been avoided.
http://www.ciw.edu/events/building_rental
Caterer: Celebrations Kosher Catering -- A
Excellent food and great attention to detail. They took the time to work with us on our schedule, coordinate with our other vendors, and respond to our various questions and requests, including for coming up with new dishes! Their food was excellent and very well presented. They're located in Baltimore, but that didn't turn out to be a problem, we only had to go up there once for a food tasting. http://www.celebrationskosher.com/
Photographer: Roland DeDios -- A+
Roland did a fantastic job of photographing our wedding. In addition, he gave us a free engagement session, which was really useful in getting us used to working with him and used to smiling (and looking lovingly at one another) on command. I thought the engagement photos were okay but really helped us with the wedding photos. Roland was unobtrusive at the wedding but managed to get a ton of fantastic shots. He also brought along an assistant so he got getting-ready shots for both my husband (!) and me. He ended up giving us many more shots than he had promised, which is fantastic! http://www.rolandcesarblog.com/ or http://www.rolandcesar.com/index2.php
DJ: Chris Laich -- A+
We went with Chris Laich because he has a more sophisticated vibe, and we ended up getting a DJ named Michael Tate. He was excellent, did a nice job of running the schedule and rolled with it when we completely changed segments of the reception on the fly. We gave him a very long list of "please play" songs and he added in songs that worked well with those. http://www.chrislaich.com/
Florist: Affordable Arrangements -- A+
Carly is a ton of fun to work with and did a fantastic job. Even when we came to her with new problems at the last moment, she rolled with it and worked out solutions. We decided we'd like to use science equipment (beakers and flasks) for our flowers and she actually went to her daughter's school to measure the various sizes and come up with sizes that would work. That was after I already changed colors once and added an extra bridesmaid! She's extremely flexible, quite affordable, very responsive, and her flowers were beautiful.
Hair: Gloria Interiano Piedra -- A
Gloria basically opened up her salon to all my bridesmaids and the two moms and me so we could have a morning of beautification before the wedding. It was such a fun laid-back atmosphere and everyone came out looking great. Everyone except my mom chose up-dos but everyone's hair looked completely different, which was perfect. My hair is pretty difficult to work with, and Gloria gave me an hour and a half trial and then another short trial, but neither of us were satisfied. However, on the day of the wedding, she changed the look just slightly and it ended up looking great! She's at 202-333-3455
Makeup: Angela Spicer -- A+
Angela uses a line of eco/organic cosmetics and goes for a very natural look. She came to my hair stylist's salon and did makeup for 6 women, all of whom were pretty opinionated and all of whom were really happy with the final results. I'm not exaggerating, everyone loved their makeup. Apparently she's just about to start doing makeup full time, her website will be www.angelaspicer.com.
Hotel: Doubletree -- C
We used the Doubletree on Rhode Island Ave. as our wedding hotel. The guests just loved it and had nothing but good to say about it. However, I hated it. They were absolutely awful about returning our emails and phone calls, they lost guests off our room block so we struggled to even figure out how many bags to make for the guests, they ran a sale that was actually better than the deal they'd given us, and when we complained, they didn't offer to meet the sale prices. The sale also prompted many of our guests to get rooms outside of our room block, further adding to the guest bag confusion! I absolutely hated working with them and they were a prime cause of stress before the wedding, but the actual events we had there (an evening in their very nice lobby on Saturday night and a brunch there on Monday) came off perfectly smoothly.
Alcohol: Potomac Wines and Spirits -- B
They did a fantastic job for us. They recommended several kosher wines for us to try. We tried them and settled on a red and white. We then made decisions on the liquors we'd like (working with them to help us with the kashrut issue). They came up with quantities (some of which we tweaked a bit) and then delivered. You can return up to 10% of the price with no penalty (unopened). After that, you have a 10% restocking fee, which seems fair. The only complaint I had about them was that they originally said they could deliver the alcohol on Sunday, and then later that changed. It turned out to be fine (because the Carnegie was willing to receive the delivery Friday and store it for us until Sunday), but it takes away some of the advantage of getting free delivery if they can't deliver on the day you'd like (particularly since they'd told me they could bring the beer chilled). It also was an annoying last-minute hitch that caused unnecessary stress. Nevertheless, the alcohol turned was delivered properly (on Friday) and the quantities seemed good (although we haven't gotten around to returning the excess yet). And the caterer put the beer in the refrigerator when they arrived, and I didn't hear any complaints about warm beer. (Although, who complains to the bride about warm beer anyway?) http://www.potomacwines.com/template/index.cfm
Rings: Market Street Diamonds -- A+
This store is located inside that mall in Georgetown on M Street. Don't be put off by the mall! We found it sort of accidentally and thought the jeweler there was fantastic. He gave us very personalized service, really understood what we wanted, and took a long time making sure the rings fit us properly. When my husband's ring seemed a little loose, he solved the problem quickly. he also created custom jewelry for my bridesmaids, and I loved the results. The thing I liked most about Market Street Diamonds is that he's very careful about the sourcing of his materials. I really didn't want my wedding to contribute to more violence or environmental degradation, so the sourcing of the metals and stones really mattered to me. He explained that he also views the source as important because he finds a lot of metals contain impurities (particularly from Chinese smelters) and he worries that these could be problematic if worn next to your skin for a long period of time (forever, I hope!). This made me even happier that I chose Market Street Diamonds. http://www.marketstreetdiamonds.com/
Dress: Bobbie's Bridal -- A
I had a very good experience at Bobbie's. First of all, I'd read horror stories about stores taking tags out of dresses, etc. This is not the case at Bobbie's. All the dresses have tags and the prices are prominently marked. It's a little self-service compared to some of the other stores I went to, but I'm a self-service kind of girl and don't need to "feel like a princess," and I liked that it helped my sister and me make rational decisions instead of getting pulled into a higher price point by a more intrusive saleswoman. I only had a 5-month engagement, so by the time I actually went dress shopping, I was already behind schedule. I found one at Bobbie's that I absolutely loved and Bobbie overheard my sister and me discussing our timeline and solved the problem by suggesting I buy it off the rack. We were worried because it had a huge flower on it that we hated, but when I came back two weeks later, the flower had been removed and the dress was in perfect shape. I only had one fitting, which included adding straps on to a strapless dress, but everything came out perfectly, so I actually ended up having the dress ready-to-go more than two months ahead of schedule. http://www.bobbiesbridal.com/
Aside from that, I have to give a lot of credit to Kinko's! Not always as customer-service oriented as you might hope, but a lot of problems can be solved with a visit to Kinko's!
I hope these are helpful,
Rebecca