Florida-North Florida

St. Augustine - post wedding vendor reviews

I'll go in and do the vendor reviews page on the knot but just wanted to write on here real quick since we are so happy!

Venue - Serenata Beach Club: We are sooo happy with our reception and the wonderful service we received from Cordel, Courtney and everyone at the club. Cordel is extremely upfront and works hard to make sure you can have the reception you deserve but not go broke. All prices presented to us always included tax and gratuity. We had no hidden fees. Cordel always communicated well with me through the whole process. All of our guests were blown away with the setting - you are RIGHT on the beach and look down on it. You guests have the ability to walk down on the beach also. We only had our reception there but you can also get married in the back looking down on the beach. If you are looking for that kind of setting definitely check it out. It is right where Ponte Vedra begins so was not too far from St. Augustine.

Hotel Block - Hampton Inn at Vilano Beach: All of our guests were very happy with their rooms - I also thought they were very nice. They have a beautiful lobby. Breakfast is included. If you can get the presidential suite it is extremely baller (it was booked our weekend but we did get to look at it). We used the hospitality room for getting ready and a luncheon for our guests the next day. Tina handled setting up our block and was extremely helpful and friendly the weekend of. The hotel was about 5 min drive away from our reception at Serenta which was north but in the opposite direction also a quick drive over to St. Augustine. They did not charge to give out out of town baskets (which some hotels do!)... we also had a block at St. Augustine Beach House but only one couple stayed there one night. They were cheaper than the Hampton, had no night minimum and per the couple was extremely nice and also is ON the beach unlike the Hampton. from the outside it doesn't look like it is as nice as it is but check it out.

Limo - Susie's Limos: They are located in Jacksonville but were the most affordable and reasonable for us. Most places wanted to jack up the price bc of the "potential" proms that could be happening (we got married Memorial weekend) but this place said since they had no idea if there were proms since it was so far out. they wouldn't do that to us. Also, other places wanted to charge extra or for another hour we weren't even using it bc of the time it took them to get to St AUgustine - this place did not. Our driver was on time and courteous.

Photographer - Seth Beaudreau: Haven't seen our pics yet since it's only been 2 days but he did show me some on his camera as the day went and they were gorgeous. He was recommended by a friend and I am so happy we used him. He is very professional and passionate about what he does. We did engagement pictures with him and were very happy so I can't wait to see how our wedding photos turn out!

Dj: Liz from Djs to Go: The company came recommended by Serenata (not because of kick backs but bc they use them for club events). Liz and the owner Ed were very detail oriented and communicated well with us leading up to it. On the night of Liz did a great job with the music and getting everyone on the dance floor. Very happy she was our DJ.

Cake: Defore's: Unfortunately our bakery has closed its doors and we were the last weekend they did wedding cakes which is unforunate as they communicated better and were more cost effective than Sweet Weddings - though I have seen other brides who seemed very happy with Sweet Weddings (she just took forever to respond to emails and never returned my voicemails). If you go with someone in Jacksonville be prepared to pay an extra fee for the delivery.

Hair / Make up: Haley Bolen from Simply Makeup did my makeup and did a wonderful job. I am glad we did the trial run bc I was able to tell her I needed more coverage for pictures bc of the bridal portraits and she listened well and did a great job covering up the acne you can't help getting with the stress of a wedding! Kenize Sparks (Sparks is her maiden name and her new married name escapes me unfortunately) did my hair, my mother in law and 6 bridesmaids. I was extremely stressed about everyone getting their hair done on time... she brought an assistant to work on curling. She got everyone's hair done in reasonable time and even had time to go back for girls who didn't hold a curl as well and fix it and add hair spray... and even re do my sister in law's hair when she didn't like the position of her part. Everyone looked great!
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Re: St. Augustine - post wedding vendor reviews

  • I forgot to mention my florist - Tiffany at Floriade - Tiffany is AWESOME. After meeting her my now husband even said she was his favorite vendor and he had had NO interest in meeting the florist or taking an interest in the flowers. She clearly loves what she does and very creative. She will only take one wedding a weekend so she can devote herself to making sure you have the date you deserve. I had gotten into Serenata to set up some things the day before that I wanted to do myself and when I arrived to my wedding I could tell Tiffany had added some things to make everything look even nicer even though I never asked her to and they had nothing to do with the flowers. So many of my vendors I don't see mentinoed often on the boards as the usual go to's people are checking out - please talk with Tiffany. She was so wonderful and very reasonable with prices 
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  • Violinist - Kyle Wehner: Kyle did a wonderful job with our wedding. He mentioned he does about 250 weddings a year so he definitely has experience! We had a Catholic ceremony and he is actually Catholic himself - the coordinator at the church spoke very highly of him and how good he is during he rehearsal. He checked in with me prior to check if there was anything specific I wanted - I told him I trusted his judgement and just keep it traditional. Didn't have to worry with him -very professional!
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  • Church: Just wanted to mention my church... we did a catholic service at the Prince of Peace church located the Mission of Nombre de Dios (where the great cross in St Augustine is located). The church is managed by the basilica. It does not have an assigned priest or regular masses. You must provide your own priest if you want to get married there and do not belong to the basilica. It's not cheap - if you belong to the basilica it is $500... if you belong to the diocese of st augustine (which I do with my home church) it is $1,000. If you belong to a church outside of the diocese it is $2,000. The church was a priority to us so we made it work budget wise. The grounds are BEAUTIFUL. We absolutely love it there. The biggest negative with the church is there is no center aisle - two side aisles. If you can get over that it's a very nice church. It seats about 150 people and since we were having a smaller wedding we liked that it made the ceremony more intimate. The basilica is pretty but so big, and very red (which is my least favorite color and definitely didn't go with our colors) and parking is an issue there. The mission has its own parking lot. We did have concerns we would "fall through the cracks" since it's not a regularly used church but the coordinators did show up for the rehearsal and the wedding. They didn't do great with email - but did respond to phone calls well. Just a little frustrating since my job makes it dfficult to make phone calls. Overall we are very happy with the church and it's very neat to be able to say you were married at the site of the first Catholic service in America!
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  • Rehearsal Dinner - Raintree Restaurant: One of the main reasons we chose this location is because it was immediately across the street from our church so it was so easy to go across the street. We had looked at places in downtown St Augustine but had concerns about how long it'd take for people to get in their cars to go over there then find parking. We had 42 people and they fit us in 7 tables of 6 with some space in the middle for mingling prior to dinner. I didn't know they would have a bar type thing set up and it was a nice surprise - as soon as people walked to the top of the steps they were offered a drink. They give you several options to choose from as far as what to offer and a range of prices. Our guests got a salad, a choice between chicken, pork or tilapia and then a dessert of creme brulee. I had the pork and it was REALLY good! These choices came out to $25/person then the cost of each drink on top. They did have a couple cheaper options. We only offered beer/wine - beers were around $3 domestic and $3.50 import. I don't recall how much the bottles of wine were (somewhere in the mid $20s we think). The staff was very attentive and we were very happy.

    Birdal luncheon - We had a bridal luncheon the day before at The Columbia on St. George street. We only had 14 people so we were given a long table (you need like 25 people I think to get a private room). They allowed me to make a limited menu. Some items at this place can be pricey but they are pretty reasonable overall for the lunch menu. Our waiter was great and our service was pretty quick given the size of our party. My bill turned out to be over $100 cheaper than I expected - everyone wanted the combo of the salad and cuban sandwich since the salad is what they are known for and it was only like $7. It was a great surprise to have such a meal at a nice restaurant with such a low bill!

    Welcome reception - This hopefully is the last review I'll think to post! We hosted an informal deal the Thursday before our wedding for our guests who were already in town. We wanted to have dinner at a restautant then to a mini pub crawl with me and my now husband telling ghost stories around town and about the places. We had planned to do this at Harry's and they had told us hosting a large group (we had about 40 people) would be no problem on a Thursday - but we got beat out by a group of 70 taking out the entire upstairs. Unfortunately, Harry's was not great to us about trying to work with us or making us to even feel welcome to come in later in the night for just a drink. Combined with some bad service my now husband got that he had for his group lunch the day before we aren't the biggest fans of it anymore. When it all fell through we were about a month out and my dad gave A1A Aleworks a call. They agreed to let us use their private ballroom for the night and allow separate checks and ordering off the normal menu. This was amazing since if you have ever looked at using them for a special event their banquet hall menu and prices aren't exactly cheap. It was an AWESOME way to welcome our guests. We had a bartender at the bar, the room to ourselves,a great view over the river, lots of space and wonderful service. I would also like to mention that we continued on to OC White's and Meehan's Backyward which both were close to their closing times but welcomed in groups of about 20 just for us and took good care of us.
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  • Do you have contact information for your florist?

    n Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_florida-north-florida_st-augustine-post-wedding-vendor-reviews?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:70Discussion:e3bef1fb-1b7a-48f9-b4af-649278346bd2Post:fff29e05-2444-4125-a7c6-5bdb84e3cbc3">Re: St. Augustine - post wedding vendor reviews</a>:
    [QUOTE]Rehearsal Dinner - Raintree Restaurant: One of the main reasons we chose this location is because it was immediately across the street from our church so it was so easy to go across the street. We had looked at places in downtown St Augustine but had concerns about how long it'd take for people to get in their cars to go over there then find parking. We had 42 people and they fit us in 7 tables of 6 with some space in the middle for mingling prior to dinner. I didn't know they would have a bar type thing set up and it was a nice surprise - as soon as people walked to the top of the steps they were offered a drink. They give you several options to choose from as far as what to offer and a range of prices. Our guests got a salad, a choice between chicken, pork or tilapia and then a dessert of creme brulee. I had the pork and it was REALLY good! These choices came out to $25/person then the cost of each drink on top. They did have a couple cheaper options. We only offered beer/wine - beers were around $3 domestic and $3.50 import. I don't recall how much the bottles of wine were (somewhere in the mid $20s we think). The staff was very attentive and we were very happy. Birdal luncheon - We had a bridal luncheon the day before at The Columbia on St. George street. We only had 14 people so we were given a long table (you need like 25 people I think to get a private room). They allowed me to make a limited menu. Some items at this place can be pricey but they are pretty reasonable overall for the lunch menu. Our waiter was great and our service was pretty quick given the size of our party. My bill turned out to be over $100 cheaper than I expected - everyone wanted the combo of the salad and cuban sandwich since the salad is what they are known for and it was only like $7. It was a great surprise to have such a meal at a nice restaurant with such a low bill! Welcome reception - This hopefully is the last review I'll think to post! We hosted an informal deal the Thursday before our wedding for our guests who were already in town. We wanted to have dinner at a restautant then to a mini pub crawl with me and my now husband telling ghost stories around town and about the places. We had planned to do this at Harry's and they had told us hosting a large group (we had about 40 people) would be no problem on a Thursday - but we got beat out by a group of 70 taking out the entire upstairs. Unfortunately, Harry's was not great to us about trying to work with us or making us to even feel welcome to come in later in the night for just a drink. Combined with some bad service my now husband got that he had for his group lunch the day before we aren't the biggest fans of it anymore. When it all fell through we were about a month out and my dad gave A1A Aleworks a call. They agreed to let us use their private ballroom for the night and allow separate checks and ordering off the normal menu. This was amazing since if you have ever looked at using them for a special event their banquet hall menu and prices aren't exactly cheap. It was an AWESOME way to welcome our guests. We had a bartender at the bar, the room to ourselves,a great view over the river, lots of space and wonderful service. I would also like to mention that we continued on to OC White's and Meehan's Backyward which both were close to their closing times but welcomed in groups of about 20 just for us and took good care of us.
    Posted by FutureMrsMiller25[/QUOTE]
  • 904 241 1000 She is located at 214 third street north in Jacksonville beach
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