Sorry I am just getting to this... We were married in October of last year. I hope these are helpful!
Ceremony/Reception Venue- Music Hall- A+++
First off, the staff here are extremely sweet and helpful, which is automatically a plus in my book! I first talked with Terri, who does the initial showings and walkthroughs. You will love her! She is so sweet and I drilled her with questions. She was also quick to stay in contact while my fiance (now husband!) and I talked over details. Once we paid the deposit, we dealt with Cindi. Cindi is just as sweet and will be just as helpful. Cindi is the event coordinator and will be there the day of your wedding. She basically ran everything for me and I didn't have to worry about a thing! She sent me a timeline of my day several weeks earlier after SHE contacted my vendors. SO HAPPY! I didn't have to worry about that! The ceremony took place down in the foyer and the reception was upstairs in the ballroom. Day of the event went so smooth, and I credit a lot of that to the helpful staff at MH. For your rental price, that includes a technical person (who hung my paper lanterns at no charge!) security and the 20 billion other people that help set up your event. They even helped us the night before decorating with MY things I brought. Also, you usually have to pay extra for the lighting upstairs, but we were told because we were "so nice and not a bridezilla towards them, that they would let us use it at no charge. I had the best experience and would definitely recommend them!
Catering- Hilvers- A
Music Hall gives you a list of recommended vendors, but what I love is that we were able to use whoever we wanted. A lot of places will only let you use certain people. Hilvers was absolutely phenomenal! We were extremely lucky as we just stopped in on the Saturday that we toured music hall. They were so busy getting ready for events that night, but took time to talk with us and set up a tasting! They were the cheapest plae we could find for catering, but don't think that the food isn't great, because it is! My guests raved about it! They even boxed all the leftovers up and sent them home with my family. The nicest touch was that as my husband and I went to the buffet to get our food, one of their staff was nice and filled my plate up and carried it for me to the table. That was really a caring touch as I am super clumbsy and probably would've ended up with it all over me!
Floral/Cake- Affordable Wedding Creations- A
Again, I was super lucky with this! I got a great deal on my cake as I booked and paid a depost at a bridal show at the NKY Convention Center. There are two women that own the place and one does the flowers and one does the cake. First, Inga is so funny and is the florist. I had an idea of what I wanted and when I started to tell her she said, "Ahh, too expensive!" She helped me come up with something equally as beautiful but at about half of the costs. Some other reviews have talked about her spray painting her flowers. I was skeptical of this at first, but she did a demonstration for me. I wanted red filler flowers and she said, "Baby's breath, and I can spray paint red." I must've gave her an awful look because she said, "Hold on, I'll show you." She preceded to walk outside, spritz some paint on the flowers and come back in. So yes, she does spray paint, but only with your permission. I thought they looked great!
I am so sorry to say.. but I forgot the woman's name who does the cake! She was fantastic as she just told me, "Bring in pictures of cakes that you like". I was worried at first because I found 4 different cakes that I liked different things about. BUT, I could not have been more happy when I walked into my reception and seen the spotlight on it! It was beautiful! Also, I was able to do every layer a different flavor and the bottom layer was cheesecake, half caramel and half strawberry! They were great and very easy to work with!
Makeup & Hair- Marxey- B+
The only reason they are getting a B+ is because I was a little stressed out because she rescheduled my trial twice. If you talk with Michelle, she is so sweet and is simply going through some personal issues right now. She was upfront and very apologetic with me. We ended up doing my trial the night before at Music Hall... and I was almost an hour late. She waited on me and still was able to do my trial effectively, even though she had another appointment to get to. She arrived early at our hotel and finished myself and my bridesmaids in a timely fashion. I would definitely recommend them!
Photography- Amy Wallen Photography- A
Amy is based out of Pikeville and I knew her personally and loved her work. Amy travels and I believe this was her first Cincinnati wedding. However, she did fabulous! She came to our hotel before to take the "getting ready" shots and when we were running behind, she adapted with us. We were running behind when we arrived at Music Hall, so she promised to get plenty of photos in a timely fashion after the wedding. We have beautiful pictures and every detail of my wedding is accounted for in her pictures. I am so thrilled with her performance and happy she was there, because the day was a blur for me!
Hotel- Garfield Suites- C
I had the absolute worst time with this hotel. After reserving a block of rooms, and 2 penthouse suites 6 months in advance, you would think that I would not have had a problem, right? WRONG! We had reserved a 3 bedroom penthouse for Friday so my bridesmaids and I could stay there. When we arrived, we were told the room was already in use and all they could give us was a 2 bedroom. What? You want 3 of us to sleep in each bed? I was furious. They finally accommodated us by giving us an extra 2 bedroom suite at no charge. I was an hour late to my own rehearsal dinner. But this was all minor... The next morning, I called the front desk to ask when we could move into the 1 bedroom, 3 story penthouse (I had arranged an early check-in 6 MONTHS in advance, so that we could do hair and makeup here). I was informed that the penthouse had been rented the night before and the others had not checked out. I understood this, so just had our makeup done in our other room. Checkout was supposed to be at 11:00 and I was told that to clean the penthouse it takes approximately an hour and I was first priority. This was great. However, with a 3:30 ceremony, I was pressed for time and really just wanted to get my things into the room. I asked if I could at least store my suitcase in the room while they finished cleaning and that was declined. I asked if I could leave my suitcase in the previous room, but I could not do that because, "It needed clean with the rest of the rooms". I asked if there was any possible way they could keep my suitcase and bag at the front desk until we came back after the reception. They could not do this either. I had to end up leaving my suitcase in one of our guest's room. HOW EMBARRASSING! On top of all of this, when we went to check out at 4:30 the next morning, they tried to charge us for both penthouses. Garfield has a policy that if you book at least 20 rooms, you get a penthouse free. When questioned about this, they told me that the guest service's man would not be in until the next morning and I needed to leave a credit card. I refused and actually just ended up leaving so we could make it to the airport as my father said he would take care of it later. Later in the morning when one of my bridesmaids was checking out of their room, they tried to put our charges on her card! Long story short, they ended up comping all of our rooms for all the trouble we had went through. This is the ONLY reason they got a 'C' rating as I would've put it much lower. Oh, and to top it off, NONE of my guests received the welcome bags that WE made and the front desk failed to give out. I still have no idea what happened to those.
Pianist- Ken Davis- A +++
Oh boy, what a treat! I booked Ken through gigmasters and received a great deal! He performed both at my ceremony and moved upstairs to play for cocktail hour. He was phenomenal! He showed up in a tuxedo and was very professional. My guests raved about him! He truly is a gem.
I believe I have everything on here! I hope this is helpful to others!