Hey ladies! I got married two weeks ago so thought I'd share my experience with the vendors with you girls! Hope this helps you out!!
Venue: B+ (Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel - formerly Crowne Plaza)
I wanted to give them an A grade, but too much went wrong with the front desk people to do that. The wedding coordinator Neil is excellent, he's really nice, very easy to get a hold of. We had one major hiccup with him though when he didn't tell us about a $10,000 minimum until five days before the wedding and we had to quickly add upgrades and pay an unexpected $2,500. Other than that, our experience with him was great, their prices were great and the ballroom is very beautiful. The hotel is under a major renovation, which was supposed to be completed by our wedding date and it wasn't, so the lobby was destroyed and they had a little makeshift one which was fine but there was dust and construction workers drilling everywhere. But the ballroom was completely done and was beautiful! Their food was DELICIOUS! Every person at our wedding was raving about their food! We chose stuffed chicken, chicken marsala and steak dianne! Now about the front desk, I'll give them an F!!! Their reservations people are terrible!!! So many of my family & friends told me about issues with booking their hotel room, and we made welcome bags for our guests that the front desk staff were supposed to give to all of our guests when they checked in and about 50% of them didn't receive them. When I went to complain to them, they're like ohh I didn't know we were supposed to give those out.. so clearly their staff has horrible communication! I would recommend someone to have their wedding here, but wait until the renovations are completed, and only if you're local and no one needs to sleep at the hotel because booking rooms is miserable!
Photographer: A++ (R. Frank Photographer - Erie, PA)
We loved our photographer Rob!!! We chose a photographer from Erie because his prices were much more reasonable then Pittsburgh photographers and we couldn't be happier with our decision!!! He was sooo great, and we've seen 85 pictures so far that he sent us as a preview and they're AWESOME!!! We had so much fun taking pictures because of him!!
Florist: A+ (Chris Puhlman Flowers)
We didn't have a choice with who we went with to make our floral centerpieces because they're included with our wedding package with the Sheraton and they contract with this company but they were so great to deal with, we ended up getting everything from them!! Nothing went wrong with our flowers, they turned out beautiful and were exactly what I wanted!! I changed my mind a couple times a few weeks before the wedding and Karen was great and did everything I wanted! Their prices were great too!
Transportation: A (Molly's Trolley's)
The trolley we got for our wedding was awesome!! Hubby's brother is in a wheelchair so they gave us a wheelchair accessible trolley which worked out great! It was decorated on the inside with vines and flowers and the lady that drove was very nice!! The only issue is it got REALLY hot in there! It had air conditioning but it was a really hot day and didn't cool off the trolley well. And their iPod dock didn't work well so there was times we couldn't listen to music, but other than that it was great!!!
DJ & Photobooth & Uplighting: A (Wedding Solutions Inc.)
We liked this company because they were able to do the dj, photobooth and uplighting all in one package and we saved a ton of money that way! We were nervous about the DJ because we had never heard of him before, but he was GREAT!! We wanted a dance party and that's what we got! He had a website we were able to sign in to and make a must play list, play if possible list and do not play list! The only issue is he played a couple of uncensored songs but I didn't even notice them, a few friends did but whatever!
The photobooth was awesomeeeee! We are so glad we did this, all of our guests had a great time with it and they made us a scrapbook of all of the pictures so we have them! And they gave us a jump drive with all of them as well! They had lots of props and the lady working it was great!
We got purple uplighting and it was beauuutiful!!!! Made the room look sooo good!!!
Cake: A++++ (Cakes by Tammy)
We didn't have a choice with who we got to make our cake because it was included in our wedding package with the Sheraton, but we are sooo happy this is who they have a contract with!! Tammy was sooo great! We went to a tasting with her and picked our favorites, then she told us to go online and search for a cake we like, send her a picture and she'll make it! We did that and she made it perfect!!!!!
Officiant: B (Susan at My Happy Day)
Susan was very nice, but we have one major issue with her that will sure give you a laugh! So we invited her to our rehearsal dinner, and she came and it was a little awkward but she was nice so it was fine! We decided not to invite her to our reception.. we just found her online, she was a stranger to us so we didn't think we had to invite her! Sooo the wedding day comes along, the ceremony went good. She had us face our guests for an awkward amount of time though as she said something but whatever! And our vows were a little weird and unconventional but it was nice! But then it comes time for the dinner, and she stayed!!!! We didn't have a spot for her, we didn't have food for her but we just let it go and figured the hotel staff would deal with it! So we get introduced in to the reception, we sit down for dinner, and my sister notifies me our officiant is sitting at OUR HEAD TABLE!!!! My two year old niece was one of our flower girls and fell asleep, so her seat was open. So the officiant decided to sit at our head table!!!!!! When a waitress came over to me to ask if I needing anything, I said yes I need you to find her a different seat ASAP!!! We were so boggled, we couldn't believe she would sit there!!!! But oh well, we laughed it off and she was reseated very quickly!
I think that's everything!! Hope this information helps and let me know if you have any questions! Happy planning
