Hi Ladies! So, I finally have a few seconds to write up vendor reviews for our wedding. Hope they are helpful!
The Lounsbury House, Ridgefield, CT (A-): Our venue was a really beautiful georgian mansion. Perfect for picture and an intimate setting. It really was the perfect venue for us. It's one of those places that you just get the venue rental and have to provide all your other vendors, so it's definitely a bit of work. The person in charge of booking events there (Val) is a nice lady and very accommodating, but the week of the wedding there seemed to be some miscommunication... she was communicating with my coordinator and there became an issue as to when we could bring our supplies to the venue and have access to the building... long story short, it was all solved, and Val was fine, but it caused a little extra stress. There is another woman there named Diane Masters that was an utterly unhelpful and rude
b!@tch, but luckily DH only dealt with her on the periphery. On the phone she was totally rude and nasty, but the minute DH showed up on her doorstep she was ready to kiss his butt... one of those types. All in all, it was a wonderful venue for us and perfect for our wedding, and luckily we did it all ourselves, and didn't have to work hand in hand with the actual Lounsbury staff through the whole thing.
Ciao! Catering: (A++): The food was amazing. Everyone is still raving about how wonderful the food and staff were. We also had our rehearsal dinner at their restaurant Two Steps Downtown Grille and had a great experience there. For the reception we got better food and larger amounts and variety than any other caterer we met with AND their per person price included the labor charges and tax. Everyone else had those in addition to the per person price, so they all came in about $3000 - $4000 more than Ciao! They also did all the set up and break down (along with our coordinator) and within the 2hr setup & 1 hr breakdown timetable we had with the Lounsbury. The place was spotless by the end. Talk to Tom Devine at Two Steps if you're looking for a caterer. He's wonderful.
Flore (A++): Flore out of Southbury did our flowers. Lori (the owner) and her staff made our bouquets, bouts and corsages and she also ordered all my flowers, vases and other supplies for my DIY centerpieces. She also helped me create a mockup of our centerpiece and taught me tons about flower arranging so that I could do them myself. The wholesaler providing the orchids for my centerpieces messed up and didn't send enough orchids and the wrong leaves for the arrangements, and Lori totally took care of the whole situation and fixed it. She's so creative and quite affordable. I literally saved $1000's of dollars by working with her and she didn't poo poo the fact that I wanted to do my own centerpieces. She even matched the prices that I found online for my orchids so that I didn't have to go through another vendor on my own.
Kelly's Sweet Rewards (A): Kelly made the cupcakes for our rehearsal dinner and our wedding cake. The cupcakes were seriously some of the best cupcakes I've ever had! That's saying a lot because I'm a huge cupcake addict and search out places that bake them fresh. Kelly also created a custom flavor for our cake because we wanted to incorporate an asian flavor into it. The cake was moist and flavorful. People loved it so much that DH didn't get any except for the bite I fed him during the cake cutting! I luckily sat down at a friend's table, saw a half eaten piece and asked him if I could have some... lol!!! Yes, I actually stole someone's half eaten cake! Kelly also did a great job decorating the cake and the cake table. Her pricing was very affordable too.
HK Photography (A+ & TBD): We haven't gotten our pro pics back from Hubert and Alka, but our engagement photos were amazing. I was able to make the most beautiful guest book with the pictures and also made copies for all of our parents. They loved the gift. Hubert and Alka were non-intrusive at the wedding and made sure to get the pictures in that we wanted. The came to both venues, our AM ceremony in Kent and the Lounsbury House in Ridgefield. Our original location at Bulls Bridge had downed trees on the path, so we had to go to a different spot which included climbing down on rocks in the middle of the river. They were totally happy and excited to get some really beautiful and creative shots there... AND they were happy to accommodate the two locations even though they were a hour's drive apart from each other. All the other photographers I interivewed wanted to charge an additiona $500-$1000 for that considering they started at 10:30am and finished at 9:00pm. They knew we didn't have a ton of time for pictures, so they were very flexible with us sneaking away to take more pictures when we had a few seconds. I have no doubt that our pictures will look amazing and have that creative photo journalistic feel that I love. Their personalities meshed perfectly with ours, and they were totally happy to hop to when I had a moment I wanted to capture on film.
Digital Media Odyssey (A+ & TBD): Matt Fink of Digital Media Odyssey was our videographer. We don't have the video back yet, but after seeing many of his videos, I'm sure it'll be great. Matt did a great job on the day of our wedding. He was always there for the important moment but in a non-intrusive way. He always had me smiling and laughing. He's just a fun loving guy and totally professional at the same time. He gave us a great deal, and we're so excited to see how he edits the video. He's really got a gift for it. FYI, he shoots in HD and we opted to get both DVDs and Blue Ray discs.
Ummmm... I know there are more vendors, but I'm gonna take a second to look through my planning stuff. Will add more in a sec!