Hi ladies, everyone else's vendor reviews helped me, so here are mine! I tried to keep them short since longer versions of most reviews are elsewhere (TK or Yelp), but I wasn't completely successful. Sorry if I sounds like I'm just raving about everyone, I honestly loved almost every single one of our vendors.
Laurel Lane Country Club, West Kingston, RI (Venue) - A+
We could not have been happier with our venue. We are not country club people, but Laurel Lane is simply a gorgeous hidden gem with beautiful grounds, delicious in-house catering, reasonable prices, and extremely helpful (and nice!) coordinators. We loved everything about it.
John Fuller Photography (Photographer) - ASimple, photo-journalistic style. John is a solid photographer who has extremely reasonable prices, and he tailored his shoot to our requests/tastes. He's also had amazing turnaround on getting us the photos--we got our engagement photos <1 week after the shoot, and we got our wedding photos ~1 month after the wedding (available online, he has yet to mail us the DVD).
Weedweaver's, Wakefield, RI (Florist) - A
Elaine created an absolutely gorgeous bridal bouquet as well as bridesmaids bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres with very little direction. She asked me questions about what I liked/disliked until she had a handle on what I wanted, and she managed to make it appear. Worked well within my budget and did not try to upsell me, I was extremely pleased.
Bridal Garden, Manhattan, NY (Dress Shop) - A-Not a fancy place, you pull your own dresses and it's not a large area, but the deals you can get are amazing, and the salespeople were quite helpful. I got lucky, and Gina pulled "the" dress for me, and it was completely perfect. Worth a visit if you're going to Kleinfeld's anyway--they're 2 blocks apart, and Bridal Garden's profits go to charity! Make an appointment well in advance.
The Free Downloads, Providence, RI (Band) - A++Honestly, some of my favorite vendors from our wedding, and I loved damn near everyone. George (the guitarist/band leader) is awesome, super responsive, and a great guy in addition to being an incredibly talented musician. They are a cover band that can play literally any song you request they learn, and they did just that for us--they learned a few Sinatra songs, some Bobby Darin, some klezmer music (traditional Jewish music), I'm On A Boat (yes, seriously), and they also do everything from current Top 40 to classy dinner music. They were ridiculously affordable, charging far less for a 7 piece band than any of the other comparable bands in the area. SO glad we found them! (
http://www.gigmasters.com/coverband/thefreedownloads/ )
RI VIdeo Pro (Videographer) - probably A+We haven't gotten our final video yet (it's only been a bit over a month), but Dave has already contacted us to get our choices for the highlights video songs. He was incredibly easy to work with, was at our venue for ~10 hours from getting ready to the final song, and he managed to be literally everywhere that anything interesting was going on. His price is also really, really reasonable--I imagine he'll raise prices as he gets more and more clientele, so I would check him our while he's still a relative newcomer to the wedding video scene. We can't wait to see the video!
Scrumptions, East Greenwich, RI (Cupcakes) - A+Their cakes are delicious, and I was surprised to discover that they are totally affordable, too. We opted for cupcakes, and we provided our own colorful liners and had them do 2 flavors (one chocolate cake + chocolate/peanut butter buttercream and one pumpkin cake + caramel frosting) and they were both INCREDIBLE. The pumpkin cake was a custom request, and they knocked it out of the park. Guests raved about the cupcakes, and we had very few left over, despite having 30% more cupcakes than guests.
Ocean State Transit (Buses for Guests) - AWe hired school buses to take our guests from the wedding hotel to the venue and back, and for what it would have cost to hire one coach bus, we got 2 school buses for pickup/drop off, plus an additional pickup time at the reception for the early-birds' departure. Scott was extremely responsive and the drivers were all professional and courteous, couldn't have been happier!
Sam C. (Hair) - A+This woman is seriously amazing. I'm not sure how she does it, but you can give her a picture of an updo, and she will create it. I had 3 trials with her because I have very curly hair and wasn't 100% sure what I wanted, and she was unbelievably accommodating. On the day of, she made my hair even more gorgeous than at the most recent trial, and she did my bridesmaids' hair exactly to their specifications without ever having met them before. In addition, she's dirt cheap. Way too cheap for the quality of hair she does. Oh, and she's really nice!
Jennie Kay Murphy, MIddletown, RI (Makeup) - A+Also amazing. Jennie Kay is a phenomenal makeup artist, and I could not have been happier with her work--I looked like the most gorgeous version of me, and the (airbrush) makeup lasted the whole night (~12 hours from application to the last dance). She also did my mom's short, curly hair, and it looked gorgeous. Also really professional, accommodating, and a nice person to hang out with in the hours before your wedding!
PhancifulPapers on Etsy (Invitations) - A++Another one of my absolute favorite vendors, Phyllis was an absolute pleasure to work with. I used Etsy for a number of things for my wedding, but my invites were my favorite. She created beautiful, hand-punched invitations with an embossed border and hand-lined envelopes with matching RSVP cards, RSVP envelopes and a hotel information card for under $2 per suite. I was blown away with how gorgeous the invitations were, especially for that price, and on top of that, she was extremely responsive and helpful in helping me to pick out my fonts, spacing and even helping with wording suggestions when I asked (all things I thought I didn't care about). I ended up having her make my table name cards and place cards as well, and I cannot recommend her highly enough! (
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PhancifulPapers?ref=ss_profile)PeanutButterBandit on Etsy (Custom Cupcake Toppers) - A++I've already raved about these on TK, but I'll include these in my reviews because they are so cute and were so affordable. If you order from her, make sure to do it well in advance, since they've become much more popular since her toppers were featured in some wedding magazine (
http://www.etsy.com/shop/peanutbutterbandit?ref=ss_profile)Savvi by Sarno & Son, Warwick, RI (Tuxedos) - AMy husband, his groomsmen, and both our fathers rented tuxes here, and we were very satisfied with the quality, price, selection and the service. Given the terrible service and inflated prices at Men's Wearhouse, we were really happy to find a reasonably priced tuxedo rental store with just as many options for colors/styles and with a very knowledgeable and helpful manager, Megan. They can also do minor on-site alterations, which was a comfort though we did not end up needing it. Located inside the Cinderalla Bridal Salon, it's a bit of a strange little corner of the store dedicated to tuxedos, but we were very happy with them.
Fairfield Inn & Suites, Coventry, RI (Wedding Hotel) - ABetween when I originally booked the block of hotel rooms and when my wedding happened ~9 months later, this hotel had gone through some major management turnover, and during that time, things were a little crazy. However, everyone was always extremely nice and tried to be helpful, even when there was no general manager or sales manager to do what I needed for my wedding block. As soon as Trina, the new manager, arrived, things calmed down and almost everything went smoothly. The staff were all extremely helpful and accommodating, the hotel block price was exceptionally good for a holiday weekend (we picked this hotel out of the 5 we contacted), and our guests were very happy. One problem with one guest (of over 30 rooms booked) being double-charged for her room, but I think that's being handled.
Liberty Rentals, Wakefield, RI (Chair/Table Rental for Rehearsal Dinner) - A- Exactly what we needed at a reasonable price, including delivery. Since it was a holiday weekend, we got to keep the tables/chairs for 4 days, though that could be a bad thing if you don't have space for them. Also, they forgot to pick up some of the chairs and had to come back, but that wasn't a problem for us at all.
Amazon and Bed Bath & Beyond (Registries) - A-Entirely decent gift registries. I can't really bring myself to rave about gift registries, though both were extremely good about accepting returns. Glad we registered at both and not more stores--would've been a pain to keep up with more than 2 registries!