Vendor Reviews
Day of Coordinator- Kristy Rapp
A
http://www.kristyrappevents.com/
I don't think it would be a stretch to say that Kristy single handedly saved our wedding. I initially thought I could handle everything on my own since I had all my planning & booking done prior to deciding to hire her. However I figured it could not hurt to have an extra set of hands to help the day of, and a greater sense of security. She took care of EVERYTHING the day of. ALL of our set up - center pieces, chair covers, favors, photos, etc. & packed everything away in vehicles for us - every last present, card, decoration was put in its place & none of our friends or family had to lift a finger! She coordinated everything with our vendors, created our timeline, made sure any little issues were attended to without my fiancée or I ever even knowing they occurred. Plus - her prices were outstanding! She charges far less than what her services are worth. Without her my wedding would have been an entirely different, far more stressful experience. I highly recommend her to EVERY bride, whether you have a 2 person or 200 person wedding!
I don't think it would be a stretch to say that Kristy single handedly saved our wedding. I initially thought I could handle everything on my own since I had all my planning & booking done prior to deciding to hire her. However I figured it could not hurt to have an extra set of hands to help the day of, and a greater sense of security. She took care of EVERYTHING the day of. ALL of our set up - center pieces, chair covers, favors, photos, etc. & packed everything away in vehicles for us - every last present, card, decoration was put in its place & none of our friends or family had to lift a finger! She coordinated everything with our vendors, created our timeline, made sure any little issues were attended to without my fiancée or I ever even knowing they occurred. Plus - her prices were outstanding! She charges far less than what her services are worth. Without her my wedding would have been an entirely different, far more stressful experience. I highly recommend her to EVERY bride, whether you have a 2 person or 200 person wedding!
Videographer - Fuel Video Productions
A
http://www.fuelvideoproductions.com/
I can't say enough great things about this company... & we haven't even received our wedding video yet! A girl on the knot recommend this company to me & mentioned a special they had run the previous summer. I E-mailed to inquire, and they offered to honor the special that had been mentioned to me! At first I was a bit skeptical, because the price seemed too good to be true, but no! Mike & Mike (a father/son team) invited us to their home to view some of their work & we were more than impressed. To top it all off they are just all around great guys. Mike Sr. & my fiancée hit it off & spent an hour after our appointment just chit chatting. These guys are so personable & talented. They came to our house to personally drop off our photo montage (over an hour away) one day when my fiancée was home sick. They were with us on the wedding day for over TWELVE hours! They captured all the best moments but I never felt uncomfortable in front of the camera. They were such a pleasure to work with!
Photographer - Jessica Leigh
A
http://www.jleighphoto.com/
Jessica was so wonderful to work with! We haven't seen the photos yet but she had some really creative ideas for pictures. She made everything fun & was quick to accommodate the hurricane force winds we encountered with other photo ideas to keep us out of the wind. Her prices are incredible & her work is outstanding! She accommodated our rather mixed families into photos well & was very understanding and held her cool when a guest invaded her space to take their own photos during the ceremony. We are SO excited to see the final product!
DJ - John Mitchell
A
http://www.travelingsoundandlight.com/
John is a friend of my fiancee's step-dad, so it was a given we would use him as our DJ. We went to see him DJ at the Westgate River Ranch Resort & he really knew his audience. He had everyone up & dancing! He helped us to set our timeline & really did a great job coordinating everything in conjunction with Kristy, our day of coordinator. He really felt out the crowd & played a good mix that kept both our younger & older crowds both up on the dance floor!
John is a friend of my fiancee's step-dad, so it was a given we would use him as our DJ. We went to see him DJ at the Westgate River Ranch Resort & he really knew his audience. He had everyone up & dancing! He helped us to set our timeline & really did a great job coordinating everything in conjunction with Kristy, our day of coordinator. He really felt out the crowd & played a good mix that kept both our younger & older crowds both up on the dance floor!
Hair & Makeup - Meghann Davis
A
http://www.makeupbymeghann.com/
I absolutely ADORE Meghann. She made me look more beautiful than I could have ever imagined at my trial. She did exactly what I asked & far exceeded my expectations. The day of was no exception. She did a beautiful job with my hair, and the curls held despite the hurricane force winds we experienced! She also did my airbrush application & I was thrilled with the final product. She has such a fun personality & made our time before the wedding a party of its own!
I absolutely ADORE Meghann. She made me look more beautiful than I could have ever imagined at my trial. She did exactly what I asked & far exceeded my expectations. The day of was no exception. She did a beautiful job with my hair, and the curls held despite the hurricane force winds we experienced! She also did my airbrush application & I was thrilled with the final product. She has such a fun personality & made our time before the wedding a party of its own!
Catering - Levan's Catering
A
http://levans.com/default.aspx
Let me just say, we were impressed with Levan's from day 1. Every other catering company we visited (& we visited quite a few!) required a "consultation" before a tasting, which I found to be a waste of time, every time. FI & I both work & didn't have all day to go from appointment to appointment, so we appreciated Levan's policy of having a consultation/tasting in one first appointment. They pulled out all the stops for us - down to the floral arrangements on the trays for the tasting! We almost didn't schedule an appointment with them because we knew they were a bit more pricey then some of the other caterers we had met with (we were on a budget), but we sure are glad we did! On top of it - they ended up BEATING our best price quote & even adding some extras in for free like kids meals & sodas that we never even asked for! The food was out of this world - and all of our guests just raved about it. Tanya - our catering manager for the event acted as almost a second coordinator. She was constantly checking up on us to make sure everything was going well. She saved a whole tray of hors d'oeuvres for us since we were taking pictures during the cocktail hour & made sure we had full plates of food & full drinks all night long! She was so fun to work with and kept us laughing!
Let me just say, we were impressed with Levan's from day 1. Every other catering company we visited (& we visited quite a few!) required a "consultation" before a tasting, which I found to be a waste of time, every time. FI & I both work & didn't have all day to go from appointment to appointment, so we appreciated Levan's policy of having a consultation/tasting in one first appointment. They pulled out all the stops for us - down to the floral arrangements on the trays for the tasting! We almost didn't schedule an appointment with them because we knew they were a bit more pricey then some of the other caterers we had met with (we were on a budget), but we sure are glad we did! On top of it - they ended up BEATING our best price quote & even adding some extras in for free like kids meals & sodas that we never even asked for! The food was out of this world - and all of our guests just raved about it. Tanya - our catering manager for the event acted as almost a second coordinator. She was constantly checking up on us to make sure everything was going well. She saved a whole tray of hors d'oeuvres for us since we were taking pictures during the cocktail hour & made sure we had full plates of food & full drinks all night long! She was so fun to work with and kept us laughing!
Cake - Cakes by Design, Inc.
A
http://www.cakesbydesigninc.com/
We were referred to Sylvette by members of our church. We were so glad to meet with her, after the horrible experience we had with our last cake lady (see below). Her cakes were delicious, we were able to see a variety of cakes she had created, and her prices are very competitive. The final product far exceeded our expectations. She did a beautiful & seamless job using butter cream icing (we HATE the taste of fondant) which not every baker can do well. We never saw her during set up but everything looked gorgeous when we finally saw it at the reception!
We were referred to Sylvette by members of our church. We were so glad to meet with her, after the horrible experience we had with our last cake lady (see below). Her cakes were delicious, we were able to see a variety of cakes she had created, and her prices are very competitive. The final product far exceeded our expectations. She did a beautiful & seamless job using butter cream icing (we HATE the taste of fondant) which not every baker can do well. We never saw her during set up but everything looked gorgeous when we finally saw it at the reception!
Butterfly Release: Cloverlawn Butterflies
A
http://www.cloverlawnbutterflies.com/
I really made a VERY last minute decision on this because I didn't want to spend a ton of $ on butterflies if there was bad weather. First of all - Kelly accommodated my order with less than a week before the wedding. I changed my mind like two days before the wedding & she custom made a small release box for me & never even charged for it! Usually butterflies require overnight shipping which ranges from $45 - $60. Kelly delivered the butterflies to our venue for us - FREE of charge, despite the fact my order was not even very large. With such short notice she still managed to customize our release envelopes & all butterflies arrived alive, healthy, and ready to fly! It was such a beautiful & unique experience & worth every penny!
I really made a VERY last minute decision on this because I didn't want to spend a ton of $ on butterflies if there was bad weather. First of all - Kelly accommodated my order with less than a week before the wedding. I changed my mind like two days before the wedding & she custom made a small release box for me & never even charged for it! Usually butterflies require overnight shipping which ranges from $45 - $60. Kelly delivered the butterflies to our venue for us - FREE of charge, despite the fact my order was not even very large. With such short notice she still managed to customize our release envelopes & all butterflies arrived alive, healthy, and ready to fly! It was such a beautiful & unique experience & worth every penny!
Hotel - Westin Lake Mary
Customer Service: F / Facility: A
This is a difficult review for me, because this is where the only real issue with my wedding day occurred. The facility itself is BEAUTIFUL, and we were offered a great room rate for our hotel block. However, the customer service I received was HORRIFIC. I had to call three times before I was ever even responded to about booking a block of rooms in the first place - which should have been my first clue. I chose the hotel because it was the only "nice" pet friendly hotel in Lake Mary, and because I needed somewhere pet friendly, my options were limited. Anytime I needed to get ahold of the woman in charge of looking the room block it typically took at least 2 - 3 phone calls and emails over a period of several days to get a response.
I booked our hotel back in December for my March wedding because we wanted to reserve one of the two suites available for the girls to get ready in the day of. Of course, when we check in I was told we had never reserved a suite. To top it off, we were told that all of the suites were booked! I was LIVID. If that had been the first mistake I would have been more understanding, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back. The staff was not very receptive to my problem at first & acted as though it had been an error on MY part & I had never reserved the suite to begin with! Thankfully I had the email saved on my phone & pulled it up to show the manager, who quickly changed his tune.
One of the managers was very helpful and accommodating. The other was condescending & initially refused to even DISCUSS a discount for their error until he spoke with the woman who screwed up my booking the following week - what?! He kept defending her & saying how sweet she was, which only further irritated me given her horrible customer service & massive blunder. Luckily the other manager took care of us & drastically discounted our bill. The compromise being we had to wake up very early for them to move beds out of one of our rooms are replace it with tables for us to get ready with, but at least we had space to get ready with.
I booked our hotel back in December for my March wedding because we wanted to reserve one of the two suites available for the girls to get ready in the day of. Of course, when we check in I was told we had never reserved a suite. To top it off, we were told that all of the suites were booked! I was LIVID. If that had been the first mistake I would have been more understanding, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back. The staff was not very receptive to my problem at first & acted as though it had been an error on MY part & I had never reserved the suite to begin with! Thankfully I had the email saved on my phone & pulled it up to show the manager, who quickly changed his tune.
One of the managers was very helpful and accommodating. The other was condescending & initially refused to even DISCUSS a discount for their error until he spoke with the woman who screwed up my booking the following week - what?! He kept defending her & saying how sweet she was, which only further irritated me given her horrible customer service & massive blunder. Luckily the other manager took care of us & drastically discounted our bill. The compromise being we had to wake up very early for them to move beds out of one of our rooms are replace it with tables for us to get ready with, but at least we had space to get ready with.
Venue - Lake Mary Events Center
A
http://lakemaryeventscenter.com/
Let me begin by saying this venue is just GORGEOUS! We looked at quite a few venues and when I saw this one, I KNEW we had to book there. Unfortunately every other bride in Central Florida seems to feel similarly although we were flexible about our date, we still ended up having to book our wedding for a Sunday. (In February 2010, they were already booked up for EVERY Saturday through July 2011!) That being said they have been very helpful and accommodating. They allowed us to come in and set up a mock table arrangement & pulled out tables & chairs for us, they were prompt to answer questions, and were even accommodating when we showed up unannounced with my future mother in law during non-tour hours. They still allowed us to come in & look around! Plus it's one of the few venues that allows doggy ring bearers! My only gripe was that rehearsals are only scheduled Mon - Thurs which doesn't work for a Sunday wedding. Luckily we were permitted to come in on a Saturday & hold our own rehearsal outside the building, but no staff were on site.
The day of went perfectly. Staff were onsite to assist with tear down & to my knowledge there was never an issue with anything. Everyone raved about how beautiful the facility was.
The day of went perfectly. Staff were onsite to assist with tear down & to my knowledge there was never an issue with anything. Everyone raved about how beautiful the facility was.
Cake - Eve's Cakes
F -
http://evescakes.com/
At first I was thrilled with Eve's Cakes! The prices were phenomenal & the cake tasted great. We booked out of impulse (frankly, we were tired of meeting with vendors!) & had only seen a handful of her cakes. She promised to email a powerpoint with photos of cakes she had made - when I didn't hear back from her weeks later, I contacted her. I contacted her for SEVERAL months via email & FI tried to reach her on her cell phone - but her voicemail was always full. When we finally went to her shop, our fears were confirmed - she had closed down!
Luckily FI is very tech savvy & was able to track her down through her domain registration from her website. He emailed her at her personal address & she actually responded (although I'm pretty sure the threat of taking her to court over our deposit helped). She DID refund our money - but only after giving him a hard time & sob story about how she had been put on bed rest because she was pregnant & she didn't know why we wanted our deposit back. REALLY? We booked you 5 months prior, I'm pretty sure sometime in those 5 months you could have dragged yourself out of bed to return an email or phone call. She acted as though she had never intended not to fill our order. But when you refuse to respond to emails, your voicemail is full, and your shop has been closed for 5 months, it's hard to believe you still intended to bake our cake.
Luckily FI is very tech savvy & was able to track her down through her domain registration from her website. He emailed her at her personal address & she actually responded (although I'm pretty sure the threat of taking her to court over our deposit helped). She DID refund our money - but only after giving him a hard time & sob story about how she had been put on bed rest because she was pregnant & she didn't know why we wanted our deposit back. REALLY? We booked you 5 months prior, I'm pretty sure sometime in those 5 months you could have dragged yourself out of bed to return an email or phone call. She acted as though she had never intended not to fill our order. But when you refuse to respond to emails, your voicemail is full, and your shop has been closed for 5 months, it's hard to believe you still intended to bake our cake.
Bride's Dress & Veil - Brides Against Breast Cancer
A
http://bridesagainstbreastcancer.org/
I got my dress in a rather non-traditional way, the Brides Against Breast Cancer nationwide tour of gowns. It's a wonderful cause where bridal stores donate dresses & then people buy them from the sale. 100% of the proceeds go to grant wishes for terminally ill breast cancer patients. There was a large selection of gowns in every price range, from simple, inexpensive dresses to designer couture gowns. The dresses were also nicely organized by sizes, and spread out enough that I didn't feel crowded like I did at some other bridal stores I looked at. The women who helped assist with the dresses were volunteers & were some of the most kind, wonderful women I have ever met! I never felt PRESSURED to buy a gown, but they did make me feel beautiful and important - something some of the big chain bridal salons fail to do. I ended up finding a BEAUTIFUL gown donated by David's Bridal for $450, originally priced well over $1000. I also found a designer veil, originally $450 for $80! I had been struggling with the idea of spending so much money on a dress for one night. However, knowing all of the money went to a great cause made it so much easier! I haven't once had second thoughts even though I bought the dress over a year out from the wedding, because the dress has special meaning for me.
Reception Dress - Long's Bridal
A
I went here to look for a dress for my FMIL, and ended up leaving with a reception dress (& her dress as well)! At first I almost walked out because the air was broken & it was about 100 degrees outside. I looked through the racks of dresses, and all of the price tags were pretty high so I was unimpressed. Then the lady told me that EVERYTHING was on sale, and the formal dresses started at $5. I found an incredible reception dress for $25 (originally $800!) It would cost me more to have my ceremony dress bustled than it did for me to buy a brand new reception dress. I love the dress because it is so comfortable and light weight, I know I will enjoy wearing it all night.
Bridesmaid Dresses - David's Bridal (Altamonte Springs, FL):
A
People tend to frown upon David's Bridal - but I had an excellent experience at this particular store. I already knew what dresses I wanted prior to going into David's Bridal, but they were only available online. I didn't want to bother taking up an appointment slot knowing I wasn't going to be purchasing a dress from the store directly, so the girls & I just went to try on similar dresses to see how the sizes run so we could order them online. We explained this to one of the ladies who worked there (I believe her name was Alisha) the situation, but she was still very helpful knowing we wouldn't be buying anything. She gave my girls advice on which size to order, and even went to a computer to look up the dresses online for us to see what sizes were available! I was surprised we got ANY attention on a Saturday without an appointment, especially knowing we weren't planning on buying from them.
Save the Dates - Vistaprint.com
A
I should preface this review with a disclaimer - if you do not have self control, do NOT visit this website! They constantly send out coupons for free items & somehow I ended up spending $60 in one night of "free" products (they charge for shipping). That being said, I spent $7 for 75 save the date magnets, they were free and all I had to pay for was shipping. I honestly expected sub par quality, and they turned out beautifully! They were a bit smaller than I would have liked (business card sized) but I knew that ordering them, and chose to anyway because I couldn't beat the price! Shipped even faster than expected. Since ordering my save the dates I've used this site to purchase tote bags & t-shirts for the bridal party, a wedding banner, a just married window cling, photo book of our engagement pictures and a Future Mrs. ____ t-shirt. I have been pleased with the quality of everything I have ordered and plan to use this website for any other printing needs I have.
Garter - etsy.com (seller - gartergallery)
A
http://www.etsy.com/people/gartergallery
I looked far & wide for a garter that would reflect Graham's interests. I found this fabulous garter on etsy.com & knew it was THE ONE. The price was a bit steep ($35 with shipping) but it was worth it to me to find something so unique that I knew my fiancée would love! The quality is wonderful, and the seller was great! Responded promptly, quick shipping, and accommodated my special request.
