It's the blog post you've all been waiting for, ranting, raving and complaining about various wedding vendors that we worked with for our wedding. Each place we worked with has the name, website and a star rating (one is worst, five is best).
Bridal Connections *****
I can't say enough good things about Bridal Connections. I went there on a whim because the shop I was going to go to was already closed when we got there. They had the perfect dress, and their staff is excellent. The manager knew my name by the time the wedding came around. I bought my dress there, had the alterations there (the alterations were expensive but looked great). We also rented the tuxes for the guys from Bridal Connections (Jim's Formalwear). I strongly recommend Bridal Connections!
David's Bridal *
We got the bridesmaid dresses from David's Bridal. They were a pain in the ass from the beginning, but I thought that it would be ok because each girl could try on their actual sized dress instead of going by measurements for sizing, and some of the girls could get their dresses from ebay since David's Bridal is a national chain. They were a pain from the beginning to the end. We could never get a sales person's attention when we were there, they didn't have all the sizes in stock (even when we called ahead to make sure that they did), they misplaced dresses that were ordered, messed up alterations on all 3 of the girls who went in to have their dresses altered, the list goes on and on. Bottom line is, don't buy from David's Bridal.
Complete Music *****
We hired Complete Music to do the DJ service at the reception. The DJ we got played exactly want I wanted and had just the right amount of involvement in the event. They were priced below some of the independent DJs and we were guaranteed someone for the night even if our scheduled DJ had gotten sick. I would recommend Complete Music to anyone.
Champagne Limousines *****
Champagne Limousines was wonderful to us. We booked just a month before the ceremony and they were able to get us in. The driver was very friendly and courtious, and knew his way around the city. However, we visited 2 other limo rental places that we were not pleased with at all. Affordable Limousine Service brought a beat up old limo to show us and quoted us a price of much higher than Champagne ended up being. Gem Transportation wouldn't take appointments to see their limos, and even when Tom told them we'd be at their place by 6, they left at least 5 minutes early because the place was all locked up when we got there at 5:55.
Favazza Florist *****
The flowers were wonderful, reasonably priced, and the store owner came to the church to get the coursages and boutineers pined on correctly and see that we got the ceremony off without a hitch! She even stayed late one night to meet with us and go over our flower selections.
Brent Kuhlmann Photography *****
This rating is pending recieving our final photographs, but I have no doubt that they will be wonderful. Brent was great to work with from our first meeting to the wedding day. He went over everything in detail to make sure he knew what was going to go on throughout the day. He started at our house taking shots of us getting dressed. Then off to the church for the ceremony, forest park for more pictures and he stayed the entire time at the reception.
Four Points Sheraton/Holiday Inn ***
This is a hard rating for me, as I really liked the facilities and the food, but there were a couple things that happened during the reception that upset me. First, they changed the name of the hotel 2 days before our reception and didn't call us to let us know. All our guests were going to be looking for the Four Points Sheration, but the building now said Holiday Inn. Tom found out when he went to go drop off the favors and pay the final amount at the hotel two days before. Also, during the ceremony there were children running around the hotel, in and out of our room, dropping gum and candy into our card box on the gift table. We also had 2 strange men come into the reception for who knows what reason other than they were acting very strange and shouldn't have been there.
Majestic Travel **
The travel agents at Majestic Travel were very nice, however our honeymoon was not as nice as we expected. They did not prepare us well for going to another country (i.e. it's all inclusive except bring ones to tip the guys loading your luggage onto the bus at the airport). We probably could have booked the trip online just as well.
On Monday night we ordered the flowers for the wedding. The picture here is the bouquet that I picked out for myself. The bridesmaids will have bouquets of white roses with some babies breath and greenery. The Groomsmen will have one white rose in their boutonnieres. We are getting a nice flower arrangement to go in front of the alter at the church. We also ordered small corsages and boutonnieres for the mothers/fathers and grandmothers/grandfathers. The flowers are from Favazza Florist, on Natural Bridge just down the street from the church.
So I purchased the shoes that I am going to wear for the wedding this weekend...skechers!
Here is a sneak preview of the tuxes that we picked out for the wedding! They are from Jim's Formal Wear, rented through Bridal Connections in Florissant. Click on the image for a bigger view! The red vests match the bridesmaid dresses perfectly! The groom, fathers and usher will wear the same tux with different vest and tie colors.
We went to the wedding show yesterday at the America's Center downtown. (By the way, isn't that the WORST graphic above? Whoever designed it probably used microsoft paint - yuck!) Anyway, so now it's time to make some more wedding decisions. Based on the info collected at the two wedding shows I attended here's what I get to sort through:
Here are some pictures of our reception location, the Four Points Sheraton at Earth City. The first picture is our ballroom, the Joliet (minus the chair covers), the second picture is the hotel from the outside and the third is a picture of their guest rooms. The hotel is holding a block of rooms for us at a discounted rate of $79 for our out-of-town guests. Click on the pictures to seem them larger.
We have a date! We will be getting married on Saturday, June 3, 2006.
