Preliminary Vendor Reviews
Also following Amanda's suggestions, I will do preliminary vendor reviews. I may come across as negative but I have high standards, sorry!
Ashley Jane Photography, A+
Ashley is just sooo wonderful to work with. She immediately made us feel comfortable. And that takes a lot with Corey. I have really loved everything I have seen so far. She was amazing the day of the wedding! I had so much fun with her. Her and her 2nd shooter were amazing. Best team around! I also think she is a great value. The only reason I didn't give her an A+ is because I wish she would blog. It would have been nice to share a blog post instead of having to post the photos myself. And Disney's new contract says they can't share any disney photos at all. Edited 1/24 I just got my pictures and it has taken my rating up! I am obsessed with the pictures and think they are as good as the Roots and I believe she is cheaper. There are a couple of "wish I did" with photography but all that it my own fault on not expressing what I wanted.
Beyond Videography, ?
I am not going to give them a rating yet until I see their work. Tyler,'s who is the owner, communication is pretty bad. It takes a long time. But he is super friendly. The day of the wedding I give him an A+. Also, this is my fault but I didn't research enough. At first I wanted the bare bones for video because it was the least of my priorities. But now, I want it all. And that 7 minute video isn't cutting it. I asked for all raw footage so I can hear it and see everything but I haven't heard back yet. I will give him a little slack because of the holidays. I know I have to pay extra for the raw footage and that is okay. The one amazing thing that happened is that I cut our package down at the last week to just one videographer and he brought a second shooter anyways. I feel like I should give him more money but I did clarify that I only wanted one videographer.
Maxine Pollakis, Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings, A
Maxine was great to work with. Her responses were very quick and she got everything I wanted done. She also did me a huge favor and charged me lunch prices for a late lunch reception. She was able to give me suggestions to cut cost and gave me honest feedback on everything. When our cocktail hour had to be moved she gave us a credit and a complimentary champagne toast. Those things alone were amazing! This is me being really narcissistic but the only thing that made me a tiny bit hurt was that she didn't share any thing of our wedding on instagram. She normally posts pictures on her personal IG from her weddings but not of mine. She was so professional every time we were together. I feel like I wish I would have gotten a bit more guidance closer to the wedding but that may have been my fault. Her and her team the day of the wedding were incredible. I truly can't believe how many people were there for our wedding from Disney!
LeJeune Artistry, Makeup A+ Hair A-
Patricia did an amazing job on my makeup. I can't believe how incredible my makeup looked. The way she made my green eyes pop were amazing. I liked my hair but I didn't love it. Granted, I didn't have a trial. I wanted the bun in the back to poof out a bit more than it did. It also was falling out by the end of the night. This is totally my fault but I only got a partial highlight before. The way she did my hair looked like a drastic change from highlights to natural hair. I wish she would have done something different to fix that. Everyone else's hair looked really great. But once again, just me being really picky.
Orlando Party & Wedding Rentals, Final Product A+ Process B
I felt like they gave me the runaround on pricing throughout the process. I worked with Brittany and she was very friendly although a bit slow in emails. I took away 16 chairs at the end for cocktail hour and she said she didn't know if they could still honor the prices. Also tried charging me more delivery fee just to add chargers. I got chargers, chiavari chairs, and uplights through them and the price was amazing. Chargers were $1, chairs $4.50, and uplights $25 each. Also, when I went with the lower count for uplights the price was going to be more per light all of a sudden. I just didn't like the way she kept changing around prices. Just trying to get the most out of me. However, the end result was fabulous! I still give them an overall good rating.
Bluegrass Chic Floral, A-
The end result wasn't exactly what I gave her for my vision. However, it grew on me. I ended up really loving my bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquet. I started getting text messages Thursday night on the way to Orlando with pictures from my bouquet asking me if I like them. Great that she was texting me for feedback because I did change a lot. But putting together my bouquet on a Thursday for a Monday wedding? That seemed a little too soon. She guaranteed me my flowers were going to be fresh for the wedding. They were for the most part but some of them were a little droopy once I started handling the bouquet. One flower I had to rip out because it was drooping. I think my flowers were just really fragile. The pluses were the feedback -- it was so great to be able to see what the bouquet looked like before and make any changes necessary. She had to redo it like four times because I kept having her take away more. The negatives were a little wilty flowers and that it didn't look exactly like my inspiration. But, the end results and pictures are good.
Heather Sparby, A
Heather was very sweet and nice. Her response was delayed at times and I had to get Maxine involved. But I am sure she has a lot of weddings that she does. I wish I would have been a BIT more specific in my vision. I said hot pink in the floral but I think it was a little too hot pink. I also didn't love my cake table and the flowers on the top of the cake. But I loved the centerpieces. I also wish I could have taken flowers with me to my room. It makes me so sad that all of our wedding flowers were thrown away. They were too pretty and expensive to only be used for one day.
Timothy Herring Officiant, A-
My family all loved his spiel during the ceremony. He was a bit too southern preacher for me. He also asked Corey and me to send him reasons why we wanted to spend the rest our lives with each other. We each spent a lot of time typing up an email because I thought he was going to use them in his sermon. He didn't personalize the sermon with anything from what we told him. I also didn't like how he took pictures of us at the end. It took away 5 minutes with our professional photographer. Sure, it is cool that he takes pictures of every one of his couples but it is a little weird. This is me being negative again but I am just being honest.
DJ Charles Miles, A+
I requested this DJ after hearing great things about him and he was simply fabulous. My entire family raved about him being the best DJ ever. He met our needs perfectly, surprised us based on information he just found out about us. He was amazing. He knew what we liked and what we didn't. I simply can't say enough good things about him.
Overall, I was very happy with everyone that helped me. The things I am nitpicking are just minor. Everything came together beautifully!!