Vendor Reviews
1. Amy Riendeau. A++++ I hate the ebay A++++ arbitrary ratings, but Amy truly deserves it. I was never once frustrated with Amy. She answered all my questions promptly, and politely. Maybe Chicago is a particularly rude city, but the Disney attitude stands out so much to me. It is so refreshing when people are nice to you and don't act like doing their job is a massive burden. Amy is the perfect example of a model Disney employee. Planning a wedding is so stressful and expensive and Amy made things so easy for me. Even on the day of the wedding she was cool as a cucumber, and had everything under control. As my family was literally walking out of the Boardwalk, my dad was ripping tags off his suit. My mom asked for scissors and Amy had them in seconds. I truly loved working with Amy and would recommend future escape brides to insist working with her.
2. Rosie Carabbia. A+ Rosie is another great example of someone who was born to work for Disney. She had such a positive attitude every time I dealt with her. I am sure that I was annoying at times, changing things at the last minute and so on, but Rosie was always pleasant and helpful. She had wonderful suggestions and seemed to genuinely care. All the floral turned out great.
3. Impressions. A. I tried to made the Mickey fans myself. I really did. It's impossible if anyone out there is planning to do it. You can cut them with scissors but they won't be perfect circles and I am too OCD to have that. I bought several kinds of circle cutters and found them impossible to line up. The ones that I was kind of able to line up were not strong enough to cut through cardstock. A week or two before the wedding I caved and went with Impressions for the fans. Shelley and the staff are very friendly and helpful. I requested a Donald/Daisy image I found online and it looked great. They accommodated my specific color requests and were just all around great. The only reason I do not give a + is because it's so overpriced.
4. Bluezoo. A+ Bluezoo was great. I know the Swan/Dolphin is like the red headed stepchild of Disney in these parts but I really like the place. We stayed there last June and honestly prefer it to the Beach Club VIllas which we stayed in during the wedding/honeymoon. I chose Bluezoo because it had a private room and was on the Boardwalk. I really recommend it for escape brides. The restaurant and private rooms and beautiful, the food is great, and the staff is superb. I worked with Liz Torres and she was wonderful.
5. Studio 222. Love them. I'll wait until I get the pictures to give a grade, but I am confident I will be pleased. I have yet to see bad pictures on their blog. They were so great to work with. I am pretty shy and awkward, but Becka and Nate were so friendly and nice, I had no problem roaming the Boardwalk for 2 hours taking pictures. The 2 hours literally flew by. Michael and I kept saying how fast it seemed to move. Michael especially loved Nate as they seemed to have similar interests. I really recommend people check out their website
http://thestudioishere.com/. We were their first Disney wedding and I hope other people consider them. Their prices are very reasonable if you want a modern style.
6. Carolyn Allen's. A+ Easy, and efficient. The morning of the wedding 2 people from CA were exactly on time and quietly pressed 3 dresses. They turned out great. The day after the wedding I dropped my dress off at Bell Services where it was picked up and is currently being cleaned. Now I realize this review could change if I get my dress back in a few weeks and its ruined, but I seriously doubt that will happen. The whole process is like clockwork and it made things so much easier. Michael's parents drove the dresses down and it was nice to know it didn't matter how wrinkled they got on the journey.
7. Patricia LeJeune A+. I absolutely loved Patricia. She came with someone else and I feel like a jerk because I have no idea what her name was. They were both great though. I had hair/makeup done for myself and my two bridesmaids. It all looked fantastic. Patricia was so friendly and calming, I would recommend her in a heartbeat. She mentioned the fact that she has been trying to get on the Disney vendor list but apparently it's a long and arduous process. I seriously hope Disney puts her on because it seems like so many people use her, they might as well.
8. Ron Rosenzweig. A. Ron was on time. He knew the script. He got our names right. He only cost $150. And he was the only person on Disney's list who had no religious affiliations in any way. I think officiant reviews are pointless because it's so dependent on what you want. We wanted someone completely non religious who would wear a suit, go through the legalities, and leave. Ron did that, so I recommend him for someone looking for that.
Glad I did
1. Had Daisy and Donald. It's a lot of money. We gave up the MK photoshoot to do it. I'm glad I did. Everyone was surprised, including Michael. My mom cried. I'm of the belief that if you are doing a Disney wedding, you should go all out and make it as Disney as possible. Again, it's personal preference. For some people it's tacky and childish. To me it was fun and made the ceremony (which, let's face it, is usually the most boring part of a wedding) a worthwhile part of the day. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
2. Had a dessert party. I cannot describe how magical this was. Trust me, I do not usually use the word magical. This was. Firstly, Epcot was kind of crowded. There was a buzz as people were staking out their spots for Illuminations. The event guide who walked us from the backstage is one of the nicest people I've ever encountered. As we entered the park everyone starting clapping and yelling 'congratulations.' It was like a movie, I cannot adequately describe it. It was honestly one of the greatest moments of my life.
My party was in Morocco. I again bring up the red headed stepchild comment in regards to Morocco. On this board its discussed as if it's behind a cement pillar in the middle of the parking lot. It's a great location. The wall is not high, you can see the show and globe perfectly, you can hear everything, its great. So if you are an escape bride "stuck" with Morocco, chill out. I hope my DP pictures come out ok because I want to reassure people out there that it's great. Everyone in my group said it was the best location and so cool, etc, etc.
Wish I didn't
1. Have so much food. Don't plan a wedding when you are a on a wedding diet. My eyes were bigger than my stomach. There was too much food. It was a huge waste of money. We had the ceremony cake and champagne. For dinner, we had 4 courses, not including the bread. We had a BOC bar at the dessert party. We had dessert at the dessert party. Way too much. If I could do it over, I would have had an appetizer and entree for dinner, and no dessert party bar. It was too hot to drink anyway.
2. Have a wedding in the middle of the afternoon in June. I'm a teacher. Our sisters were/are in college. Summer is really the only time this wedding was possible. If I had to do it again though, or advise someone, I would have found a way to have it some other time. For 2 weeks I compulsively checked 5 different weather websites. The morning of the wedding, even though the ceremony wasn't until 2:30pm, I was up at 5am and running down to the Beach Club lobby checking weather reports. Statistically, it should have rained. It didn't. I was just really lucky. If I HAD to have it in the summer, a morning ceremony probably would have been better. I just hate the idea of so much dead time between wedding events and breakfast foods are not for me. Again, it all turned out great, but it was pure luck.
Teasers
I'm not doing my TR until the Studio 222 pics and Disney photography DP pics come in. It will probably be several weeks, but I hope you stick around. Here are some teaser pics. Some are the professional teasers, some are just amateur shots guests took.
Thank you Ms. LeJeune and photoshop
Our wonderful location. I'm so glad I chose all the locations I did. Having everything on the Boardwalk was so convenient.
Nice shot of the bouquet.
The bridesmaid dresses.
Sand ceremony setup.
Cute ring shot.
Nerds. LOL.
The beautiful location. I loved the petals in the aisle. It worked so well with the color scheme. I gave Rosie almost no direction with that so I am pleased.
The "special guests" arrive
Cutting the cake. It was chocolate with white chocolate mousse. It tasted like a klondike bar to me.
Random goofy pics around the Boardwalk between the ceremony and dinner.
Bluezoo dinner.
View into the private room through this wine rack thing.
Us at the dessert party. I hope the Disney photographer got some good pics because as you can see the guests did not
More to come soon...
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I totally understand why you want to wait until the pro photos come back, but I loved looking at the teasers! 
