Thanks so much. This information is helpful! Does anyone else have any reviews of these venders or used different ones?
Here are my vendor reviews, minus the pictures. If you wanna see pictures, the reviews are on the first page of my trip report, which is the "Trip!" link in my signature.
Photography: Nathan & Jensey Root
A+++
OK, everyone knows by now how much I love the Roots, so I wont belabor the point, but... fresh style, all digital-photo rights, great price, friendly and easy to work with, pictures finished in less than two weeks fantastic!
Videography: Star Fruit Productions
Im going to update this review when I get my finished video in a couple of days. So far I love that Sages work has a cinematic style and that she has been so open to my ideas about music, editing, etc. There were some authoring problems with the first DVDs she gave me, so the fixed ones are on their way.
Floral: Disney Floral
B+
Although I had to cut a lot of my original floral proposal due to the high prices, what I did get was exactly what I asked for, even though technically my dahlias werent in season. I was also happy that they worked with me to come up with super-cheap but great-looking altarpieces.
Tying in with the over-priced thing, I wasnt crazy about how limited my chair alternatives were the cheapest chair upgrade (wood, folding) actually turned out to be more expensive than putting covers on the ugly standard chairs because of a setup fee. Oh, and the constant warnings that my aisle petals would blow away (they didnt)...
Hair & Makeup: Patricia LeJeune (
www.lejeune-pca.com)
A
I chose Patricia because I wanted natural-looking makeup, I liked the looks on her website, and her prices were good. I am extremely fair, which makes it hard to get a good foundation match, but the airbrush makeup she used on me blended really well and lasted all day (apparently real airbrush makeup is more durable than traditional foundation, but a lot of makeup artists dont want to pay $40 a bottle for it, so they use regular foundation in an airbrush and it doesnt last).
We actually used a lot of my own color makeup (at my request), so Im going to give a shoutout to the products that lasted all day:
Lips: Vincent Longo Pearlessence Gel Stain + Paul & Joe Lip Gloss
Eyes: Laura Mercier Eye Color Quad; CoverGirl LashExact mascara
Model in a Bottle setting spray
I also liked what Patricia did with my hair, although it took me barking out orders at the last moment to get it to look exactly how I wanted; Patricia was totally cool about that. One thing she may be hard to get ahold of at first because she does SO many weddings, but when she makes an appointment with you she keeps it. Also, she was about 20 minutes late that morning, partly because it was 4:30am and there was no valet on duty to take her car. I had asked her to come 30 minutes earlier than I thought I needed her to come, though, so it worked out OK.
Dress Steaming & Shipping: Carolyn Allen
A
Using Carolyn Allen to get my dress to and from Orlando, plus steaming, was one of the best things I did. I FedExed it to them in its original shipping box about 2 weeks beforehand and included my shrug. They brought both pieces to me the morning of my wedding already steamed, and then they touched them up while Patricia did my hair and makeup. After the wedding I left the dress & shrug with DHs tux at my hotels bell services and CA picked everything up, stuffed it back in the box, and shipped it back to my house. The only thing that bugged was they charged me $35 for return shipping it cost me $20 to ship it.
Tuxedos: Carolyn Allen
B-
Getting tuxedos through CA should have been a lot easier than it was the idea of having tuxes delivered and picked up at the hotel was very appealing, and there arent too many vendors who do this. The snag was that CAs new vendor, Jims Formalwear, closes its warehouse all weekend, which means that if any of the pieces needed for a Sunday or Monday-morning wedding are wrong, they cant be exchanged for the right ones (unless you happen to have selected a style of tux that CA keeps on hand). As Id feared, this happened to us. It was really the fault of whoever measured the Best Man, but it bothered me that CA couldnt get us the correct size jacket. However, the fellow who brought the tuxes for the fitting was a really friendly, helpful guy who even gave us directions to
Best Buy!
Manicure: Perriwigs @ the Beach Club
A-
When I heard about Caryns Magical Disappearing Manicure from Perriwigs, I was worried. But the girl who did my manicure did a nice job (I think her name was Xiomara), and it lasted about a week.
Waxing: Mandara Spa @ the Dolphin
D
I was really disappointed in the Mandara Spa. It has the attitude and prices of one of our swanky Beverly Hills spas but the atmosphere, amenities and services are mediocre at best. I knew I should have gone to Bliss before I left LA it would have been cheaper, and they give you free brownies! When I first tried to book a full-leg and bikini wax, they said the woman who does the kind I wanted doesnt work Saturdays (?!?). I called back closer to the date to see if her schedule had changed and they booked me. But when I got there, they said she still didnt work Saturdays and I would have to come back the next day. The day before my wedding
which I had scheduled up to my eyeballs. Grrrr.
The girl who did my leg wax was friendly but did a TERRIBLE job she missed patches all over my legs and didnt fully remove all the wax bits. I had stuff sticking to me for two days
When I came back for the bikini wax I asked the woman to fix her colleagues bad job, but she said she didnt have time. At least I had the presence of mind to ask about a discount for Starwood Hotels Preferred Guest members when I paid at the end
I got 20% off (kinda like it was for the 20% of my legs she missed
)