Vendor recommendation/referral thread.

[Evi]

I've seen various recommendation and review through out the boards for wedding vendors and thought. This stuff really needs a home. I'd encourage brides to create a single post listing vendors they used, services they received and an honest review or a link to there planning journal with post number where they have a review on there vendors.

 

[Boston Disney Bride]

Tanis Armstrong (wedding planner): *B* While she was amazing the day of my wedding and had everything and everyone in the places that they needed to be, she was extremely difficult to get a hold of. Many emails went unanswered as well as phone calls.

Rev. Tim Herring: C He was another who was extrememly hard to get a hold of and when you are planning a destination wedding, communication is HUGE!! He was also not to personable in person and flubbed up our ceremony.

Randy Chapman: A++++ He was AMAZING! He showed up early and left late! His work speaks for itself. He ended up giving us over 2,000 photos on CD's. He is also very budget friendly.

Rosie(Disney floral): A She understood right from the get go what I was looking for and nailed it the day of my ceremony.

Mandera Salon for Nails: B Nothing special, but my nails were painted and looked nice. A little more expensive than I would have like to pay, but was very convenient.

Beaute Speciale: A+ I had Laine come and do my hair and makeup. She was so sweet. Showed up on time and once we started talking it was as if we had been friends forever. My hair and makeup lasted all day!

Carolynn Allen's: A + I had shipped my gown to them about 10days prior to my ceremony. They confirmed once it had arrived and showed up to my hotel the day before my ceremony to steam my gown and veil. They were very quick and efficient and talked very little.

 

[Evi]

Tanis Armstrong (wedding planner): *B* While she was amazing the day of my wedding and had everything and everyone in the places that they needed to be, she was extremely difficult to get a hold of. Many emails went unanswered as well as phone calls.

Rev. Tim Herring: C He was another who was extrememly hard to get a hold of and when you are planning a destination wedding, communication is HUGE!! He was also not to personable in person and flubbed up our ceremony.

Randy Chapman: A++++ He was AMAZING! He showed up early and left late! His work speaks for itself. He ended up giving us over 2,000 photos on CD's. He is also very budget friendly.

Rosie(Disney floral): A She understood right from the get go what I was looking for and nailed it the day of my ceremony.

Mandera Salon for Nails: B Nothing special, but my nails were painted and looked nice. A little more expensive than I would have like to pay, but was very convenient.

Beaute Speciale: A+ I had Laine come and do my hair and makeup. She was so sweet. Showed up on time and once we started talking it was as if we had been friends forever. My hair and makeup lasted all day!

Carolynn Allen's: A + I had shipped my gown to them about 10days prior to my ceremony. They confirmed once it had arrived and showed up to my hotel the day before my ceremony to steam my gown and veil. They were very quick and efficient and talked very little.

Thank you for sharing your reviews Jessica. Its great to hear what a great experience you had with your vendors. I always thought your photos were fab.

 

[minniebride]

Here is a copy of the thread I posted when I got back from my December, 2011 wedding....

Hi everyone!

We just got married on 12/18 and just returned home from our honeymoon

I know that the majority of this board is filled with reviews of DFTW weddings, so I thought it would be very helpful and beneficial to others to post vendor reviews from a Swan wedding. If you have any questions, please feel free to post or PM me!

Most Swan reviews I have seen on here are for intimate sized weddings-ceremony and a meal in a private dining room. We actually had a larger sized wedding of 55 guests. We did the whole wedding weekend with a Welcome Dinner, Epcot Dessert Party, ceremony at Crescent Terrace, cocktail hour in the West Courtyard, and lunch reception in the Swan's Pelican Room (banquet room).

Just Marry Wedding Coordinator Karen Gingerich: http://justmarry.com/
I cannot save enough wonderful things about the Just Marry company and about Karen Gingerich. She truly made this a stress-free experience for us. She took care of everything, pulled everything together very organized, not missing any details, and just seemed genuinely happy and excited to be working with us and organizing our wedding. I cannot thank her enough Her assistants who accompanied her at our rehearsal and our wedding day were very sweet girls and they handled everything very well. In addition to Karen being such an amazing planner, one difference that we were able to experience with Just Marry, that I am told you do not receive to the same degree with DFTW, is the level of personal contact and communication during the planning process. Karen emailed me back within a few hours everytime I contacted her. During the final week before the wedding, she was even contacting me on her day off! Anytime my parents phoned her, she got back to them immediately. We were also able to meet with her and the catering staff on multiple occasions (no extra charge) several months before the wedding to see the ceremony space, reception space, do a tasting session, meet for planning meetings (at my parents request), and conference call with the outside vendors. Karen made sure we were aware that we were welcome to communicate with her in any method that is most comfortable for us. Any changes that may have needed to be made (room changes, etc...), Karen alerted us well in advance. Our entire wedding went off without a hitch and I am incredibly thankful that we ended up with such a wonderful planner as Karen. A+++

Lindsey Cullen-Swan Catering Coordinator
Lindsey makes up the 2nd half of the entire coordination of our wedding. Lindsey was just as amazing as Karen and I cannot thank her enough for all of her hard work in putting this all together. She was extremely organized, thorough, relaxed, and again, just seemed genuinely happy and excited to assist us every step of the way. She was very easy to contact, responded to all of our questions very quickly, and we also met with her several times before the wedding for the tasting session, meetings (at our request), tours of the locations, etc... Our cocktail hour in the East Courtyard was amazing and beautifully decorated. Reception space was beautiful and in a great location. Again, everything went off without a hitch and I have Lindsey to thank for that! As an additional piece of generosity, she was able to upgrade our room at the Swan and my parents' room at the Dolphin to these amazing suites with huge balconies! After the wedding, Lindsey came over to me and gave me a hug and wished us well-she even gave us a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolates to take with us to our honeymoon!! We loved Lindsey and I would recommend that anyone planning a Swan reception personally request that she works with you-you will not regret it!!! A+++

Swan Catering: http://www.swandolphincatering.com/
In addition to Lindsey, I have to give a shout out to the entire Swan catering Team and comment on the food, which was AMAZING!!! At our cocktail hour, we had 4 different hors d'oeuvres passed around:
Shrimp Cocktail in Phyllo Cup
Grilled Pita, Red Pepper-Goat Cheese Hummus with Cold Pressed Olive Oil
Smoked Salmon Blini, Crème Fraiche
Braised Short Rib Summer Roll

All of these were melt in your mouth delicious! We also had an open bar at cocktail hour which was great as well and the bartender was very nice and professional.

For our lunch reception, we had a plated lunch of:
SALAD
Garden Greens, Tomatoes, Julienne Carrots, Cucumbers, Herb
Vinaigrette
ENTREES
Choice Of
Pan Seared Chicken, Yukon Gold Potato Puree, Baby Fennel,
Sage Chicken Jus (SERVE IN PASTA BOWLS)
Salmon, Mango Chutney (cubed), Jasmine Rice, Chef's Choice of
Organic Vegetables
(FRENCH SERVICE FOR CHUTNEY)
VIP Bread Service
WEDDING CAKE
X-Large (4) Tiered Wedding Cake with Snowflake Design
First (3) Tiers:
White Sponge Cake with Bavarian Cream and Fresh Strawberries
Top Tier:
Carrot Cake (for bride and groom to take with them)

We also had a few meals for the kids, which consisted of a fresh fruit salad, pizza, french fries, & mixed vegetables.

All of the food was delicious!!! Everyone commented how great it was. The waitstaff was also top notch and made sure all of our guests were taken care of. A+

Tommy Murphy Greenery Productions-Floral http://www.greeneryproductions.com/
Tommy Murphy was recommended to us by our wedding planner, Karen, and we could not have been happier with his service and his quality of work!! He handled all of our floral for the bridal party, ceremony including our amazing chuppah, and our reception. He also handled all of our linens. He was in great contact with us prior to the wedding and also coordinated a conference call with us, him, and our planner, to ensure that everything was all set prior to the wedding. The floral was amazing!! Truly a professional and expert in creativity and just a very sweet man to work with. The linens also came together beautifully. We had one very minor glitch with the colored napkins we ordered (not his fault-it was an issue with the company he worked with), but he compensated by using gorgeous chargers under our plates instead, which ended up looking amazing! I would recommend Tommy from Greenery productions to anyone!! A+

Rabbi Robert Lefkowitz-Officiant
We chose Rabbi Lefkowitz, based on reviews we read on here. I am Jewish & my DH is not (though he is planning to start the process of converting in a few months), so we chose Rabbi Lefkowitz because he is comfortable in performing interfaith ceremonies. Rabbi Lefkowitz was WONDERFUL and so nice to work with!! We had several phone conversations with him, a meeting in person, and he showed up for our rehearsal. The rabbi was great in customizing our ceremony to what we were comfortable with, but in addition, educating us on all different kinds of Jewish ceremonies, traditions, and the meaning behind them. He ran a beautiful ceremony & we are both so happy we chose him to be our officiant!! Again, I would recommend him to anyone interested in having an interfaith officiant A+

Randy Chapman-Photographer http://chapmanphotography.com/
We chose Randy based on reviews on here and several good friends who also had Randy at their wedding. We absolutely made the RIGHT choice with Randy! We are a very shy couple and Randy did an amazing job making us feel comfortable and choosing some amazing locations for photos! He is a true artist and clearly takes such pride in his work. I am so excited to get our pictures back from him! We are already planning to use him again in the future for a photo shoot for an anniversary trip!! If you are looking for a great photographer, please choose Randy-but book early-he is very popular and his schedule fills up quickly!! A+

Christine MacPhail-Harpist http://www.orlandoharpist.com/
Christine was recommended to us from our planner, Karen, & we could not have been happier with her choice! Christine was so nice to work with and so talented-she agreed to play essentially any song we asked of her-even obscure favorites of ours that she hadn't heard of prior! Christine's harp playing was just magical!! We had her for our ceremony and our cocktail hour. Afterwards, she even gave us a CD of the selections she played during our ceremony, which was so special to us, since the music was so important to us. If you are looking for a harpist-please choose Christine MacPhail-you will NOT regret it!!! A+

Chuck Johnson-DJ http://www.classicdiscjockeys.com/
We chose Chuck, based on reviews we read on the Dis. We had been to weddings in our hometown with really obnoxious and bad DJ's and we were really looking for someone more professional and classic, and that us exactly how we would describe Chuck. He will accommodate to whatever type of reception you are looking for-whether you want classic and low key like ours, or fun and bouncy like others might prefer. He was also a great announcer-very pleasing voice for announcing dances, toasts, etc...Chuck was very easy to work with-he played whatever songs we wanted, but most importantly, was very skilled in moving stuff around and incorporating other songs to mesh with the current vibe of the room. He got more people dancing than I had expected and everyone had a great time! We also had Mickey and Minnie & he worked very well with that part of the entertainment. We would recommend DJ Chuck Johnson to anyone!! A+

Mickey & Minnie-Disney Event Services
YES, you can even book Mickey and Minnie for your Swan reception!! and it's not some cheap knock off Mickey/Minnie-it's the same exact characters you would get through DFTW! They showed up as a surprise to our guests and everyone LOVED them!! They stayed for 30 minutes and danced, cake cutting, slow dance, and photos with me and my DH. We had originally requested Minnie to be in her purple dress (to match our wedding colors), but she showed up in her white ball gown instead. I was not upset with this mistake though-her white ball gown was adorable!!! Mickey and Minnie did a great job, as did their handler, & if you can afford the high price-go for it!! A+

Beaute Speciale-Jessica C, Jessica T, & Crystal http://www.beautespeciale.com/
I chose Beaute Special based on reviews I read on here. We had 3 girls come to our room at the Swan-Jessica C, Jessica T, & Crystal (make up) for my mom, MIL, 2 bridesmaids, & me. They arrived right on time and actually finished 45 minutes early. They all did a beautiful job and we were all so happy with their work! We all felt like princesses by the time they were done with us. The other person I want to give recognition to is Veronica Johnson, who handled all of the coordinating, scheduling, and answering my many questions. She was very prompt and thorough and very nice to work with. I would recommend Beaute Special to anyone!! A+

Carmen from Mandara Spa-Manicure/Pedicure http://www.swananddolphin.com/activities/spa.html
My mom and I got our nails done the day before the wedding and I'm so glad I got lucky and got Carmen to do my nails. She was such a sweet woman and very talented! I made the wise choice of getting a shellac french manicure and 2 weeks later, it still looks decent! I would personally request her again the next time I want to treat myself to Mandara Spa services. The Spa in general is so relaxing and beautiful-all of the people in there were fantastic to deal with!! A+

Illuminations Dessert Party-Disney Event Services-Sylvester Taylor
YES, you can also have a Fireworks Dessert Party if you have a Swan wedding! You cannot wear your wedding dress, but we had our party the evening before our wedding and it turned out to be such a wonderful pre-wedding event for our guests!! Sylvester Taylor was our planner and he did a fantastic job coordinating everything! We ordered a modified Marceline menu of:
Tie Dyed Cupcakes
Assorted Cookies
Chocolate Eclairs
Triple Chocolate Trifle
Peanut Butter Marshmallow Squares (OMG these were AMAZING!!!!)
Coffee, Tea, Water, Fruit Punch

We had our event in the French Lower Terrace and it was an amazing view of the fireworks!! They decorated the event beautifully and we were not expecting the additional holiday decor that they used at the main food tables. The tables had Led candles and they were very accomodating about letting us bring in glow necklaces for our guests. Sylvester showed up for the event as well and he was a wonderful man!! The event was amazing, guests were so excited about it, and the only negative comment that I have to say about it was it went by too fast!!!! A++

1900 Park Fare Manager Kevin Filipello & GF Private Dining Cake Order, Pat Anderson-Welcome dinner and Groom's cake
We kicked off our wedding weekend with a Welcome Dinner at 1900 Park Fare. Since we had alot of guests, we contacted Kevin Filipello, one of the 1900 Park Fare managers, prior to the event. Kevin was FANTASTIC! He helped us make this a magical event and went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that we were comfortable and happy. I cannot say enough wonderful things about Kevin and I am so grateful for all of his help. I also ordered a surprise grooms cake for my DH that I ordered through Pat Anderson. The cake was to look like "My Adventure Book" from the movie "Up" but it said "Our Adventure Book" instead. The cake was a 1/4 sheet cake and it was AMAZING!! It looked just like the book!! $200 and worth every penny! Our entire Welcome dinner at 1900 was perfect-the food was terrific, characters were hilarious, and the service was fantastic!! A++!

Pixie and Pirate Destinations Online Disney Travel & Trip Planning Service-Lisa Reese http://www.pixieandpiratedestinations.com/lisa-r.html
I cannot say enough wonderful things about Lisa R. from Pixie & Pirate Destinations! Lisa handled all of our trip planning for my DH & me, as we3ll as many of our wedding guests. Thank goodness for Lisa-she made everything so stress-free and easy! She handled our hotel reservations, dining reservations, and answered all of our questions to help make our wedding trip and honeymoon so magical!! She also managed to save us over $400 with all the discounts she was able to apply. I would never hesitate to use Lisa again for any future WDW trip we take. A+

OK, I think that concludes all of my vendors....If I forgot anyone, I'll edit and add on a review! Feel free to ask any questions!!