Vendors and Reviews

Vendors and Reviews

Below are my vendor reviews. These are my own personal thoughts and experiences, and they don’t necessarily reflect a vendor’s normal work (sorry, that’s my disclaimer for pissy vendors). If you have any questions about any of my vendors or want more information, feel free to send me an e-mail.

Videographer: Davis Creative Services , Tecumseh, MI – I’ll review this one when we get our video back.

Church: St. John Lutheran, Stryker (Pastor Kern) – A+ – Pastor did a wonderful job with our ceremony and rehearsal. His message was very personal and really fun. The church was very accessible to us (possibly because MIL is the secretary), and everything was exactly the way it was supposed to be.

Reception Hall and catering: Ridgeville American Legion Hall, Ridgeville Corners – A+ – Everything was right with the hall. We were able to get in when we were supposed to, the personnel were helpful, and the food was delicious. No complaints at all.

Photographer: Everlasting Images, Rossford – A+ – I can’t rave about Sam and Nichole enough! They were awesome! They were there on time, stayed all day, weren’t obnoxious and obtrusive, took a bazillion pictures, and even put together a slide show of pictures from the day that was displayed at the reception (which wasn’t part of our package, by the way). The pics I saw in the slide show were sooooooooooo good! I’m so, so, so excited to see the rest of our pics! They did an amazing job.

Salon: Expressions Hair Artistry & Spa, Napoleon – A+ – My hair turned out perfectly. Kara did an amazing job. Also, they let us bring in breakfast (including mimosas!) and put up with the BP lounging around for most of the morning.

Paper: CheapCardstock.com – A+ – They were great. We got all the paper we needed for our programs, RSVP cards, and maps for a fraction of the price we saw elsewhere.

Invitations: SouthwestAnnouncements.com – A+ – The invites were cheap, but great quality. Their shipping is super fast, too.

BM dresses: BridalDiscounters.com – A+ – They were great to work with. The dresses were perfect and arrived early. They were also $60 cheaper than any bridal store in the area. I would highly recommend them!

BM jewelry: Touch of TLC (Knottie Ms.Tiff) – A+ – Ms.Tiff made necklaces and earrings for my BM, and I love them. She was really easy to work with and even remade all the necklaces for free when I thought they were too short. I would highly recommend contacting her if you want custom made jewelry (she has info in her bio).

Wedding Band #2: Kay Jewelers, Toledo – A – After the custom band fiasco (see below), I ordered a wedding band from an internet seller. It came in the day before the wedding, and was just awful. So, I ended up with one hour to sprint through the mall and purchase a new band. Kay was the fourth store we stopped at, and our sales person was great. We told her what I was looking for, and she came up with the band I bought right away. Also, the manager gave me a discount on the ring. They had a sale starting the next day (a.k.a. our wedding day), so he decided it would be ok to give me the sale price a day early.

Ebay sellers – A – I used a whole bunch of these and didn’t have any problems. The names of the sellers I used are listed throughout my bio.

Veil: OccanseyDesigns.com – A – The veil is great. It was custom made, and was much cheaper than pre-made veils I saw anywhere else, including other websites. It didn’t come back looking exactly like I was picturing in my head, but I still like it.

Limo: Childers Limousine Service , Toledo – A – I don’t really have a lot to say about this one. The limo was nice, price was pretty decent. Our driver was really nice and put up with us pretty well. They did a good job.

Alcohol: Zeiler’s Farm Market, Temperance, MI – A – Zeiler’s was much, much cheaper for our liquor than stores in Toledo. Bill was great about helping us decide on amounts, and gave us a volume discount. Also, this store lets you return unopened bottles for cash, which was a major selling point for us.

DJ: Sihasi Sounds, Maumee – A- – Mark did a great job with everything. He was really nice to DH and me, and did his best to take care of anything we needed all night long. He kept the events flowing pretty well. It took a while for him to get people up and dancing, though, which kind of annoyed me. It seemed like he stuck with music that wasn’t working for too long. I would use him again, though.

Flowers and reception décor: Weeping Willow Florists, Pettisville – B+ – Connie was amazing to work with throughout the planning stages, and overall, I think she did a good job. I absolutely loved the hall decorations, but I was a little disappointed with the flowers. They ended up being a lot more pink than I expected. Not a big deal, but not what I was envisioning. Also, the BM bouquets had bows on them and pew décor had bows and some berry-like greenery, when I specifically asked for no bows anywhere and no berries. All of the flowers and church decorations looked good, but they just weren’t quite what I was hoping for. The hall looked awesome, though. Everything was exactly how I pictured it. Perfect.

Cake: Creative Cakes (Mary Mick), Defiance – B – Unfortunately, I can’t give Mary a higher grade. The cake was amazing – it was exactly what I wanted and tasted delicious. If I were grading on the cake alone, she would have gotten an A+. I had some issues with her customer service, though (it would have gotten a C-). Twice we made the hour drive to her house to taste her cake, and she didn’t have any cake ready for us; she was very short and rude to me on the phone several times when I called; and she wouldn’t return my calls in the couple weeks before the wedding when I was trying to confirm our order. She also messed up on the pricing, but fixed that when I asked her about it. Overall, cake = amazing, customer service = so-so.

My dress and alterations: Shaw’s Clothing, Wauseon – C – The shop was ok, didn’t have a huge selection, and the sales people we’re kind of annoying (too hyper and chipper for my liking), but the shop wasn’t what I had problems with. The seamstress is what brought this grade down. I told her what type of bustle I wanted, which she didn’t seem to know how to do. When I went for my first fitting, I hated the bustle, and she told me I needed to figure out how the bustle I wanted was done. My mom and I figured it out, and when Mom told her about it, she was extremely rude and told us to take the dress somewhere else for the bustle. She just rubbed me the wrong way. Her prices were great, though.

E-ring: Harold Jaffe Jewelers, Toledo – D – I didn’t like the vibe of this place at all. The sales people are pushy and FI and I both felt like we were being judged from the second we walked in the door because we’re relatively young and don’t look overly wealthy. Also, they’re really overpriced.

Wedding Night Accommodations: Frank Baker Inn, Defiance – D- – When we showed up after the reception, the B & B was locked up, and we couldn’t find a key anywhere. We ended up calling the owner, who told us that she hadn’t heard from us in the week before the wedding, so she assumed she had written down the wrong weekend and we weren’t coming. Also, someone else had been staying there all week (and was still there that night). DH had tried to call her (a lot) the week of the wedding, and got a busy signal every time. Also, we had already paid for our room, so I have no idea why she thought we weren’t coming. She should have called us to confirm if she though she had the date wrong. The only reason she’s not getting an F is because we’re getting our money back.

Wedding Band #1: Winters Custom Gold, Fremont – F – I had a band custom made by this man and had problems throughout the whole process. The first wax mold he made me was everything I hated about rings I could have purchased in any jewelry store. After that, I didn’t really want him to make a second wax mold because I didn’t want to get stuck paying for it if I didn’t like it. I asked him to get me some quotes, and then I would get back to him to let him know what I wanted to do. I called a couple weeks later with some questions and found out he had made a second mold. This worked out ok because I liked the mold, and I told him to go ahead and make the band. When I got the band back, I realized it had round diamonds in it instead of the princess diamonds I requested. I asked Dave about fixing the ring, and was told the only way to do that would be to make a whole new ring (apparently you can’t put round diamonds and square diamonds in the same type of hole), and he expected me to pay for half the cost of the new ring. I refuse to pay for a vendor’s incompetence, so I got stuck with a custom made ring that I hate (for sale below, if you’re interested). The quality is good, and the ring is very pretty, but it’s not what I ordered. I feel like Dave handled the situation very poorly and has some questionable business practices.

Hair and Make-Up Trial: Salon Serenity, Wauseon – F – I went here and had a hair and make-up trial that I didn’t like. Ok, I hated it. I posted on my local board that I hated my hair and make-up trial. Another Knottie told either the stylist or the salon owner (I’m still not entirely clear on this) what I had posted, so the owner got on my local board, read my posts, then (here’s the kicker) CALLED MY MOM to discuss my posts. I was extremely annoyed that this woman went to my mother instead of calling me with her concerns. I really feel like the issues could have been worked out if the owner had called me to discuss them, but I was never given that opportunity.