Vendor Reviews

Park Congregational Church - Ceremony Site - A

We are not members with any church and kind of had a hard time choosing/finding a church for our ceremony that would marry non-members and someone recommended we contact Park Church and we are so glad we did. It is a BEAUTIFUL church! We loved the architecture and the pastor, Ed Hielman, was awesome and very willing to work with us. The ceremony was perfect and Pastor Ed helped us through every step of the process and we were very happy with them. They are non-denominational and a United Church of Christ.
http://www.parkchurchucc.org - 419.382.5654

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The Toledo Hilton - Reception Venue - A++++++++++

We seriously cannot give enough pluses to the Hilton! They are probably the best venue in Toledo for a wedding reception as far as all-around service and selection are concerned. We worked with Theresa Carroll, their Catering Manager and event coordinator, and she is probably the biggest reason we chose the Hilton. Theresa is absolutely amazing! She definitely went above and beyond to please us and help us with every single aspect of our wedding - from recommended vendors, to decorating the ballroom, to food choices and even helping straighten us up prior to our entrance to the reception! It was almost like having a free day-of coordinator! We had the Birch, Elm and Maple rooms of the main ballroom and it was more than enough space for our reception of approximately 100 people. The food was INCREDIBLE and people raved all night about it. We had a custom Italian buffet dinner with Mediterranean grilled chicken breasts and lasagna as our entrees. Theresa helped us to cut some costs by customizing our menu for us and it was still plenty of delicious food. They even gave chicken fingers, mini-corn dogs, french fries and fried macaroni and cheese meals to all of the little kids and Theresa even a kids meal made for DH as a surprise and he loved it!! We also used them for chair covers at a very reasonable price. We loved that everything was included in the price that they give you - food, open bar, linens, setup, take-down, cleaning, waitstaff, gratuity, wedding cake, food tastings, cake tastings and coordinator services. They even gave us a room with champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries and two pieces of our wedding cake waiting for us at the end of the night and the next morning, we got to order free room-service breakfast!
http://www.hilton.com (Toledo link) - 419.381.6800

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Jordan Powers - Photographer - A+

Jordan was awesome!! He did a great job. We love all of the photos and we love his photojournalistic style. He had our teaser pics online within just six days and our proofs were all online within eight days of our wedding date! He took some very unique and artistic shots and we are very happy with all of them! He even risked his life, jumping in front of traffic in downtown Toledo, to get some great street shots! :) His prices are VERY reasonable as well.
http://www.jordanpowers.com

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Mary Poppins Cake Factory - Wedding Cake - B

Our cake was certainly beautiful and VERY delicious! They have THE best fondant we have ever tasted! They also did a great job designing it using only my ideas/suggestions. Our only problem with the cake was that it was very crooked and uneven. A few people told us they were calling it "the leaning cake of Pisa"... We cut the cake immediately after our entrance into the reception, so it was only really on display for the cocktail hour, but it was obviously noticed. *The price of our cake was included in our cost with the Hilton.
http://marypoppinscake.com - 419.849.2997

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Ultimate Nights - Reception DJ - A+

Ultimate Nights did an amazing job at our reception! We had Jeromy Danielski as our DJ and he was awesome! He even made us a CD with most of our song selections (plus a few extras) and gave it to us at the end of the night! You really cannot beat their prices, either. We had them for five hours and we thought it was a GREAT deal! The owner, Brian Cahill, was very helpful in getting us set up and he was very easy to work with throughout the planning process. We also loved their new "Online Event Planner" feature - you can add and subtract songs from your request lists and set up your entire reception timeline from the convenience of your home computer!
http://www.ultimatenightsdj.com - 419.350.3629

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Pam Thomas - Veil/Alterations/Seamstress Extraordinaire! - A++++

Everyone knows Pam is the BEST! She altered my gown and three of my bridesmaids' dresses and also put the bustle points in their dresses for us (their dresses had sweep trains and required a single bustle point - the fourth bridesmaid had her dress altered and bustled in her home town). She created a lovely 9-point bustle for my gown and it was beautiful! She even did some quick alterations to my bodice when I lost 20 pounds between my first and second fittings... :) Pam also makes and sells BEAUTIFUL veils and I ended up getting my veil from her at a VERY reasonable price! She has TONS to choose from and they're all very high quality! I cannot say enough good things about her - she is just perfect!
419.893.GOWN(4696)

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Jared the Galleria of Jewelry - Our Rings - A+

We used the store on Monroe Street in Toledo and are very happy with the service we receive from Jared. DH bought my rings as a set, which made it very easy on me! DH had a really hard time finding a ring that he liked and after searching high and low, we returned to Jared and they offered to custom order a ring in the style he liked (he wanted at least an 8mm-wide ring in a certain style and none of the area stores had anything that wide in this style) for the same price has smaller-width rings in other stores! We both have their Extended Service Plan on our rings and we love it - we especially love that we can have our rings re-plated, re-sized and/or cleaned all in a few hours! A lot of our friends and family are required to send out their rings for these services for days or even weeks and we didn't want to have to deal with going without our rings for that long every time we needed these services. We worked with several different employees (we like Enrique!) and all of them are very helpful!
http://www.jared.com - 419.480.0072

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Sharry's Touch - Flowers - A

Sharry did our bouquets, bouts and corsages at a VERY reasonable price! We were very happy with her work and I would definitely recommend her for any Toledo area budget brides! She was very easy to work with and very happy to help us with ideas, sample photos of her work and the logistics of our day/delivery!
419.866.5045

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Birmingham Limousine - Day-Of Transportation - A+

We used Birmingham Limousine for our day-of transportation from the wedding ceremony to pictures and to the reception hall. They did an AWESOME job and our driver, Mike C., was very professional and courteous. We orignally had a count of 18 people to have with us in the limo (we wanted our friends to come around with us for pictures, not just the bridal party), so they recommended a stretch Hummer H3! We ended up only having 12 people and we had more than enough space for everyone. The Hummer even had a FIREPLACE in it!! It was VERY nice! The price was awesome, too - it was only $680 total for three hours! We got a free wedding package with colored napkins (in our wedding colors), ice, bottles of champagne and glasses and a "Just Married" magnet on the back of the limo! The driver was on time and knew his way around Toledo very well. Someone even joked about stopping at Fritz and Alfredo's (local restaurant) for some burritos and he even drove to the restaurant while we were wasting time after the pictures! Mike was a great guy and a good sport. (photo by Birmingham Limo)
http://www.birminghamlimo.com - 419.882.5466

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BRIDES DIY Kit - Invitations - F

DO NOT buy this kit if you're looking for something quick and simple! It took me about three weeks, working on them every single day, to get them printed. The texture of the paper makes it impossible for you to print on it because it has small ridges and dimples and the ink from your printer will not adhere to the paper (I tried both laserjet and inkjet printers). The ink and wording from every component of this kit was rubbed off VERY easily and even every single RSVP card and envelope that we got back in the mail was almost illegible by the time it got back to our mailbox, so we can only imagine what the rest of the actual invitations looked like. Also, Kinko's, Office Max and Office Depot cannot print these for you because of the unusual sizes of the papers - I tried all of them.

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David's Bridal - My Dress - A

I have no complaints about David's Bridal. I went in a few times to try on dresses and the girls were very helpful. I bought my dress during their big summer sale and saved $400 on my Oleg Cassini dress.
http://www.davidsbridal.com (Monroe Street store) - 419.841.1000

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MW Tux/Men's Wearhouse - Tuxes - B

DH chose a mid-level tux - three button jacket - and it was kind of expensive, but they looked awesome. We chose black tuxes for everyone. The groomsmen had black vests with "pool" ties, DH had a white vest with white tie and the fathers had black vests with black ties. Everything looked great and DH even had to use both of his tux shirts (initial shirt and backup) because of a shaving incident, so the backup shirt really came in handy. However, the one major issue with them was that his backup shirt was WAY too big for him! He is 6'6" and the sleeves on that shirt were at least six inches too long! One of his groomsmen had to actually tape the sleeves at his shoulders so that they didn't hang out so much at his wrists, which meant he couldn't take off his jacket the whole day/night.
http://www.menswearhouse.com

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Bridal & Formal, Cincinnati, OH - Bridesmaid Dresses - B

We used Bridal and Formal in Cincinnati, Ohio for our bridesmaid dresses. We found an Alfred Angelo dress (7026) that we liked and the girls tried it on at a local store and we shopped around online to see if any of the discount websites had a lower price on it and we discovered Bridal and Formal and they will price-match any price you find! We found the dress for $65 below retail cost and they matched the price for us with no problems! The girls just had to call in their sizes (one of my BMs is 6'1" and needed extra length, so they matched the low price we found on that aspect as well!) and they were able to get their dresses delivered straight to their homes. Our only problem with them was that the dresses ended up taking 14 weeks from order date to delivery date and they were delivered to each girl only two weeks before the wedding. The employees were very nice about it and even called me weekly with updates on the status. It set a little panic but they were all able to get them altered in time and everything was fine.
http://www.bridalandformalinc.com - 513.821.6622