Vendors
- Alcohol: Joe Canal's; Cape May, NJ- Since our venue isn't a traditional venue, we get to bring everything in ourselves. That includes alcohol. I had NO idea how much of everything I'd need, so we went to Canal's and talked to their manager. He said, "This is going to be the easiest part of your wedding: I'll have you in and out in 5 minutes." And he did. He asked what we want, made suggestions, and printed out a form with how much we'd need of everything and how much it would cost us. They were super friendly, very helpful, AND they buy back any unopened bottles. Their prices were lower than the other stores in the area, too. We changed our signature cocktails in the month before the wedding and also had an updated head count for them. They helped us change everything and were more than happy to answer questions and keep changing whatever we needed. We only hit one snafu when my mum went to pick the alcohol up- they said we weren't confirmed or paid for. We didn't even know we needed to put down a deposit- I was literally in contact with them up to two days before she went to pick it up, and no one ever told me we needed a deposit. It wasn't a problem though- they simply pulled up our invoice, pulled the alcohol, and helped load it into the car. That's also when we found out they did deliveries- would have been nice to know beforehand. It wasn't that big of a deal though, and I'd totally use them again. The day after the wedding, we returned all our unopened alcohol/cases of beer and got about $350 back with no questions asked. Nice and easy. Would recommend time and again!
- Alterations: Brenda Hunsberger; Collegeville, PA - Brenda is actually the mother of a close friend of mine. She just happens to be a very skilled seamstress. When I started thinking about alterations, I contacted her daughter because I knew she had done her alterations and used the extra fabric from her dress to make a bolero. I went to Brenda's house on a Saturday morning and she had me put on the dress and started figuring out what needed to be done. My dress came in in November 2011 and by June 2012 (my first fitting), I had lost nearly 30 pounds. Needless to say, my gown was much too large for me. It needed quite a bit done. It needed to be hemmed... but there was a detail along the bottom that needed to be preserved (so she basically had to take it off, cut the fabric to the right length, and then re-attach the detail along the bottom hemline. She had to pull the dress in on the sides all the way down to my hips (my dress is fit and flare). There are tiny flowers and beadwork ALL over my dress, which meant she needed to take off the flowers near the hem to pull the dress in, then reattach the flowers. She also needed to take apart and reassemble beadwork under the bust since I lost weight there, too. She even had to hem my crinoline! There was SO much that needed to be done and she was BEYOND fair in pricing. I also had her hem and take in a bridesmaid dress for a wedding I was in two weeks before my own. Please send me an email ([email protected]) if you are interested in Mrs. Hunsberger's contact information. She does alterations from her home in Collegeville, PA, and has plenty of experience beyond my heavily beaded/adorned lace gown. The rest of the review will be here after I receive my dress. Stay tuned!
- Bridal Gown & Veil: David's Bridal; Plymouth Meeting, PA - My consultant's name was Gwen and she did a great job pulling dresses for me. She pulled my favorites from my list and was very helpful in suggesting other dresses for me to try on. The one that ended up being "the one" was not one that I had on my list and was the very last dress she pulled for me. My appointment was over at 8:30, but she told me she had one more dress that I had to see before I could leave. I'm so glad she did! I didn't like how each consultant had two girls at a time though. I feel like I spent a lot more time wearing dresses that I knew were "no's" than I should have. My dress, veil, crinoline, and "long bra" were all shipped super fast- they came in less than three weeks!
Final Rating: A
- Bridesmaids Gowns; Groom/Groomsmen Ties & Pocket Squares: E-Bridal Superstore- I found ebridalsuperstore.com in Bridal Bargains. They had an "A" rating and reviews I've read online also seemed really good. My girls' Alfred Sung dresses, which were $250 in the store we tried them on in, were $127.50 on E-Bridal Superstore. They are an authorized retailer, so I wasn't worried about getting a Chinese knockoff. I emailed them a few days before ordering because they have a price match guarantee, and houseofbrides.com had them for cheaper. I didn't want to go with House of Brides for a laundry list of reasons. I didn't hear back from E-Bridal Superstore until about an hour *after* I finally placed my order. They said they could match House of Brides' price, but after hearing I had just placed my order, they couldn't make the correction for me. That was kind of a pain in the butt, but it was only $2.50 more per dress, which my girls didn't mind paying (not to mention, E-Bridal didn't require insurance like House of Brides did, so the price was actually lower). I placed my order on March 14, 2012 and received the dresses on June 14, 2012. The dresses were all in perfect condition with no problems whatsoever and were definitely genuine (not knock offs, like many people fear when they order from an online company). They needed to be signed for upon delivery and were delivered a month before they told me to expect them (which is good in one way and bad in another), so I wasn't home the first time they tried to deliver. All in all, I highly recommend them. I was also in a wedding two weeks before mine and ordered my Alfred Angelo bridesmaid dress for that wedding through them as well. I ordered mine a month after another bridesmaid, who ordered hers in the store. Mine came in well before hers did (hers ended up coming in the second to last week of July) and I was able to start alterations with plenty of time before the wedding.
Final Rating: A
- Bridesmaids Gowns: Page Six: It's Haute; Skippack, PA - You may be wondering why I have reviews for two places for bridesmaids dresses. It's because we went to Page Six to try them on, but didn't ultimately order from them because their prices were more than $100 more than E-Bridal Superstore. They were extremely accommodating to us during our appointment though, so I thought it was worth reviewing them for others who may want the brick-and-morter experience and don't want to order online. We went to our appointment on a week night and there was one other group there trying on mother of the bride & groom dresses in another room. We weren't given much direction for choosing dresses: we were just sort of set loose in their showroom. They didn't ask what we were looking for or if they could help. However once we chose dresses they were helpful with swatches, measurements, etc. They brought us white wine (we could choose red or white but we're all white drinkers) and I believe they had water available as well. They did not call and harass me at all after leaving the shop to see when we were planning to order or anything. They did send me a mailer for a bridal show they were involved in, but that was all.
Final rating: B+
- Cake: Irene's Signature Desserts; Egg Harbor Township, NJ - We found Irene in a Google search. Let me tell you, her bakery is South Jersey's best kept secret. The store is very humble- I would even venture to say that it is located in a worn-down shopping center. It's nothing impressive to look at, but we weren't there to look at the store's decor. I will tell you that the place was spotless when we went in for our tasting. And the cake. Delicious. Just absolutely divine. It was light and moist and the buttercream frosting was to. die. for. Irene herself doesn't have much of a personality- she actually comes off as a little cold. But we weren't hiring her to entertain our guests: we were hiring her to make us a wedding cake. I showed her the design that Fi and I liked best and she said it would be absolutely no problem. She also included delivery and set up to our reception, and put the flowers I had waiting for her on the cake when she came, along with our cake topper. I cannot recommend Irene enough. Apparently, Hollywood agrees with me. She has made cakes for Frank Sinatra, Nick Cannon, and Julianne Hough. The best part? My 4-tier wedding cake (with each tier a different flavor), only cost us $395. And that included the delivery and set up. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding. Stay tuned!
- Caterer: Island Grill; Ocean City, NJ - I could probably write a novel about our catering experience. First thing's first- if you plan to be married at the Jersey shore, *book your caterer in the summer.* Everything closes for the winter, so if you don't do it in the summer, you have to wait until the season starts back up again. This, my friends, is how I didn't book my caterer until 65 days before my wedding. I kid you not. Honestly, it would have been done much sooner, had the Island Grill been communicative. I emailed them in January about catering, but the restaurant, they told me, wasn't opening until early March. Since I didn't want to book them without having tasted their food first, I decided to wait. They promised they would email me when they were open so we could set up a meeting. Mid-April rolls around and I still haven't heard anything. I get on their website, only to find that they've been open for the past month. So I email them again, and they said they forgot about me (lovely way to do business, isn't it?). Fine, whatever. We finally tell the catering manager, Allison, what day we'd like to come, and she says that's fine and that they'll be open for lunch. I send her a few more emails about what we'd like to taste and try to call her about setting up a time (but she never answers her phone or replies to voicemail, so that's useless). Finally we decide to just go to the restaurant- which is more than 2 hours away from home- and hope they're going to have the tasting ready for us. Luckily, Allison did manage to tell her husband (who is the owner of the restaurant and the chef) and they have a tasting all ready for us. He was amazing. Very friendly, professional, and more than willing to help. He answers our questions and the food is absolutely delicious. Allison isn't there, but her husband tells us that it's because she's at an international tasting event that their restaurant is participating in. So at this point, we're really enjoying the food but I have a serious problem with the (lack of) communication. I call Allison later that week, but she doesn't answer her phone, so I decide to email instead. I express my concern at her poor communication. She replies quickly, apologizing and promising to be more communicative from here on out. For the next few weeks, she answers my questions fully and promptly, but by the end of the month I can feel her slipping away from me again. I ask her for pricing information, which takes her a week or so to get back to me. I ask her for a contact... and it took 2 weeks to get it. The food is delicious, but if we weren't in such a tight spot with our budget, I can honestly say I wouldn't waste my time with this vendor. I would have dropped them like a bag of bricks the minute they told me they forgot about me back in April. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding. Stay tuned!
- DJ: Silver Sound DJs; Philadelphia, PA, Binh Nguyen - From the very first "price quote" email from Silver Sound, I was truly impressed with this company. The first email they send details information about all of the DJs available on your date. It includes a resume, a link to their page on Silver Sound's page (which includes a voice demo of the DJ announcing a wedding party), and personal contact information for each DJ. You can "choose a DJ" from the email to hold them for ten days to give you time to interview and decide. Once you hold a DJ for the ten day period, you are taken to your own page with a proposal, all the forms you need to make your day perfect (special songs, playlists, etc.). Also, before I chose Binh, I received personal emails from several of the DJs in my initial email, telling me more about themselves. We ended up holding Binh and after our phone interview I was one-hundred percent confident that he was our guy. He does 80-90 weddings annually and has been doing this for ten years. He knows his stuff and can "hold your hand" through the whole process. He was willing to be as involved or as uninvolved as I wanted. He gave me his personal cell phone number and told me to call him anytime. His price was amazing, he brings lights (4 different kinds), and his own equipment. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding. Stay tuned!
- Bridal Party Flowers: Shayes Bridal Boutique - I fell in love with a bouquet from this Etsy seller in the summer of 2011, when I was not ready to buy my wedding flowers. However, I saved a picture and the seller's name for later reference. When I finally went back to order my flowers, I couldn't find the bouquet! So I contacted the seller, sent her the image, and she was absolutely willing to create my bouquet for me, as well as the rest of the bridal party flowers. She was amazing to work with. When I couldn't decide on ribbon colours, she wrapped a bouquet up in each of my selections so I could visualize them. I ordered a 23-piece package for a very affordable price. I placed my order on March 6, 2012 and received them on May 12, 2012. Shaye admits they took longer than she expected, but she was very communicative throughout the entire process and I completely understood the delay. I much appreciated the fact that she kept communication open. She sent me tons of pictures before shipping to make sure everything was perfect, and made any and all changes and adjustments I wanted. When the flowers arrived, I was blown away. They were gorgeous and absolutely much much more than I was expecting.
Final Rating: A
- Groom/Groomsmen Attire: Tuxedos by The Country Gent; West Point, PA - Our first meeting with Ed Burkholder was great. He was very knowledgeable and gave us lots of direction about tuxes vs. suits, colours, ties, and even shirts and shoes. He was super nice and very honest, and ordered the suit (which was new to their inventory), shoes, and tie in especially for my fiance to try on. He stressed that it was our wedding, and that we ultimately had the final decision. We felt super comfortable with him and really liked how he was straight-forward without being pushy. We will be returning for another meeting to try on the whole suit together and have the groomsmen and ushers fitted as well. The best part was that if we had five guys rent, Chris' suit and shoes were free. The second best part was that we could pick up the suits on Wednesday night before the wedding and that they weren't due back until Monday afternoon, which is something we were worried about since we were leaving for our wedding that Thursday to get down there and everything. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding. Stay tuned!
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- Hair, Makeup, and Nails: Fusion Salon and Day Spa; Avalon, NJ - Fusion Salon was very easy to get in contact with and replied to emails quite quickly. They sent a comprehensive price list in the mail, which also arrived quickly. I emailed them a few times after receiving the information to ask questions and they were really friendly. After I sent back the completed paperwork and deposit, they called to talk about timeline and made me feel even more comfortable with my decision. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding. Stay tuned!
- Invitations: Cards & Pockets - I ordered all of my supplies for making my own invitations from Cards & Pockets. I designed them myself in Photoshop and printed them at home. Cards & Pockets will print & assemble for you as well if you want them to, I just chose not to have them do it for me. The quality of the paper is fantastic and the colours are vibrant. I love that they had envelopes (both mailing AND RSVP) in all their paper colours so you could have an exact match. I did make a mistake when placing my order and accidentally ordered text weight instead of cover weight paper. I filled out an order change form as soon as I noticed it (about an hour after ordering) and panicked until they wrote me back and said they would help me out. The customer service from this family-run, American business absolutely cannot be beat. I am so thrilled with my experience shopping with them and cannot recommend them enough. The paper was shipped very quickly, and was packaged with great care. Everything was accounted for and wrapped carefully. I would definitely order from C&P time and again and recommend them to anyone looking for paper for any projects.
Final rating: A+
- Linens: Smarty Had a Party - After looking at many different linen places online, Smarty Had a Party had the best prices by far. Plus, I "liked" them on FB and asked for a coupon code, and they gave me an additional $5 off my order. We ordered more than $275 worth of linens, so we also got free ground shipping. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding! Stay tuned!
- Photographer: Inna Photography; Monmouth Junction, NJ - Inna has high energy and is obviously very passionate about photography and especially for her clients. She has a kind heart and was very willing to work with our budget and answer all of our questions. Her husband, Manny, was also sweet and will be our second shooter at our wedding. She is based out of Monmouth Junction, NJ (just outside Princeton), but is more than happy to travel to Stone Harbor for our wedding at no additional charge. Her packages and extras are amazing and almost unbelievable, but she truly has yours and your groom's best interests at heart. We are so excited to have found her and can't wait to work with her! I will say that if you are considering Inna, definitely get in touch with her fast. She's been getting more and more recognition, her prices are increasing constantly, and her schedule is getting booked faster and faster. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding. Stay tuned!
- Rentals: Petrosh's Big Top; Egg Harbor City, NJ- We were originally going to do our rentals through a different company, but our caterers recommended this one. They were definitely closer to our venue, which was a plus for delivery. My first call with them was less than pleasant, but to be fair they were swamped (I could hear the phones ringing off the hook- and there were only two of them in the office). I needed to ask questions about what I needed and the lady wasn't very patient with me at all. She took down my name and number and promised to call me the following Monday. She didn't. I finally had my fiance call them a few weeks later because we couldn't wait for them anymore. He had a much better conversation with them and was able to secure most of our rentals. We ended up visiting them at their office as well to change a few things and to put down a deposit. Their prices are fair, and they included delivery on Friday, set up & take down of our tent, and pick up on Sunday. The only thing I thought was odd is that we were charged sales tax on our damage waiver (for the glasses and plates we rented) and on the delivery charge. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding. Stay tuned!
- Travel Agent: Beach Bum Vacation, Steve - When we were planning to have our wedding Mexico, Steve was our right-hand man. He got to know us as a couple and handpicked a fabulous resort for us. His response time and customer service were beyond what we could have asked for in a travel agent. I highly recommend he and BBV if you're planning a DW.Final rating: A+
- Venue: Women's Civic Club of Stone Harbor - Barbara Lopez, the woman in charge of event rentals at the WCC, was super helpful and willing to let us spend as much time looking at the venue as we wanted/needed. She responded fairly quickly to emails- but was easier to get a hold of by phone. Her communication got much better as our date approached and she was super helpful and willing to answer any and all questions I had and address any concerns we had. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding. Stay tuned!
- Wedding Night Hotel: Windrift Hotel; Avalon, NJ - We have family in the area, but didn't want to stay at his grandfather's house on our wedding night for obvious reasons. The Windrift was far enough away from our venue so that we didn't see all of our guests there, but close enough that we didn't have a long car ride (we could have walked if we wanted to). Reservations were easy to make, and I requested the Indian Summer special they had available on their website to get a lower rate. The rest of this review will be here after the wedding. Stay tuned!