Baltimore Area Vendor Reviews   

Reception Sites, Ceremony Sites/Churches:

Oct.04bride

Ceremony and Reception Location - Historic Oakland Mansion -- A+++ 

Oakland was absolutely perfect for us. The people at Oakland were always so nice to work with and I highly recommend the facility. They are closing down October and November 2004 for renovations (roof and bathrooms I believe). Should be even better! 

When looking for a site, we needed somewhere to get married at and have our reception at. Something that was important to us was that we wanted a mansion that would allow us to drink red wine inside. You’d be surprised how many places won’t allow that because of possible staining of the historical artifacts. Another great thing about Oakland is that the tent is up year-round, on a patio. This means that we were able to rent the tent out for a lot less than most rental companies rent tents for, and that the ground wasn’t soggy (because of the patio). 

We had 100 people total. We had the ceremony in the tent (sides down because it was really windy). The cocktail hour was inside. Everyone moved back into the tent for dinner (seated buffet) and then the dancing was back inside the mansion. 

MrsRizzie  
Historic Baldwin Hall (Millersville) - A+ Contact: Annie Medford 
This site is somewhat of an empty canvas but it is absolutely beautiful when setup. Because you rent the hall and they have very little rules, I didn’t have much contact with Annie but I had no complaints with her or the hall. It is definitely a great place to have a LONG reception - you get the hall for 24 hours so we partied from 4p-12a! I highly recommend them. Thanks to b2b083003 for all her advice and help with the hall diagram! 

   MrsRizzie 

Church/Reverend Philip Tocknell 
Baldwin Memorial United Methodist Church (Millersville) - A+
This church is just gorgeous and Pastor Phil and his wife, Debbie, are so sweet and helpful. We are not members and had to have three counseling sessions. The ceremony was absolutely beautiful and exactly what we hoped. I highly recommend them! 

MrsDahdreamin1

**The Church**
*ST. JOHN ROMAN CATHOLIC CHUCH~ the church itself is absolutely gorgeous. We truly enjoyed everything about it & the parish (I am now a member). The music director, Regina, did an excellent job w/our music selections (they even let me have, "All I Ask of You", from Phantom of the Opera, she was very helpful, played the organ beautifully, & picked the perfect soloist to sing some of our (complicated) song choices (she had a angelic voice). Our Pre-Cana classes were enlightening & fun (headed by Fr. Leo). Our priest, Fr. Msgr. Art Valenzano, is a very special person. He made our ceremony truly beautiful & very personal. He was a pleasure to meet with & such a NICE, NICE man!! We've received sooo many compliments on how beautiful he made our service & how special & personal it was. He took the time & made the effort to get to know us & personalize our ceremony. 
**The Reception** 
Ceresville Mansion.(301*694*5111)
*The mansion itself is absolutely beautiful. It had everything I was looking for in a reception site, something I could personalize & make "my own" for a day!! They did a fabulous job (w/the aid of my cousin & a good friend) decorating for me, setting up the tables as requested, placing picture frames, candle holders, etc. where I wanted them, laying down the decor i made, fabric & rose petals I provided for various items, & just making my reception look breathtakingly beautiful!! The food was delicious & our sales rep/coordinator (Stacey) was helpful, especially in the last month. She promptly answered any questions & helped fix some last minute kinks.. It's a shame she had to leave early the day of our wedding as there were some "issues" after she left. I received (too) MANY comments by my guests about the sharpness & rudeness of some of the staff.. particularly some of the bartenders & the day of staff manager/coordinator (who shall remain nameless). Too many of my guests complained to me about her abruptness & sour misdemeanor. I personally did not have an issue w/her, alot of the situations were told to me after the wedding & as we were leaving. I know a couple of guests, DH & my father had a problem w/a rude bartender (seperate incidences) & there were some issues regarding the staff manager & my DJ/MC. I did not let any of the "issues" bother me the day of, I truly enjoyed myself & my wedding, & like I said, I had positive dealings w/Stacey in the days leading up to my wedding, & the food & decor was superb!! The "bridal" stalker did seem to "disappear" after dinner, as I've heard in previous reviews by other Ceresville brides, but that wasn't an issue with me as I really didn't need anything & was having too good a time to worry about drinking. Overall, I did enjoy my reception, the food was delicious, & the decor breathtaking, but the (new?) day of manager wasn't quite up to par. I know in the past, a gentleman (I forget his name) was in charge of the day of coordination & from past reviews he was wonderful, I did meet him, but he left a few months before my wedding (I think he went to New York, or something like that).. perhaps in time, the coordinator I had will relax a little & soften her edges, maybe she (& some of the other staff) were just having a bad day... All in all (their personalities aside), Ceresville put in a phenomenal job & I haven't stopped receiving compliments on how truly wonderful & how my wedding was "the best" some of my guests have attended.. (though I do take credit for that in all the personal touches & give kudos to my DJ's for keeping the perfect pace going & following MY wishes, not that of Ceresville staff's) <BR>

Dmindgal

CHURCH: Church of the Redeemer, Bowie

My daycare center when I was little, and still my church. I love how it feels so intimate and homey!
Perhaps the biggest hiccup of the day was that they were still buffing the floors when we were supposed to start photos. However, due to the temperate weather, we were able to work around it and get some great outdoor shots! A blessing in disguise

RECEPTION: Florian Hall , Bowie

I love how gorgeous this facility is! Everyone complimented me on my choice and having the hall do the decorating and set-up saved me so much stress..
The hall comes with a wonderful coordinator who is great at devoting time and attention to you. She handles A LOT of events, but was able to find time for me when I needed it. Also, she made my event feel special and loved getting to see it come to life!

Joking

Kent Manor Inn:
Love this place. Julie the coordinator is a joy to work with. Responds quickly and tries to work with you. The prices were great (we were in the off season) and the food is amazing. The staff night of was exceptional. I really don’t have any complaints. Thier bar prices are steep if you want anything other than what’s standard, but Julie was able to work with me on that too. The grounds are beautiful and well maintained, and there are a lot of great places for photo ops. They gave us a beautiful room for night of. Highly recommend.

Nicolem1970

Ceremony & Reception: The Cloisters  ~ A
(410) 821-7448; www.cloisterscastle.com

The Cloisters is absolutely beautiful.  We had three initial concerns…
(1) the unseasonably hot weather (90 degrees and above) that floated into town the week before our wedding, (2) the arrival of the cicadas in a 60-acre wooded area, within which The Cloisters sits, and (3) the seating arrangements for a 100 + guest list. The results of those worries: (1) Though the castle is not air-conditioned, it turns out that I was the only one that was uncomfortable on the night of the wedding…a few of our guests actually went out to their cars to fetch sweaters.  My, what adrenaline and nerves will do to you!  The weather was mid-80’s (daytime), drizzle in the morning ~ I imagine it was around 75 degrees when the reception began, and absolutely gorgeous.  (2) The cicada were a non-issue…see their review below J.  (3)  Regarding seating arrangements~ you can only fit about 60 people in the main room (the Gallery) if you intend to also have your dance area on the stage…we had 120 guests.   I did not want those people who were seated in the Living Room to feel left out…most said that this would not be a factor for our guests…but my fears about this were validated, as several people who were seated in the Living Room were unable to hear when certain events took place (i.e. cake cutting, etc.), even though we had a speaker set up in that room (towards the Library); many left early, even before the cake was cut.  The lighting is also very poor in this room (in the evening). 

SUGGESTIONS (if you book The Cloisters): **Have your DJ set up a speaker in the middle of the Living Room (if some of your guests will be seated there), so that there is a better chance for everyone to hear what is going on in the Gallery.  **Have it be known that smokers need to do their smoking at the bottom of the steps towards the parking lot, away from the windows, if you intend to open them.  **If you are having your ceremony in the garden, practice going up the steps outside, especially if young ones will be in the procession.  **Don’t do the bouquet toss from the stage, unless you intend to throw low and avoid the lights.                           

Shellebelle04

Reception: St. Andrew by the Bay Reception Hall, Annapolis MD.
This is a reception hall owned by a catholic church. You do not have to be catholic to have your reception here. It is a beautiful hall, and it was reasonably priced (under 1,000) and you can choose your own caterer and even bring in your own alcohol, which saves you money. We were very happy except that the hall coordinator can be difficult to deal with and make sure you get your date approved in writing (they almost canceled my reservation because they had accidentally booked a church function there the same day). But all and all it was well worth the money and everyone said it was a great spot.
Rating: A-

Mosaicgal

THE BELVEDERE - A+++
salesperson - Karen Liston, sales manager Ann Berman, Yolanda West (also in sales), Day-of Manager Joan, attendant Felicia, and all other staff members!

Man, these people know how to throw a wedding!! They did an AMAZING job and I didn’t worry about a single thing the whole day. Not only did everything go smoothly, they all treated me, and everyone else, like royalty. At every turn, they were right on top of things and there is not a single thing that wasn’t done well and with class and kindness. I have GOT to write them a letter, they did such a great job. We have talked about it for weeks afterward! During the planning stages, there were a few items of negotiation to be worked out (tasting, chair upgrades), and we found Ann Berman to be exceptionally easy to work with and very accommodating. Yolanda was the person I coordinated the last minute details with and she is excellent as well. On the big day, Joan was in charge and everything was picture perfect from start to finish and she was a pleasure to work with. Felicia was very sweet and I wish I knew everyone else’s names because every single person we worked with treated us like gold. Many many guests, as well as our family, wedding party, AND VENDORS commented on how well the staff treated them and took care of them. PLUS, the food was out of this world - everyone said how great it was - we had the chicken tartarian. The baby lamb chops (hors d’oeuvres) were a huge hit as well. They also handled our cake and it was lovely and delicious, even the next day.

The only tiny snag we had was that the garage we had paid for was closed (it was a Sunday), but our guests were able to park in a nearby lot for free so it worked out - plus they refunded the money we spent on the garage - the check was here when we returned from our honeymoon. Also, DH’s mom fell down coming through the revolving door early in the day and - it turns out - broke her arm (she didn’t realize it was broken until later - she toughed it out that night), and the staff really looked after her (so well in fact that I didn’t even know about the accident until the end of the night) and is helping her now to resolve the matter. The Belvedere gets an A+++!!

Muppet

LOCATION - Gramercy Mansion - A+++
I held both my ceremony and reception at the Gramercy. It's a fantastic location if you like historic, traditional mansions. It set the stage for my entire event like no other locations could. And it's a bed & breakfast, so you and your guests can stay there (you and your DH should stay in the Camelot Suite, which is breathtaking!). My DH and I will definitely go back for anniversaries. For summer brides (that's when I signed my contract), there are flowers everywhere and I can imagine that outdoor weddings are just phenomenal (my ceremony started at 6, so too dark and chilly for outside). I am convinced that the layout of the mansion- the fact that there are several rooms that guests can wander around in - is one of the reasons that my reception was so successful. It was very much like being in someone's home. We had the fireplaces going, there were comfy couches and chairs around for people, and it was just very conducive to mingling and having a good time. I don't think that locations that are just one big room hav the same effect. Don't get me wrong - there are beautiful one-room locations, and everybody has their own taste, but "one room-ers" mean alot of people (especially older folks) will plant themselves at their tables and they don't mingle around. And sometimes those rooms are just too big - there's not a cozy feel. That being said, there are disadvantages to multi-room locations like the Gramercy: it's more difficult to orchestrate everything. For example, The living room that doubles as a dance area is smaller than what you would get with a one room location. But I was aware of everything and just visited a bunch of times with my planner to figure out all of the details so things went really smoothly. Also, it was really important to me when I was looking at locations that everyone be in one room for the sit down dinner. There were multi-room locations like the Gramercy where guests had to be split up for dinner and that was not kosher to me b/c it's so obvious then who your "A" guests are and who your "B" guests are. So that's a plus for the Gramercy - everyone can fit on the terrace for dinner. Another disadvantages of the Gramercy (but not b/c it's a multi-roomer) - cost. It's very expensive, and b/c they're always booked they don't have any real incentive to negotiate with you. Don't get me wrong, they are sweet as pie when they take all your money (!) - I didn't have one bad experience in my dealings with all of the staff. But here's an example of what I mean - we had originally booked the location for a certain number of hours for a flat fee. Included in that fee was the ability for me to get into the location a couple hours before my ceremony start time for the ketubah signing and formal pics. But 2 weeks before my event, when my budget was truly tapped, I decided that I wanted to open one of my bars an hour before the ceremony - for early guests and b/c my family would already be there for the ketubah signing and pics. The Gramercy told me that would cost me an extra $200. I totally fought this - b/c why would it cost me more for a bar to be open when it didn't cost me extra to have pics and the ketubah signing during that time? Made no sense to me, but they insisted that the opening of a bar signified an earlier start time to my event (although a ketubah signing and formal pics did not!!). So I paid the $200. One last downside - your reception has to end at 11PM. That's b/c it's a B&B and they have noise restrictions. This was too early for us to have the party end, so we had a Teas Hold 'Em poker after-party in the Camelot Suite for our close friends - it will fit about 20 people. One last comment - if you have an evening ceremony there after dark, definitely take pics outside if weather permits right before sunset. Those were the best pics of the day (check my bio). Pics and video at the Gramercy are more difficult b/c it's darker - even in the daytime. But enough caveats - it's a GREATTTTT location and I'll have fond memories of it forever!

Jells1107

Ceremony - St. John's Episcopal Church

Well, we are members of this church, so I am not sure if they allow any marriages of non-members, but it is an incredible church. Its beauty is breathtaking and the members and clergy are so incredibly nice. Everyone told me how wonderful the homily was and how incredible the ceremony turned out. The only downside is that you cannot have flash photography during the ceremony, but I obviously knew that going in and expected it. Everything was just wonderful! - A++

Reception - Harbor Court Hotel

What can I possibly say about the most incredible, most luxurious hotel in the Baltimore area?! The reception was simply amazing and better than I could have even imagined. Connie, the catering manager, and Theodore, the banquet manager, are two outstanding people. We were waited on hand and foot, the staff was friendly and bent over backwards for everyone, the food was OUT OF THIS WORLD, and my cake- it was better than the picture I took it from and the picture is from the cover of a book called "The Perfect Wedding Cake"! We also had a brunch the next morning and everything was superb. Although the Harbor Court is probably one of the pricier reception venues in the area, it is worth every single cent. - A+++

Hize

Church: St. Augustine's Catholic Church, Elkridge, Maryland
DH and I are of mixed faiths: he is Catholic, I am Methodist. So, we mutually decided to get married in this church b/c we both attended regularly when we lived in the area. A family friend of DH did the ceremony and the ceremony and church itself were amazing. The only difficulty we had was that the person in charge of making sure things were ready for the ceremony did not show up for our rehearsal or the morning of the wedding. Needless to say, there was some stress there! The biggest problem was due to the fact we did not use the regular parish priest but everything went off without any major problems.
Reception Location:Four Points By Sheraton BWI Airport
I must admit that the Sheraton exceeded my expectations in many regards when it came to the wedding. I was a little unsure leading up to the wedding b/c of some minor issues related to room blocks but everything was worked out thanks to my DH. I must say that the Sheraton at the airport is a great deal for location and quality of service. The majority of our out of town guests stayed there and enjoyed their stay as well as the lounge that is open until 2am!!! The food was excellent, the service great and they made the day even less stressful for me. The manager on duty came up and introduced herself first thing that morning and let me know they were there to help me in any way. The only downfall was that there new linens were not in yet so I had to rent my own but I do recommend them for their excellent service and value for your dollar! Just make sure you are as specific as possible with all your requests.

Schnauder

Venue and Caterer: Simply Elegant Catering at Grey Rock Mansion A+++++++++ Everything was perfect! The ceremony was gorgeous, set up of everything was perfect, they were organized professional and had everything I needed. I have gotten so many compliments on everything, people loved the place. The food was amazing, best wedding food I have ever had. My bridal attendant Terri was with me every moment and got me things before I even knew I needed them. I could go on and on, please page me with any more detailed questions

Agb05

Church: Light Street Presbyterian Church, Federal Hill Baltimore, MD My DH and I had to move the wedding from Norfolk, VA to Baltimore MD with only 4 months to go. Needless to say I was stressed!!!! We live in downtown Baltimore, and have been meaning to join a church for some time. We stumbled upon Light Street right in Fed Hill, and loved it. We became members, and have been active in the congregation. Rev Roger Powers was the Officiant and was amazing. The church is over 150 years old, and really added to the whole theme of my wedding.

Reception: Overhills Mansion My father has always been in the hotel industry, so after many years, I know quiet about hotel weddings, and I knew that I did not want one. I wanted to be unique, and not a cookie cutter wedding. I understand that sometimes you have to go to a hotel, because they can hold more people, but we wanted a smaller wedding. I contacted Overhills Mansion, and became immediately impressed by them. They did everything that I asked, and really came through in the end. I was very happy with my reception. I just wish it was like 10 hours instead of 5, it went too fast!! I highly recommend Overhills Mansion. Even my dad was impressed by their service, and he has been doing weddings for over 30 years!!

Jenniekay

Ceremony and Reception: Kent Manor Inn I cannot say enough wonderful things about Kent Manor, it was just beautiful. The ceremony was held outside at the gazabo, and the reception was inside the Garden House. The staff was so helpful, and the food is outstanding. So many things are included in the wedding package, that you really get so much for the money. Overall A+

Mericraig

CERESVILLE MANSION A++
This was the first and only venue we looked at, it was love at first sight! The mansion is beautiful, the grounds are so well maintained. We had our ceremony outside under the pergola, it was just perfect. The staff was wonderful, always willing to help during the planning and the night of the wedding. The food was to die for!! We decided to have a really big cocktail hour with 5 passed hors d'voures- tiny lamb chops, crabmeat stuffed mushroom caps, chicken satay and spanikopita. Everyone is still raving about those lamb chops. We also had a raw bar and a pasta station as well as 2 brie and berry displays and an antipasta display. We actually got to eat some of them since our bridal server had food from the cocktail hour brought up to the bridal suite for us. I loaded up on clams on the half shell and shrimp that were bigger than my fingers! For dinner we decided to do a split plate of petit filet mignon and chicken Oscar. I higly recommend doing a split plate so you don't have to track what your guests want and everyone was so thrilled they were getting both things!! Our bridal server made sure we sat down and ate some of our dinner and I'm so glad she did. She also made sure we always had a drink in our hands if we wanted one. The only thing we did not get to try was the dessert crepe station and I waited until later that night to try the chocolate dipped Straberries in fear of dripping them down my dress. So worth the wait. Our guests are still telling us how good the food was and how beautiful the mansion was. We did our last dance out on the pergola while it was all lit up and it was truly the most romantic ending to the night. I could not have asked for anything more!!

Sweet_pea1031

Church- St. John's UMC,

My Husband and I stumbled on St. John's because it was close to our Reception venue. Neither of us had a church that we currently belonged to, so we decided to look at St. John's. I called the CHurch office and they said that it would only be $100 to use the Church, and we could have our own pastor marry us or we could ask their pastor, Rev. Earl. Since we didn't have anyone else, we asked their pastor. Rev. Earl has been great throughout the planning process. We ended up liking St. John's so much that we are going to become members. If you need a Church in the Lutherville, Timonium Area I highly recommend looking at St. John's on Seminary Ave.
Reception- Valley Country Club, Highly Recommend

I Had a great experience with the VCC. I really enjoyed working with Debbie, Kathy and Jan. The planning process was pretty painless and they accommodated every request that I had. Everything was decorated beautifully. And it was all exactly how I had asked for things to be set up.

VCC went above and beyond to make my day nice. They even let me come and have my pre-ceremony pictures done there, because my parents house is being remodeled and the contractors didn't finish all the work on time!

The Food was excellent. We had Crab cakes and a Chicken. Yum, Yum :-) The only Drink I had was a glass of wine, because I didn't want to have to pee with my dress on, but I did have an awesome Apple Martini at the Open House earlier this year so I know that their mixed drinks were great as well.
For future Brides there are a couple comments/suggestions that I would make. 1. Ask for Water to be put on the table. I assumed that this would happen, but it wasn't there. When the guests came in the bar line was really long and it would have been nice it there was something non-alcoholic on the tables for them to drink. (Suggestion made by my Aunt.)

2. Make sure that the sheet Debbie gives you at the end of the meeting has any special requests listed on it. My Mom asked for a special kind of wine and Debbie said okay, but then we started talking about something else and she never wrote it down. So when My Mom asked for her Special Wine they didn't have it. Debbie did send someone out to get it so everything turned out fine, but the situation could have been avoided if I had carefully proofed the print out Debbie gave me.

3. When you check into the Tremont make sure you tell them the Bride and Groom's last names. We had a bit of a shock when no "Married LastName" was listed as a guest. As it turns out the reservation was listed under "Maiden Name-Married Name." So everything was fine, but I was really nervous for a couple minutes!

4. Have your DJ announce that there is a Handicap accessible bathroom on the first floor in the bar area. I found out later that my extremely Elderly Great-Aunt In-Law was trudging up the spiral stairs to go to the potty, when she didn't have to if she had known about the other bathroom!

Tremont Plaza- The room was included with out VCC package. The Tremont was really nice. It was almost as big as our apartment in Mt. Vernon! My Husband was all excited because there was a TV in the Bedroom, something we don't have at home. I got to wake up to Him watching ESPN Sports Center! ;-)

beth8

Reception Site: Antrim 1844, Taneytown, MD www.antrim1844.com
We loved the Antrim! My DH and I both love food so we mostly picked it for the food, but they also have beautiful grounds and an awesome wedding coordinator- Keith- I did not worry about one thing the entire wedding day! I bugged him constantly with emails/phone calls and he was so wonderful the entire wedding planning process. People worry about their alcohol policy because they have a consumption bar, but we only spent about $20 a person, and we had wine service during dinner, all included. An absolutely perfect place to have your reception! We are looking forward to going back for a weekend for our anniversary.

Autumnwed05

www.baldwinsstation.com
Initially when I first interviewed the restaurant, spoke to the owner, and visited with them, I was extremely impressed with everything. I was first most impressed by the atmosphere and the fact that the owner called me repeatedly to follow up with us. Then we had dinner there and the food was out of this world. Since we wanted a small wedding, we decided it was perfect, a little pricier than we wanted, but worth it. We booked. In the next few months though, as we planned, I started to get nervous. I began to wonder if it was big enough and if I would be able to get everything I wanted. Because they don’t do as many weddings as someplace like Martin’s would, they weren’t as good at making me feel at ease about things. They figured they knew what they were doing and they didn’t need to explain it to me. Which was really fine, but since I am a control freak – I was nervous about things. But everything ended up PERFECT! It looked just like I pictured, the cake was wonderful (it was included in the package), the service was outstanding and of course, the food excellent! I got so many compliments and the atmosphere was perfect for my fall wedding. We were even lucky enough to have the train come by once during the cocktail hour which is a very neat experience! Baldwin’s gets a 10!

SALEM UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF HEBBVILLE

www.gbgm-umc.org/salem-umc
This is my childhood church and I am a member there. I had no problems. Our minister was very generous and gave me a lot of flexibility with planning the ceremony and decorating the church. If you belong to a church, but are considering using a different location – I would strongly suggest using your own. We also had our rehearsal dinner in the basement – a wonderful, casual dinner that was so relaxing the night before the wedding. I had a lot of fun decorating the church to make it festive and loved being able to plan my own ceremony. The best part was being able to get married in a building that holds so many great memories for me and adding one more. Always keep in mind that the ceremony is the most important part of the whole day! Salem gets a 10.

Coppergirl

Ostertag Vistas - (301) 293-3099, www.ostertagvistas.com - Beautiful place that you have to book well in advance. The scenery takes your breath away. But be prepared to get very frustrated with the owners. They freak out over the smallest things and make the bride freak out, too. Not just me, but I have heard this from several other brides who used the place. They can also be rude. I didn't let them get to me. Nobody was going to spoil my day!

Baltobride2be

Ceremony & Reception site - Geneva Farms Golf Course

Caterer - Harford caterers, Mr & Mrs. Pieper - 410-879-4900. Geneva Farms was Excellent! They are so organized and on top of things that we always knew everything was taken care. Their staff was great and very and easy to work with. Our on-site day of coordinator was Holly. She was so friendly and helpful. She really made things flow. Dan, their DJ was also very entertaining, but never cheesy! He followed all of our instructions and had the crowd up and dancing

Happyliz

Ceremony and Reception Site
Candle Light Inn - Catonsville, MD - A-
The staff at the Candle Light Inn really pulled through for our wedding. They were very friendly and seemed to serve everyone in a timely manner. The food was excellent and is always consistant when I go there, which was the main reason that we selected them. They had us set up in such a way that we did not see any other restaurant guests even though they did have an adjacent room full of diners.

During the planning process, I did not feel as though an effort was made to even recognize my name when I called with questions (and my maiden name is very unique). I felt a little frustrated because I felt as though my questions were bothersome, but I asked them anyways. I think that Christian (the event coordinator) is just a quiet person but really does work hard to make things right.

The only other problem that we heard about is that they were pushing the top shelf liquors. We paid for drinks by the glass and expected a much lower bill than we received. Our guests drank like fish, but the head table was rarely visited for drink requests, at least from what my scattered mind can remember.

Caterers:

Muppet

CATERER – Simply Elegant - A
I dealt with Nancy Sachs at SE, and there are so many positive things to say. I was on a super tight budget and SE fit the bill definitely. I was able to do things like sushi for hors’d (something I really wanted), passed & stationary hors’d, etc. Nancy, although I’ve heard she seems gruff to some, was great. You can tell she’s been doing this for a long time, and I really appreciated her professional touch. Also, SE’s staff is amazing – there was nothing that went wrong with timing or service. The wait staff took special care of me, my DH, and our families. That was perfect. The only negative things I’ll say are that the crabcakes that I had for my main entrée weren’t amazing – they were just good, and that even though I was on a tight budget, the idea of doing a deli tray for my vendors was brought up by me. The first suggestion I got was a “vendor meal” which was only half of the per plate price of my guests – which was still VERY expensive for my budget seeing that I had about 10 vendors to feed. I never would have known there was another option if I hadn’t posted a question here on the boards. My last negative comment – and this probably applies to many caterers – is that you should be able to taste test exactly what you want to order for your menu. SE has group tastings once a month where you get to taste a wide variety of food, but there’s lots on their menu that never shows up at the tastings - I don’t think they ever have the filet, for example. So if you want filet on your menu, you just have to take their word for it that it’s good. Either that or ask for a special tasting that may cost you. But all in all, SE is a fantastic less expensive option.

Shellebelle04

Caterer: Ebb Tide Caterers, Chester, MD. This is a small company so if you're looking for an exquisite tasting event, then you won't find that here. but what you get is good food, great service, at one of the most reasonable prices I found all over the state. We went with the Chicken Chesapeake and all our guests raved about the food. They also provide very inexpensive bartending services and set up which is good for people who can bring their own alcohol to their facility. The owners are wonderful to deal with and not at all pushy. Rating: A+

Sulla

Caterer: Chefs Expressions. Our wedding ran like a well-oiled machine. They are amazing, and the food was to die for. Can you say reggiano-crusted polenta with grilled asparagus? ;-) They also did our RD -- a casual BBQ for 100 -- and it was perfect

MrsRizzie
Cuisine Catering (Melanie) - B+
I’m shocked to even give Cuisine a B+ because I was more than confident that I had hired the best caterer for our needs. A few things went wrong and that’s why I graded them this way. First, I decided early on that I wanted the sweetheart, parents, and BP tables served dinner and everyone else to have buffet so that we didn’t have to get up. In hindsight, I almost wish I just had someone make me a plate from the buffet line because the plated dinners were a little cold by the time they got served - all of our guests, however, raved about the buffet food, appetizers and crab dip/veggie/fruit stations. Second, none of the BP tables (including our Sweetheart table) had champagne in our glasses by the time we were introduced. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal but we had nothing to toast with and everyone else did - I just thought that if anyone should have had champagne, it should have been us. Third, during our final tasting we were served orange peel mashed potatoes (yuck - IMO) so we insisted that it be changed to garlic mashed potatoes. Well, orange peel mashed potatoes were served at the wedding but nobody noticed - except meJ Finally, the seating got completely screwed up which was mostly my fault since my final seating chart and my earlier setup instruction sheet had conflicting information - again, nobody noticed but me.
I still highly recommend Cuisine and Melanie is the sweetest person and was a joy to work with the entire time.

Schnauder

Venue and Caterer: Simply Elegant Catering at Grey Rock Mansion A+++++++++ Everything was perfect! The ceremony was gorgeous, set up of everything was perfect, they were organized professional and had everything I needed. I have gotten so many compliments on everything, people loved the place. The food was amazing, best wedding food I have ever had. My bridal attendant Terri was with me every moment and got me things before I even knew I needed them. I could go on and on, please page me with any more detailed questions

Nicolem1970

Caterer:   Hunt Valley Catering ~ A+
(410) 308-1791
Excellent food, service, and customer service!  I highly recommend them!  Jim is wonderful to work with, and Marty had some wonderful suggestions for cost-savings (although she seemed a little short with me, at times ~ but that’s okay; I’m sure she was hassled everyday with little questions that seem so huge to us brides).  Everyone was helpful.  There was a woman who absolutely ran the show on the evening of my wedding…her name was Jeannie.  If not for her direction, I would have been a no-show for my own wedding, since I was waiting for some direction from the DJ as to when to proceed downstairs to start the procession.  She was absolutely wonderful, and kept me “on schedule” all evening.

Dmindgal

CATERING: Centrones Catering, Bowie

Dave is wonderful to work with. He's helped set up a menu that is not only affordable but works well for the crowd
We had two entrees per plate which was such a great idea. If people didn’t like one, they ate the other, or both… saved anyone from picking the ‘wrong’ meal and gave some great variety!
The food itself was fantastic (I was surprised I could eat with my nerves, but I loved the beef and beans!). Dave and his staff were so attentive all night, and the first to address me as ‘Mrs. Dimndgal1’! What a fun feeling!

Oct.04bride

Caterer - Cuisine Catering -- A+++

Melanie and the whole Cuisine staff were amazing. The food was amazing and so was the service and the prices. I had eaten their food at a wedding before, and knew that we had made the right decision by hiring them; we were not disappointed!

Besides great service and food, what sets Cuisine above the rest is the fact that the (very reasonable) prices include so much. They include TONS of choices of floor length table linens (major plus when you want to add color but don’t want to spend a ton on center pieces), labor costs, cake, gratuity etc. etc.

We had a sit-down buffet. For hor deurves during the cocktail hour we had crab dip, bacon wrapped scallops, meatballs and veggies & dip. For dinner we had beef brisket au jus, whole poached salmon (with two sauces), stuffed shells, green beans italiano, oven roasted potatoes and caesar salad. We had a full service, open bar and a signature drink in addition to the open bar, during the cocktail hour (Pomegranate Passion – pomegranate juice, vodka and triple sec).

We decided to go ahead and pay a little extra money to have Melanie act as our Day-Of Coordinator, and it was well worth it. Having someone through Cuisine Catering do this was still way less money than hiring a Day-Of Coordinator and she really did keep things set up and running. She was always asking us if we needed anything and she made sure to do the little things that we had asked of her beforehand (like gathering the BM’s bouquets and putting them in vases, gathering up some items that we wanted to make sure to bring back home with us, and just general “day-of” stuff that we didn’t know about which shows that she did her job well).

Photography:

Nicolem1970

Photographer:  James Roy Photography ~ B+
(301) 206-0483; www.jamesroyphotography.com
Truly talented. He captured our day exactly as we wanted ~ we love his photojournalistic style.  He asked for a must-take list a few days before the wedding, and managed to capture most of the posed pictures we requested.  My only concern is that a few of the pictures which we felt should not be blurry, were (ie., the bridal party and DH and I being announced into the reception, and our first kiss); and we weren’t very happy with the quality of the black and white photos taken. 

SUGGESTIONS: **Make certain your bridal party (in formals), is placed the way you wish before the pictures are taken.  **Keep track to make certain that all of your must-takes are taken.  ** Let things roll off your back ~ he is a great guy, but has a sarcastic way at times.

Mericraig

Photographer: AMY RAAB A+
Even though I have not seen any of our pics yet, I loved working with Amy!! She made me feel like I was the most beautiful girl in the world that day. I could tell how hard she was working to get the perfect lighting and get all the shots before the sun went down. We decided to do our formals before the ceremony and even though we were running late, Amy seemed to get it all done! Even though she is a photojournalist, she still set up a light in one of the rooms of the mansion so we can take whatever posed pics we wanted throughout the night. I can’t wait to see what else she captured.

Mrs. Rizzie
Larry Huffman (www.larryhuffmanphotography.com) - A+++++++++
Get ready for some gushing… Larry is probably my very favorite vendor - I love this man! He is so talented, so funny, so creative… I can’t say enough great things about him. During our epics, he made us feel completely comfortable in front of the camera and then I got the pictures back and couldn’t believe how beautiful he made us both look.
I never gave him a must-take list and he doesn’t need one! Per his request, I sent him a “Who’s Who List” about 1 week before the wedding. The list consisted of all family members for the formal shots and who they were married to, etc. and he MEMORIZED the entire list by the wedding - it was amazing! It may seem like a small detail but both DH and I have Stepparents, Stepgrandparents, tons of siblings, etc. We were all just blown away that he was calling couples by their first names and got everything correct - impressive and very professional.
Our families and friends kept saying what a great personality he has and how funny he is and how he got everyone to smile. I barely remember seeing him during the reception. He was with us all day, showed up on time and was just an absolute joy to work with. He also provided our Signature Board and it turned out so great! I just got about 800 proofs back from Larry and they are INCREDIBLE - he missed a few shots that I wanted but you can’t get everything and we have a video that we are able to take screen shots off of so no biggie. Our pics came out better than we could have ever imagined!!! I’ve already started thinking of new ways I can work with him again… maybe belly pics??? Anyway, if you can’t tell, I more than highly recommend Larry!!!

Hize

Photographer: Larry Huffman
I can not wait to see our wedding picture proofs. After working with Larry for our engagement session in DC and seeing the result, I can only begin to imagine how wonderful our wedding pictures will be! Larry is just amazing. He took every picture I asked of him and even memorized all the first names of our wedding party prior to the wedding day; this impressed my parents and in-laws more than anything. Not only was he quick but he was also fun! He helped the guys loosen up a little and have a some fun with the photos. I know he was shooting away at the reception but really did not run into him too much; it was not until after the wedding that people told me how he basically follwed our every move but was so unobtrusive. At any time during the reception, if I remembered a picture, Larry was there to take it. He even gathered my mom and her sisters up again for a second round of pictures b/c he was afraid his flash did not go off the first time. I just can not wait to see the results of his amazing work! Another Highly Recommended Vendor

Mosaicgal

Photography - A+
Carol Rifkin
Highlight Photography
410-252-0367
Carol was an absolute dream to work with and she is the most affordable wedding photographer in town (about $700 for the day). She is not a photojournalist, nor a documentarian, but rather a fairly straightforward wedding photographer. I had some back and forth in my mind about whether I should have gone a different way (I booked her first, when I thought my budget was going to be more limited than it turned out to be). That said, she did a great job. Everyone agreed she was very pleasant and unobtrusive to work with. She was great about getting nearly everything on our shot list and got some great candids as well. We got the proofs back upon our return from our 3-week honeymoon, which was great.

I was a little bummed that occasionally there was glare from DH's glasses in the photos. I mean, I KNOW this is a difficult problem, and many times she told him to tilt his head down and often that worked. But there were a significant number of photos where it would be a great shot except you can't see DH's eyes for the glare. Also, there was a big mirror on the wall in the Charles Room (where we had both our ceremony and the reception) and there are a number of flashes in our shots taken of the ceremony and recessional, including my absolute favorite shot, as we were leaving the huppah with our clasped hands raised - there is a big flash star coming out of DH's ear. We had this retouched, which wasn't cheap - so the version which appears first in this bio is the retouched version. I was disappointed that this (flash) problem appeared in so many photos and I wish I had asked our florist to drape the mirror, regardless of cost or appearance, at least for the ceremony.

In some of the shots of us with certain guests, you can see half-heads and random others milling in the background. I suppose this is unavoidable in a reception shot, but in some cases it is downright distracting. DH thinks I am being too picky and this would be an issue no matter what we spent or who was shooting. She took 234 shots (which is not really excessive compared to many photog packages), so I suppose there are bound to be a number of unusable ones. And it is not like I really wanted to interrupt the party to take more pictures. I sort of wish she had taken more candids of our guests, but I am really glad we will have the video to watch for that. All in all, I am pleased - and we do have plenty of nice shots for our families and a photo album and a few framed pictures, which I guess is all you REALLY need, in the long run. For the money, it was a great bargain and she was a pleasure to work with.

Mrsdaihdreamin
BKPhotodesign(301*444*0560)
Our photographers, Bryan & Katherine Payne, were wonderful to work with. I haven't received the actual photos yet (they are due to be finished & ready @ the end of 3/12), so I can't comment on the quality of the pictures themselves. I can say that I had an excellent experience w/both. Pre- ceremony, Bryan went w/"the guys" & took getting ready shots, & Katherine was w/me in my hotel room taking getting ready shots of my girls & I. She was an absolute dream to work with, friendly, & sweet demeanored (I had her ride in the limo bus w/the wedding party from the hotel, to the church, to the reception). I believe they got all the shots I asked for (& I asked for ALOT!!), as I've stated, I haven't seen the photos yet, so the jury is still out on that one. But, again, both were very accomodating & I have complete confidence in their work & competence.

Muppet

PHOTOGRAPHER - Michael Temchine(www.michaeltemchine.com) A+
The final product is phenomenal - I was so glad I chose a photojournalist, and one that would give me my negatives right away. Michael is a great value for the $$ - I went thru hell trying to find a photographer I liked! When I first met Michael, I knew he was right. He's a crazy young guy with big hair and earrings, but I liked that - and you can tell he really loves being a photographer. He charged me $2K, and I got my negatives and 4x6 proofs within 2 weeks of the wedding. I also paid $200 extra to get a CD of my pics, to post on shutterfly.com for my family and friends, and so that I could easily print stuff. Michael was also great at talking to me about whether to shoot in all color or some black & white. I decided to go with all color - and b/c I have Photoshop, I made what I wanted black & white (check my bio). This was great, b/c Michael was honest in saying that he can't evaluate every shot for whether it would be better in color or black & white - things just happen too fast for that. And once you shoot in black & white, you can't go to color thru Phtoshop like you can going from color to b&w. So the all-color option ended up great for me. The only critical thing I'd say about Michael is that he was one of my vendors that disappeared after I signed the contract until about two weeks before the wedding. It started about two weeks after I signed the contract and realized I didn't have a copy with his signature on it. I emailed him asking for him to send one (he had been good about responding on email before that). Never heard back. So I called and he said that he would fax it. Never saw it. Called again and left message for him to fax. Never got it. I never did get that copy. There were a few nights where I thought to myself - should I be scared that he's not going to show up??? But once I got my day-of planner involved, she assured me that everything would be fine, and that alot of vendors can be MIA until closer to your date. And she reminded me that his contract was one of the more detailed ones of all my vendors. So she was right - he was very responsive to questions starting about 2 weeks before the wedding. One more thing I can say, and this also applies to other phtojournalists - they don't necessarily like to do posed family photos, and some aren't going to even be good at them. I asked Michael and he said he had done them in the past and that he would do them. If I had the extra $ and formal were more important to me than they were, I probably would have hired someone else to do those pics. An expensive proposition, but I think maybe that it's probably hard to get a great PJ (and I mean a real PJ that has done work for a newspaper, magazine, etc..) that's going to be a great formals photographer. They're two different things altogether. Michael did a good job with my posed pics, but probably not as good a job as a non-PJ would.

Jells1107

Photographer - Amy Deputy

This woman is AMAZING! She is truly one of the most talented photographers in the country and her personality is just so incredible. Her work on her website brings tears to my eyes, and she also did another wedding I was in, and those pictures were phenomenal. Amy listened to everything I had to say, and made sure she catered to my picture wishes the entire time. My pictures were better than I ever could have imagined and they will be cherished always - A+++

Dmindgal

PHOTO/VIDEO: Artistic Difference

I love Phil and Angie! They have been exceedingly helpful and are very open to answering questions.
I love the photo montage they did to play at the reception. It fits the song selection perfectly and just makes me so giddy!!! It made everyone laugh, cry, smile, and just really get to know DH and I. I highly recommend having one if you are not sure!
The best moment of the entire day was when DH and I saw each other before the ceremony. His jaw dropped, he stumbled, and said “you look gorgeous”… the best part is that Phil and Angie were there to capture it in all it’s glory!!! I can’t wait to see the pictures, but I know they will look amazing! And EVERYONE is waiting on the DVD

AGB05

Photographer: Kerry Gastly www.kandrphotography.com Again, I am not sure where to start. Kerry was amazing through the whole wedding process. She was the first vendor I booked. I booked her when I thought the wedding was going to be in Norfolk VA, and she lives in WV and was going to travel down to Norfolk for the wedding. She was early to everything the day of the wedding, and I had my pictures 3 days after my wedding. She had them already up on her site. I could not believe it!!! She was awesome to work with, and I HIGHLY recommended her for your wedding pics

Oct.04bride

Photographer - Linda Wallace-- A+++

What can I say!? She is everything that you’ve heard and more. Not only is her work amazing, but she is also someone that you’d actually want to have at your wedding! She is a North Carolina photographer who has gotten really big in the D.C. area because a photographer of her caliber up here would be 3 times as much. You do have to pay for her travel costs, but it is well worth it.

Her style is artistic, which means a lot of detail shots along with tons of candids. She does do whatever formal shots you’d like her to do as well. She is great at keeping things moving during the formal shots (we were done in about 30 – 40 minutes!) and then just totally fades into the background during all other times. You really don’t even notice that she’s there. She works in digital and is just so talented. We’ve felt like we’ve really gotten to know her over the last 14 months and I’m just sorry that she doesn’t live up here!

Joking

Photographs: Kerry Gastely
(www.kandrphotography.com) My other favorite vendor. I just love her. She is the nicest person and very helpful. She gave me lots of advice, helped me find vendors and even came to my rescue when I could not find the “I” for my I DO letters. She did our e-pics as well as the wedding pics and I just love them. She has great packages and is very prompt with the finished product. The pics were ready before we even got back from our honeymoon. She is really a wonderful person and great at what she does. I feel very lucky to have found her. Very Highly Recommend.

Jenniekay

Photography: Gary Gibson
I found Gary through my mom, he has worked part time as a photographer for the last 15 years. The only thing he does is weddings, and simply because he loves it. He is the nicest person, and he took so much time and care with our pictures. We only had him for 4 hours, and he stayed for 6, just to make sure he got all the shots we wanted. I don't think many knotties know about Gary, but I'll post some professional pics when I have them.....he's just amazing!

Sweet_pea1031

Photography- Garrett Photo- HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Although I have not seen the photos yet I have no reservations about highly recommending Herb. From day 1 he has been a dream to work with. He is funny and puts you at ease at the same time. My Husband and I were so impressed with our initial meeting with Herb that we immediately booked him and cancelled our other appointments. I don't really like to pose for pictures, and I was very nervous about having the wedding photos done, but Herb made everything really enjoyable. I cannot wait to see our Photos and I will post them as soon as I can.

Beth8

Photographer: Stan Ruddie www.asiphotos.com
Not well known on these boards but excellent work and reasonably priced. He is based on the Eastern Shore but drove all the way to Westminster for a consultation, our engagement photos, and our wedding, at no added cost. He gives the whole day to you (no per-hour cost) and you can customize the package for your budget. We just got back from our honeymoon and he is sending us our proofs this week- how great is that!

Autumnwed05

Photographer: JOE PUCILLO

www.pucillo.net/joe/
Joe was my favorite vendor! He was the only photographer I visited with and we booked him the same day. He impressed us that much in the consultation. He is very organized and very thorough. His pricing is very reasonable. Everyone liked him in my family and wedding party. He did an excellent job with the children in my wedding, getting them to pose perfectly and he was very patient with them. Joe was unobtrusive, especially at the reception. I didn’t even know he was there. The photos are wonderful both the posed pictures and the candids. Joe has a great eye for pictures and a lot of experience with what will look good. He also got every picture I wanted, and I had an extensive list. I highly recommend him. He gets an 11. Side note: Photography is one thing I wish I had splurged a bit more on. This was one thing my father was willing to pay for, but I tried to keep the price lower for him. I decided to forgo an album for the time being and pay for it myself later, but now looking back, I should have spoken to my Dad and really seen what he was willing to do because I could probably have gotten a package that included an album for less than what I will have to pay now. And I am going to end up using the money my parents gave me as a wedding gift for the album anyway. My lesson – don’t skimp on the photography – it really is the most important thing. The wedding day goes by in a blur and the only way you will be able to piece things together is through your pictures. I know initially those prices seem outrageous, but it’s worth it

esposa38

CM Baker, www.cmbaker.com  Magnolia, DE- affordable, average work and average to sub-par customer service. Meaning that the pictures were nothing to rave about, some good, some blah. He said I would get two copies of each print, but he only gave me one copy of the digital prints. He mixed digital and film photography. I contacted him a couple times; the first time he said Yeah I'll send them, so I waited....two months.... and then I contacted him again. Never heard back. Now granted, I have not been "riding" him, but I don't feel that I should have to! Come on and do your job. But I guess until I waste my time calling and bitching, I won't see those pictures that I was promised and paid for! The pluses of C.M.- he was nice,he was unobtrusive, the good shots outnumbered the blahs, he got the pictures to me FAST, like two weeks post wedding, and he even printed some digital ones to display at the reception. People seemed to think that was a nice touch. I don't not recommend him, but I just will say that I gues in this case I got what I paid for. He was totally inexpensive.

Coppergirl

Photographer: Kerry Gastley, [email protected], Again she is awesome! High quality pictures at a great price. She is very easy to work with. She does engagement and family portraits, too. Tell her, I sent you! ;o)

Happyliz

Photographer - Bill Rogers - A+
Bill did a great job for us. He works at the same facility as us doing photography work full time. He is just getting in to weddings, so it worked out well for us to hire him. He took a ton of pictures of everything that was going on that night. I had sent him a few example photos that I liked and he tried to duplicate a couple of them. He is very open to ideas and such a nice guy to work with. Everything was shot digital and he had CDs with all of the images ready for me when I got back from the honeymoon, and his prices were very affordable! If you would like to contact Bill for your wedding, please email me at [email protected] and I''ll give you his contact information.  

DJ’s and Musicians

Mrsdaihdreamin1

B&D DJ's(443*744*1091)
I absolutely ADORED my DJ's, Bruce & Dan!!! They were WONDERFUL to work with & did an excellent job of keeping my party going & on time. Dan did the "spinning", & Bruce was the "front man"/ MC, they had wonderful dynamics together! Bruce definitely was my "coordinator" the day of, regardless of the fact that Ceresville staff tried to "change" some things. Their (B&D) only concern was making everything go as smoothly & as enjoyably as humanly possible. I'm a bit of a control freak, but w/Bruce @ the lead I had NO WORRIES!! He took care of pretty much all the timing details & kept the flow going. Many of my guests repeatedly told me how much fun they were having, how funny Bruce was, how great the music was, how they hadn't danced that much in ages, etc., etc., the compliments keep coming. In fact, many thought that Bruce was the staff manager for Ceresville, because he took charge so well & was in command (that's a good thing by the way), they were shocked when I told them that he was 1/2 of our DJ team & MC extraordinaire. I cannot rave enough about Bruce & Dan. They didn't play EVERY single song I wanted ( I provided them w/3 CD's & a 4 page list..YIKES!), but in their defense I had my reception jam packed full of "events" & traditions, from the Hora, mezinke, special (F/D, M/S) dances, to cake cutting, garter/bouquet tosses/removals, change of outfits (to call attention to), 6 different toasts/speeches, & remaking David's (DH) single release from '97 into a CD & blending his song into the reception (suprise for DH). All in all, B&D did a phenomenal job & I would highly recommend them 100+ times over!! Yayyyy.. for Bruce & Dan!!!!

Shellebelle04

DJ: Musicmasters - Baltimore, MD. I met with the owner and I liked his style and professional manner. They have a great website to pick out all your songs online if you're the planned perfectionist type, or you can leave it up to the DJ's judgement, or anywhere in between. The owner costs more money than the other DJ's, so I decided not to use him to save money and I was still very happy with the DJ I had for the wedding. She was professional and outgoing and kept everyone on the dance floor all night. My only complaint would be that I would have liked more slow songs, but really she did a great job at keeping my guests happy. Musicmasters is not the cheapest out there, but they were worth the extra.
Rating: A

Nicolem1970

DJ:  Absolute Entertainment ~ A
(410) 761-1212; www.absoluteentertainment.com

Our DJ was John Paul Berry.  He is a great guy!  In our first meeting with him, he took such care to figure out DH’s and my musical tastes.  Even when our ceremony took an unexpected turn, John was quick to make certain the correct music played.  

SUGGESTIONS:  **If you intend to seat people in the Living Room at The Cloisters, make certain that there is a speaker placed in the center of that room, and that all events are announced, and heard.   **If your guests are allowed to make song requests, make absolute certain that your DJ is aware of this.

Jells1107

DJ/String Trio - Sounds Perfect

The string trio played during the ceremony and the cocktail hour and I actually remember hearing them! They sounded wonderful. Our DJ, DJ TK, was very nice and did a great job with his MC duties and with the playlist. He kept the talking to a minimum, absolutely no cheesiness, his appearance was great, and he kept to my play/do not play list. He even let my crazy friends take the mic and bring it out onto the dance floor so we could sing along to a song from grade school! -A+

Shcnauder

D.J: Michael K A+ Had the crowd going all night. very professional (no cheese). Everyone loved him, did some extra foot work looking for songs for me etc. I highly recommend him

Muppet

HARPIST – Mary Ellen Holmes ([email protected]) – A+++
The great thing about Mary Ellen is that she brings an amplifier so there’s no problem with you hearing her at all. She was so sweet and great to work with – she always got back to me right away. And she plays a beautiful harp!

Mrsrizzie
Music Masters - C
DJ - Jerry Steele - B
Music Masters caused me a good amount of stress the week before the wedding and that’s the reason for the C. As some of you may remember, I had initially been guaranteed Bob Oberman who was recommended by fellow knotties. The week before our wedding I received a voicemail from Music Masters saying that they wanted to talk to me about my DJ, Jerry Steele. I called them immediately because I figured it had to be a mistake, only to find out that Bob Oberman’s daughter’s christening was the same Saturday as my wedding and apparently he didn’t know that 10 days ago?!?! Music Masters itself seemed a little disorganized - I couldn’t always get my online planner to work and had to tell them 3 times (once at the very end of the reception) that we had paid in full and no money was due.
Jerry was fine and kept all the young people dancing all night. My only real complaint with him -which I didn’t think about or notice during the reception- was that he only played two slow songs during the reception (after the special dances) so nobody else got to slow dance and therefore, DH never slow danced with my Mom or anyone else and I never slow danced with my FIL or anyone else. Again, it didn’t occur to me while I was dancing the night away but now we’ll never get the chance:( Their prices are reasonable but I wish I had picked an independent DJ so I knew exactly whom I was getting.

Hize

Paul Lavin of Royal Music Service
Paul came highly recommended to me by one of my sorority sisters who used him for her wedding last fall. When DH and I contacted Paul we had no idea that he was also the organist at the church we were getting married in, so it ended up being one stop shopping! Paul did an amazing job with the ceremony, playing and singing all of our requests. He also played the grand piano for our cocktail hour and then a great job at the reception. All of our guests had a great time dancing the night away. He honored our requests and played all of our "must play" list and none of the songs off of our "do not play list". That was a big hit for me! Also, he kept the people dancing by playing some more popular dancing songs: like Shout, etc...earlier in the evening and more for the younger crowd as the evening progressed. I highly recommend Paul; he is a very talented singer, piano player, and DJ.

Dmindgal

DJ: Jason Walsh Entertainment

Jason is such a sweetie! He remembered FI was in flight school and sent a very nice email to say hello (they haven't met yet). He is very keen on ensuring the music is tailored to our desires.
One of the best compliments of the night came from my father who said “This is the best music I have ever heard at a wedding, and the DJ is just amazing at working the crowd.” I know that the couple picks the music, but Jason was great at delivering it! He got us moving, kept us going, and was great at running any and all special requests by DH and I. He also seemed to genuinely enjoy himself!

Agb05

Ron from Rockin Ron DJ Service Rockin Ron runs his own business..and is amazing. My DH plays Rugby and he has done all the Rugby events over the years. He does what you want, and plays exactly what you want. We told him we had a very young crowd coming to the wedding, and we were dancing all night long. He is great to work with. I HIGHLY recommend Ron.

Jenniekay

DJ: DZ Entertainment
Kevin and Dave from DZ were really great. They helped me plan everything for the wedding timeline. They reviewed our music selections several times and helped make some suggestions. Kevin consulted me before he did anything, and took notes, so the day of the wedding, I didn't worry about a thing, and he didn't miss a beat. Several of the songs we wanted, he didn't have in his music selection, but we made a CD for him, and he played every one, exactly when we wanted them played. He was so professional, more like a master of ceremonies.....then a wedding dj.

Mosaicgal

Music (ceremony and reception) - A+++
Mark Novak
Mark Novak Band
www.Jewishstorytelling.com
4108 Military Road NW
Washington, DC 20015
202-362-3270
[email protected]
If there is a more fun way to kick off a reception than dancing the hora (with the bride and groom raised up on chairs), then I don’t know what it is. I have to say this was the most fun moment of my life to date and it wasn’t just because I felt a weight watchers victory when they were able to lift my seat without groaning! The leader of the band, Mark Novak, totally knows how to get a party moving, get guests of all faiths dancing and involved, and was also great at explaining Jewish customs to the half of our guests who were not Jewish. Everyone felt involved, everyone danced the night away - and everyone said again and again that it was the most fun wedding they had ever been to - and I credit Mark with this. He got that party started and kept it going to the end. They also play “traditional” wedding dance music from all eras, in addition to Jewish music, which was a hit as well. Mark also acted as cantor for us during the ceremony and it was a very beautiful service made all the more lovely with his singing.

Mericraig

Ceremony/Cocktail Music: SOUNDSATIONS- Jim Stanton A
Jim was super nice to deal with. He played most of what we asked him to and didn’t play anything we asked him not to. We pretty much gave him the freedom to play what the crowd asked him to. We are more the classic and 80’s rock music listeners, so even though we didn’t particularly care for some of the music, our guests loved it! They were dancing all night, not just our friends, but the older guests too!

Sweet_pea1031

Ceremony Musicians- Enchanting Sounds Highly Recommended

Initially this group caught my eye because they included "When you Wish Upon a Star" on their play list. That song was playing when FI proposed to me at Disneyland, so I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into the wedding somehow. Since they had the song I sent them an e-mail. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly Erika got back to me and the price quote I was given for a string trio. During the planning Erika was great. We talked a lot about how I was going to incorporate WYWUS and eventually I decided to have my Brides Maids and Flower Girl walk down to the song. She also helped me pick music for the interludes in the ceremony. The day of went very smoothly. The selections were exactly as we had discussed and everything sounded beautiful. I got a lot of compliments both on the uniqueness of my selections and how great everything sounded.

DJ- B and D, Highly Recommend

I booked with Bruce and Daniel when they were just starting out, so I got a GREAT price. I also feel like I got really great customer service from them as well. Bruce came up to our house for a final meeting where we sat and talked about what kind of music we wanted played, what we didn't want played, our time-line for the evening and even the pronunciation of the names of the bridal party. I was very impressed with their professionalism. At one point during the ceremony Bruce approached me because a lot of my older guests were leaving and we had not cut the cake yet. He asked me if I wanted to move up the cake cutting, which we did. At another point we approached my FI and I and let us know that a LOT of people were requesting the Chicken Dance, which was on our do not play list. He asked us if it was okay or if we really didn't want it. We told him to go ahead and play it since so many people had requested it. It turned out to be a lot of fun, so I am glad that he asked us if we wanted him to go ahead and play it. All in all I feel like they did an extremely impressive job.

Autumnwed05

DJ: DISC JOCKEY ENTERPRISES:
I got the name of this DJ through my discount bridal rep. She’s used them several times and is very happy with them. What most impressed me with this DJ service is Patty -----. She is an extremely organized and helpful person. I wasn’t worried at all that things were going well. Also, the price of this DJ is extremely reasonable. The DJ himself was okay. I got a lot of compliments on him and he did a great job abiding to my wishes of the music not being played too loud and I ended up changing some things around during the reception which he was very flexible with. Anything I asked – he provided. The only complaint I have is that I felt like very little of my song list was played and songs were played that were not on my song list. This might be my fault. I gave an extremely long song list and there is no way he could have played all of my songs in his time frame. Also, I allowed requests so it’s possible that some of the songs he played that were not on my list were requested. But I don’t think so. Overall, I was very pleased with this service and I will give them a 9 out of 10. If a DJ is not the most important thing to you , but you definitely want a good, reliable service, I would recommend Disc Jockey Enterprises. The price is very worth it!!

Esposa38

Ceremony Musicians:

This was the one area of the wedding that I was HUGELY DISSATISFIED- irate might be a more appropriate description- with. We used Moeller Classical Guitar and Cello duo, referred through the Peabody Institute, and this is what happened…

There was a huge accident on the Bay Bridge and traffic was backed up for hours. Many of my guests missed the ceremony because of it. The Moellers’ were caught in it. They were contracted to play for one hour, from 5pm to 530 as the guests arrived, then 3 (snippets of) different songs for the processional, and then a recessional as the guests were leaving (until 6pm). They arrived at 5:45; we held the ceremony up to wait for them.

I understand that they were late due to unfortunate, unforeseen circumstances that were no fault of theirs, but when they rushed in and began to play, THEY PLAYED THE WRONG SONGS. Don’t think that nobody but me noticed, though… the songs were included in the programs and “Ode to Joy” (which was supposed to have been my processional) was actually written into the ceremony as one of our readings, and the reading was prefaced by noting that it was the song played as I walked into the ceremony. Um, not as it turned out.

But my biggest problem with Moeller is that they went ahead and accepted the full payment for the one hour contract when they actually played for less than ten minutes, and played the wrong damn songs at that. And they didn’t even apologize to me for being late, which even though I understand technically wasn’t their fault, still would have been the polite thing to do.

I really have to say that I am just incredibly disappointed, because I was so excited about having them to play, and I really thought the music was going to be a beautiful, central part to my ceremony. Not too mention the stress in the hour leading up to the ceremony with wondering where they were… Oh, well.

Repection and Catering: Chester River Yacht & Country Club; we will be serving a plated entree of "Eastern Shore Surf & Turf" (crab cakes and filet!)

Cake: Three tiers decorated with fresh flowers, one layer of Godiva Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling, one layer of lemon sponge cake with fresh berry filling, and one layer of hazelnut torte with whipped cream filling; Black-Eyed Susan's Catering, Chestertown MD

Reception Band:

Gazze was absolutely so amazing I literally cannot rave enough. They were incredible. I wasn't even planning on this, but people began dancing even while dinner was being served, between courses, nobody stopped dancing the entire night. Gazze was PHENONMENAL!!!!! They were so good that three of my guests asked for their card and booked them to play at their own affairs.

Let me start with raving about Dwight. What an incredible guy. He was just so great to work with, the entire time from the day I first contacted him, every time we spoke, throughout the whole reception (obviously), and he even kept in touch afterwards to say how much fun the wedding was (of course, I thought so!) Dwight learned two new songs to play for our first dance and my father's dance, and they sounded great. Every song they played sounded great. I have never had so much fun dancing in my life.<BR
Now I know you're thinking, yeah, imagine that, a bride who thought her wedding was fun. But I am telling you, GAZZE ROCKS. Gazze rocked my wedding. They were far and away the best part of the wedding (besides the whole getting married thing, of course).

Gazze can be booked through talent agencies, but I contacted them directly and think I saved a little $$ in booking fees. They are definitely more expensive than a DJ, say, but they are worth every penny and then some. IF you are looking for an area to splurge, this is definitely the area and Gazze is the band. They have a great website and will send you a video, but if you can make arrangements to see them play live, you should. They are so much fun. I LOVED GAZZE and I will rave about them until the cows come home. This is not a paid advertisement, they are just that good! :)

Coppergirl

Deejay: Jam Men DJ's - Jim Moss- (301) 662-2504 - He did an awesome job! Everyone loved the music. He was easy to work with and played everything off my song list. He made the night go much smoother and kept everything on schedule 

Happyliz

DJ
Dance Masters DJs, Don and Sue - Baltimore, MD - A

Don and Sue were very pleasent to work with and I feel like they really listened to what we wanted. We gave most of our vendors an idea of what we wanted and let them run with it, and Don and Sue did a great job with this. We gave them a list of songs we like and they just worked from that and picked things that fit into our tastes. Sue acted as coordinator which was a very helpful service and kept the party on track. Some people said that they plugged their business too much, I don''t really remember.

Joking

DJ: Rico Mills of Bialeks.
I can’t say enough about this guy. We are from the Caribbean and wanted a good mix of reggae, soca and motown and boy did he deliver. The music was perfect and the dance floor was filled the whole time. He did the ceremony also and honored all of our requests. He even came over and asked me before he played the electric slide cause it was on my don’t play list. He met with us beforehand and went over every last detail and is really a pleasure to work with. We are trying to book him for our graduation party, and one of my friends is going to use him for her wedding. If you want a great party, this is your fella. Very Highly Recommend.

Oct.04bride

DJ - Jason Walsh Entertainment -- A+++

Jason was an amazing DJ. We really feel that the music sets the tone for the whole night and so it was a really important aspect for us. We wanted a wedding with lots of dancing so it was important to us that we had a DJ who could really keep the floor moving and would listen to us about what we did and didn’t want played. We also wanted a DJ who didn’t constantly talk, making his presence always known. He did a fantastic job of keeping things flowing, without rushing everything. For instance, the toasts ran longer than we had anticipated and so people were not finished eating when we had ‘scheduled’ the dinner time to be over and the father/daughter dance to begin. I am so glad that he didn’t call people into the ballroom for our dance, making people leave their half finished food. Everything flowed very naturally, thanks to him. Tim even mentioned that he had a very nice speaking voice (when he’d announce things/events), which is totally true!

Our processional song (wedding party as well as my dad and I) was Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (Hawaiian version). We had a feeling that it wouldn’t be long enough and weren’t sure how that would work. We also didn’t want the last couple seconds of the song played because it has this little funky sound that we wouldn’t want to be a part of a processional. He said that it was no problem to have it loop to a middle part of the song and still cut out that last part. It sounded completely natural and everyone loved it

Flowers

Beth8

Florist: Hock's 410-857-1447

Awesome job! I was very picky and met with her several times about colors, ideas and she was great. I wanted simple flowers, all roses, and she was helpful in picking out what shades of peach would go best with the bridesmaid dresses. She only did bouquets, bouts, and the church flowers. For the reception we used the Antrim's candelabras with ivy and rose petals.

Shellbelle04

Flowers: Ultimate Affair- Aberdeen,MD. Pam did a great job in helping me to stretch my flowers budget. The reception flowers were beautiful (I did tall arrangements on clear pedestals) and I received many compliments on them. My bouquet was also beautiful for the wedding. But there were mistakes made that lowers my overall rating. My maid of honor's bouquet ended up at the reception site on our sweetheart table, which was supposed to have a small centerpiece that we never did find. Also, the best man was supposed to have a different corsage then the others which did not happen. So unfortunately, the maid of honor and best man had flowers like everyone else which was upsetting to me. Also, I was supposed to have bows on every few pews at the church and they ended up only the first couple rows and one at the very back. Also I had inquired to her about having an alter arrangement and she had told me that she had been told that the church had flowers donated all the time and there would be an alter arrangement already up there... and there was not. The final mistake was that all of the corsages for the mothers/grandmothers were supposed to be wrist corsages but instead were pinned corsages. Despite all this, my guests didn't notice. But I did. In Pam's defense, the flowers that did arrive were the colors I had requested and were beautiful and not wilting. And she did give me the most value for my flower budget. But make sure that everything you discuss is on the contract, and verify it with her several times and try not to make any last minute changes that could easily be forgotten.
Rating: B

Jells1107

Florist - Mary Ruth Chapin

Mary-Ruth was probably the BEST vendor I had and her work made me cry tears of joy. My bouquets were stunning, the bouts were perfect, and when I saw the ballroom for the first time, I was floored. It was the most spectacular ballroom I had ever seen. The centerpieces were so dramatic and the paradise candles gave the most incredible lighting effect. Mary-Ruth also tended to me the entire time, cleaned up everything, and just kept me calm! She is truly an amazingly talented woman and her work shows it. - A++++

Muppet

FLORIST - Mary Ruth Chapin A+++
Mary Ruth is a doll!! She instantly becomes like your second mom, she is so sweet and it's obvious she loves being in the wedding industry. Every time I talked to her she was cheery and open to talking to me. I had a couple vendors where after I signed the contract they were hard to get a hold of until a couple weeks before the wedding. Not Mary Ruth - I'm an email person and she answered every messgae I sent her in a day or two. And she's a great florist - she did everything I asked, and also had lots of suggestions. Oh, and she's not super expensive - not the cheapest on the block, but she does alot for what she charges.

Mosaicgal

Flowers - A+
Mary-Ruth Chapin
410.628.1122
[email protected]
I was really happy with the flowers. Many guests complimented us on the extraordinary beauty and uniqueness of our flowers. Also, my mother-in-law had made our huppah and coordinated directly with Mary-Ruth to ship it to her etc and Mary-Ruth did a fabulous job of installing it in the most beautiful way. Mary-Ruth was very thorough and, especially with regard to the huppah, etc, did a great job of coordinating and not letting anything fall through the cracks. She was also very accessible and responsive via email and everything, which I really liked.

My only advice here is to trust in Mary-Ruth and, to a certain degree, give her some leeway to use her vision, because it will all turn out wonderfully. IF you have very specific wishes and will be disappointed if things aren’t EXACTLY as you specified, then make sure everything is spelled out in writing and confirm it all with her shortly prior. I was a bit laid back and a few things were a little bit of a surprise - like the centerpiece containers, which were different than I had chosen (though lovely), and I didn’t think there would be any magenta tones in my bouquet (which was otherwise mango-orange-red-burgundy), but I can’t say these things weren’t gorgeous, because it all was. Still, if you are picky, spell things out and re-confirm and I am sure you will be in good hands, because Mary-Ruth is eager to make brides happy and truly has a gift for what she does.

Happyliz
Mary Ruth Chapin - Timonium, MD - A

I am really happy with the flowers I got from Mary Ruth. During the planning, I felt as though she really wasn''t keeping track of what I wanted, but we talked as the wedding got closer to figure out the details, which I guess is what is important. I didn''t really hold her to anything specific and the flowers that I got don''t really look like the picture, but they were better than I could have asked for. She did a really nice job and the flowers were so fresh. I know that she usually stays at the wedding to help out, but she had a large wedding the day after mine, so it was part of our agreement that she wouldn''t be able to stay for ours.

Hize

Florist:Bouquets by Bell
Pam & Amy did an amazing job with all my flowers and I can not say enough about how many compliments people gave me on the centerpieces and bouquets. They are a true talent to the Baltimore wedding business. About three weeks out from the big day, I decided to completely change my centerpieces and they were there every step of the way to help me with the decision. Even the week of the wedding, I was full of questions, and they kept me calm and answered everyone of them. My mom, sister-in-law, and I stopped by the day before to check out the flowers and the first thing my mom said was "WOW" they look exactly like the photo you showed me last fall when you got engaged! My bouquet (all mixed fall roses) stayed fresh until Wed after the wedding and then I decided to dry it out. The whole decoration scheme from the church to the reception was exactly as I imagined it to be; in fact, so many people keep telling me how beautiful the pew wreaths were as well as the centerpieces. Definitely give them a call! If you want pics, Page me and I will email them to you. I highly recommended them for any flower needs; they are great!

AGB05

Florist: Bouquets by Bell-Pam and Amy I pretty much gave Pam and Amy free run when it came to my wedding. Pam really enjoys doing fall and winter wedding, and she is amazing at creativity. I gave her some pics of what I wanted, but they went about and beyond what I asked for. They were awesome to work with, and everyone at the wedding was committing on how beautiful everything was. I HIGHLY recommend them.

Baltobride2be

Florist - Bouquets By Bell, Amy and Pam - 410-284-4800. During the planning process BBB was terrific. They were able to give us so many creative ideas and were very flexible. When the flowers arrived the day of the wedding - I was not as pleased. While they were very nice, they were not exactly what we expected. My bouquet was not the correct color (we said all blue for and all white for the BM). There bouquests were right but mine was mostly all white with a little bit of pale blue). Not a major issue, I know, but still not exactly what I had in mind. We were also missing 2 boutineers for our ushers.

Oct.04bride

Florist – A- Bouquets By Bell
Pam Shifflett and Amy Bell
7220 Holabird Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21222
410-284-4800
email: [email protected]

I mostly worked with Pam but did talk with her mother, Amy, whenever I went to their shop. Both are just the nicest ladies and are very creative. They are quite the dynamic duo and always made me laugh. One of the best things about them is that they are just as cost conscious as brides are. They never make you feel like you’re being cheap and they come up with really awesome ideas to help you get the affect that you want, for within your budget. I ended up constantly adding things that I wanted and they were always up for every idea that we threw at them. Our arch was amazing and was even better than I had expected.

There was a small snafu with the boutonnieres coming later than the rest of the flowers (like right before the ceremony was to start) but that is really something that can happen to any vendor. I know that they were more upset about it than any of us were and what was important was that they got everything there and the problem was corrected swiftly. That is really what you want in vendors – if something doesn’t go according to plan, you want them to know how to fix it and quickly. The reason why I gave them an 'A-' is because they did or didn’t have some thing’s that I had specifically asked for. Basically just that we had asked for rose petals and votives to be on top of the piano, which didn’t happen. We also wanted orchids on our cigar table, which also weren’t there. I had also asked for there to not be any white, yellow or pink in the bouquets (I wanted more monochromatic with just reds and oranges) and the bouquets, while beautiful, did have the colors in it that I didn’t want. I would have preferred for it to have been as I had asked, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. Overall, we had a great experience with them.

Nicolem1970

Florist:  Mary Bell & Carol Flint Kelly ~ B
410-773-5616 (Carol Kelly)
Mary and Carol are very pleasant to work with.  They were recommended to us by Hunt Valley Catering, and were very accommodating. The flowers were very pretty. Unfortunately, I had all of my professional portrait pictures taken with a bouquet that had one whole stem of completely brown hydrangeas directly in the center of it (I didn’t notice until after the pictures were taken).  The problem was resolved for the ceremony, but my formals show the dying flowers.  It was a warm day, so perhaps this is par for the course. 

SUGGESTIONS:  **Depending upon your love/like of children, you may want to recommend that Carol not bring her 10 year old little girl to any meetings which you have ~ I love kids, but found it horribly distracting…especially on the day of my wedding!

Coppergirl

Florist - Beaver Creek Flowers and Gifts (301) 663-6363 - Jennifer Karschner- Love her! She went out of her way to help me stick to my budget and still have everything I wanted.

Esposa38
Dutch Blooms Florist, Chestertown MD- Beautiful, beautiful work. Plus so nice and totally affordable to boot!

Mrsrizzie

Florist
Floral Impressions (Baltimore) - A+++++
Contact: Teresa Katsner
She’s a very close second with Larry Huffman! I love Teresa! Talk about creative - I went to her with a loose idea of what I wanted - spring floral arrangements, wild flowers, gerbera daises, no roses, etc., and basically told her to run with it. My flowers went far beyond my expectations. My Mom’s tussy mussy, the BM bouquets, the centerpieces, the altar sprays - everything was just gorgeous! The bouts. were just so-so to me (purple tulips that weren’t very vibrant) but all in all she did a FANTASTIC job without a lot of input from me. We changed the centerpieces about 1 month before the wedding and provided half of the containers and she had no problem with it. I also wanted little fake bugs all over the room to make it look ‘springy’ and she put little bumble bees, butterflies, lady bugs, etc. in all of the centerpieces - they were absolutely beautiful! Thanks to jenbrian for the recommendation! I more than highly recommend Teresa!

Mrsdaihdreamin1
*My bouquet, Kissing balls, gm bout's, & centerpieces(found along mantel & on table)- DIY by myself, some kissing balls done by individual BM's, MOH helped on kissing balls, her bouquet, & centerpieces. I purchased materials from Walmart, Michael's Crafts, AC Moore, & Joann Fabrics. I used silk flowers & they all turned out absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!
*Mothers' corsages, SOG, Gmother's, Stepmothers, & programs girls corsages, grooms, FOB, GFOB bout's, presentation roses, toss bouquet, & mezinke krenzel (head wreath) were all done by THE CUTTING GARDEN, in Westminster (410*751*9015). They did an excellent job considering I approached them a week before my wedding. They were also VERY reasonably priced. The flowers were beautiful, the only thing they didn't have exactly right were my step mother & DH's sister's corsages. They were supposed to be purple orchids & they gave us plain white orchids. Other than that, everything was beautiful. I HIGHLY recommend them!! Plus they were WONDERFUL to work with!!

Jenniekay

Florist: Country Peddler, Pasadena
Again, there aren't enough wonderful things I can say about Wendy. She really made my dreams come true with flowers, my bouquet and the bridesmaids were everything I wanted. I almost cried when I saw mine, and I wish I had a better pic in the bio. She listened to everything I said, made suggestions that really fit with what I wanted, and who I am, and created some outstanding arrangements and bouquets. I gave her my budget, and she worked everything into, and didn't cut corners at all. People were leaving the reception....and waiting to take home the centerpieces.

Sulla

Florist: Rennie Friedlander, Simply Beautiful 410-484-7743. One of my favorite vendors. Our flowers were gorgeous, creative and Rennie is an absolute sweetheart who I looked forward to meeting with.

Dmindgal

FLOWERS: ME!!!... and my girls

Okay, have to sell myself here! I loved making the florals! Silk was cheap, nice, and worked well since I am not a flowery girl. I had each BM make their own bouquet to their style with the same flowers and ribbons, and the differences were so neat! They look alike overall, but each personality came out through the small changes.
We also made aisle kissing balls and other little knickknacks. All told, we spent $150 on all our florals for the ceremony and reception’

Schaudner

Florist: Pam at the Ultimate Affair A The centerpieces and bridesmaids bouquets were gorgeous, the only one I wasn't thrilled with was mine and that could have been my lack of flower knowledge, it didn't come out exactly as I expected but everyone still though it was great. She came by just to see how everything was going and to check on everything. She goes above and beyond. As said before just be detailed about what you want, she is great though.

Mericraig

Florist: MARY-RUTH CHAPIN A++++++
Mary-Ruth is the sweetest, most talented woman I have ever met. She made all my visions of our wedding day come to life. The flowers were all so beautiful and fresh. I couldn’t stop smelling my bouquet! I told her I wanted to use peonies because they were my grandmas favorite flower. Well when I smelled them, I literally felt like she had brought my grandma to me. It was like I was transported back to childhood. We had her decorate the columns of the pergola to resemble more of a chuppah for the ceremony and that was just beyond gorgeous. The staff at Ceresville told me they had never seen it look so pretty! Mary-Ruth also came to me with an idea for the table cards. She wanted to hang the cards with ribbon from an archway of flowers, all I had to do was give her the printed table cards. So we printed the cards and she strung each one with ribbon and hung them from the most gorgeous flower covered birch pole archway I have ever seen. She took the cards down for the ceremony so I would have a beautiful archway of flowers to walk through before I walked down the aisle. It was so romantic! Mary-Ruth stayed the entire night and made sure I was never in need of anything. She made sure the centerpieces were dispersed to our guests and even took out all the pussy willow from them for me to keep(another reminder of my grandma). I am going to miss working with Mary-Ruth!

2004bride

Pam of The Ultimate Affair – FLOWERS and COORDINATION

Flowers - Pam did a wonderful job. She kept in contact with me and was receptive to my ideas. She used containers I found at a craft store to make gorgeous centerpieces, and listened to what I wanted when she created a beautiful bouquet based on pictures I had sent her as well as my requests (particularly for "short stems"). I loved my flowers. Pam even created a vase for the sign-in table with apples in the vase beneath the roses, which was creative and tied into the theme. I didn't know she was going to do this, and only noticed it as we were leaving the reception. Pam let us use table numbers she had on hand, and even offered us table-number holders she would lend us (we ended up finding our own). The flowers lasted a long time, and were one part of the decorations where we received a ton of compliments.

Coordination - Pam met with me at Kali's Court a couple of months before the wedding, and had very good ideas about setting up the ceremony and reception. She kept in touch with Kali's Court before the wedding, making sure they were on track with our requests. Pam was later than I thought she would be on our wedding day, which caused a minor freak-out moment for me that morning, and caused my friend Beka to take on some duties I thought Pam would handle at the restaurant. But Pam kicked into high gear when she got there (from what I heard, I was getting ready at the hotel), and made our wedding happen.

She really did a fantastic job. When my dad made me cry before the ceremony, Pam was there with her "magic brush" that took the redness away on my face and chest. I don't know what was on that thing, but it worked. Pam was on top of the wait staff and kitchen to get the food out on time. She even cut and plated our cake herself! When the bill came, Pam and Ben looked at it first, and compared it to our contract. She saved us hundreds of dollars by pointing out that soda, coffee, and tea was included in our per person price (the restaurant had charged us by the glass). By the time the bill got to us, it was just a number, and DH signed the credit card slip and was done. Pam and Ben also packed up all the items that we were taking home – gifts, our serving set, cake toppers, toasting flutes, vase, etc. – and coordinated with my brother (whom I designated) to get them to our house.

This Ben I've been mentioning is Pam's fiancé, and he accompanied her to our initial meeting as well as on the wedding day. He is a photographer, and knowing we couldn't afford professional photography, he took pictures of our reception at no cost to us. They were wonderful. He was also just generally helpful on the day of, and is a nice guy.

The one thing I really really really wanted from Pam was a clear contract, that spelled out exactly what we were getting for what price. The lack of this document caused more anxiety than I needed regarding my flowers and coordination. I'd recommend Pam for flowers, but insist on a detailed contract. Pam came through, but I shouldn't have had to wonder if she would.

Sweet_pea1031

Florist- Floral Impressions (Teresa Kastner) Highly, Highly, HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Teresa is the greatest. I absolutely adored my flowers! I love flowers, but I don't know a thing about them. When I had my meeting with Teresa I took her pictures I had pulled out of magazines and I told her my color scheme and she took it all from there. She went into her shop and brought out flowers in my colors and just started arranging and showing me different things until she found something that I loved. She was also able to get me Pink Sweet Peas totally out of season and they looked great! I received SO many compliments on my flowers. They looked awesome and they smelled even better! A week after the wedding my Husband and I went to the Christmas Bazaar at our Church and they still had the Alter flowers. After church on Sunday they put them in the refrigerator. They gave them to me and I have the arrangement on my table. So far I have only had to remove 2 roses! I think that Teresa does fabulous work at a very reasonable price, I highly recommend checking her out!

Autumnwed05

Flowers: FLOWERS BY JUDY

www.flowersbyjudy.com
Florist – Flowers by Judy She was my 2nd favorite vendor. Her work is beautiful and inventive. Her prices are reasonable – the cheapest quote I received out of 5 florists. And when I was uneasy about the flowers and not sure what I wanted she made me up a mock bouquet to give me an idea of how they would look. I must have changed my mind a dozen times about things which she was very patient about. She delivered the flowers herself the day of the wedding so I didn’t have to worry about someone I didn’t know setting things up. And she even put extra flowers in the arrangement for the altar while at the church when she didn’t like the way it looked. Judy Overman gets an 11. Side Note: Flowers were my most difficult planning thing. Besides not realizing how expensive flowers are and having to raise my budget a lot for what I wanted, I had a hard time picturing and describing what I wanted. I stressed unnecessarily. Judy was perfect and everything was great! I learned that I needed to trust my vendors more.

Joking

DIY Flowers: Marisol Blooms.
Great customer service. The flowers were exactly what I asked for. They did not keep and travel as well as I would have liked, but I think that was more a function of my inexperience rather than the quality of the flowers. My major issue was with DHL who did the delivery. It was supposed to get there by 10, did not arrive till after 1 pm. Even though I sat there all morning waiting and kept calling the customer service line, when I went online to try and track it, there was a notation that said it could not be delivered cause I was not home. So after I called and yelled at just about everyone in the DHL office, it finally got delivered by a very surly driver. That caused a snowball effect, I could not make my final fitting appointment and basically ruined my day. That had nothing to do with Marisol, but was a major source of stress and grief two days before my wedding. Recommend with caution.  

Cakes

Nicolem1970         

Cake:  Cakes by Susie (Littlestown, PA) ~ A
(877) 383-1205
While the cake did not exactly resemble the cake I had chosen, it tasted absolutely wonderful!  Unfortunately, DH and I, as well as a good portion of our guests, did not have the opportunity to try much of it….most of the guests seated in The Living Room had left before the cake cutting, and DH and I only ate the small pieces which we fed to each other during the cake cutting….BUT, we have the whole top layer saved for our anniversary…..!

SUGGESTIONS:  **Have someone responsible save the plastic pieces which Susie uses to hold the cake in place…return them to her for a return of your deposit.

AGB05

Wedding Cake: Mary Elliot Let me first say that I went to 5 different cake tasting. I knew that I wanted someone out of their house, and not a bakery. I took the snowflake cake from Martha Stewart into Mary Elliot, and she did exactly like the picture. I had taken that picture into a couple other cake designers before Mary, and none of them would make the snowflakes pop off the cake, they all told me that they had to draw them on..and that was not what I wanted. Mary also did my bridal shower cake, and grooms cake!! I am using her again for a baby shower that I am throwing in June. I would HIGHLY recommend Mary..She is amazing!!

Shellbelle04

Cake: Kustom Kakes - Grasonville, MD
Mrs. Koski is a very sweet lady who has been making cakes for 20 yrs out of her own house who is so talented that she has earned all her clients through word of mouth. I received her name from our caterer. She had a lot of pictures of her own work as well as cakes she could imitate from magazines or you could customize it. My cake was just $2.50 per person and it was beautiful and very tasty. I went with the Almond Cake with White Chocolate Icing and everyone loved it. It was delivered ontime in perfect condition and it was a work of art. The only drawback was that I took a leap of faith since I did not get to have a sample taste of my cake before the wedding. She just had standard vanilla and chocolate at her tasting. But the wedding cake was far better than the samples anyway.
Rating: A+

Coppergirl

Cake: Chris Jeter (301) 797-3109 (no calls on Sunday) My cake was so yummy and pretty, too! I just picked out 2 different pictures and told her to combine the designs. Pictures of her past cakes look like they should be in Bride's Magazine. I didn't want anything very fancy. I was going for a simple theme. She did exactly what I pictured. Each piece had a yellow and devil's food layer. So you got the best of both worlds. She works out of her home in Hagerstown and is really nice. Only $1.25/serving!!! Of course, fillings, designs, and delivery are extra. But my cake total was only $260 for 180 servings (160 guests, 20 was our top layer to keep)

Happyliz

Fisher''s Bakery - Ellicott City, MD - A+

I was really happy with how our cake looked and tasted. Mrs. Fisher was very professional to deal with and I never doubted that the cake would be good. The prices were not too high, relative to other wedding cakes.

Mericraig

Grooms Cake: Charm City Cakes - C
After all the raves about Chef Duff's cakes, I knew I had to get the grooms cake from him. I did not do a tasting, we did everything by phone and mail, which maybe I should have gone for a tasting. Well I chose the berries and lemon curd cake since they were serving chocolate mousse too, and Chef Duff created a Seattle Seahawks helmet shape that was awesome!!! DH loved it. Well I now wish we never cut it! It tasted awful! It was probably the driest cake I have ever tasted. I looked around to see if anyone else was eating it, and nobody was. I was so disappointed, especially since this cake was not cheap. Well I know I will probably get flamed for this review since Duff gets so many raves normally, but I wanted to be honest. I LOVED the design, he is a true artist and DH was so suprised, the pictures are great- for that I give him an A, but for taste- a big fat F! Sorry:(Mericraig

Cake: BARBARA MARKLIN A
The cake was the one thing I really didn't care about but it turned out to be one of my favorite things! Our first meeting with Barbara was the Sunday after Hurricane Isabel and I should have called to confirm, but when we got up to Frederick she wasn't there. I called her house and her husband said she wasn't home, she must have forgotten about our meeting. Well, he called her and she called me on my cell and asked if we could push it back about 2 hours. No big deal, she explained that she had 3 cakes to do that weekend, lost power from the storm, and still managed to complete everything. I would be confused too!! Well her cakes were beautiful. I fell in love with the white chocolate wrapped cake with white chocolate roses. Then we tasted the cake and it was even better!! She only charges $3 per slice, $4 for the white chocolate cake. What a bargain!! Well the day of the wedding, Craig and I walk up to the cake, I look at it and start laughing, its not wrapped in white chocolate!! Oh well, it was still gorgeous!! As soon as Craig put the first piece in my mouth, I didn't care, it was soooooo good! I didn't get to eat any of it at the reception, but our bridal server packed up some slices for us to take back to the hotel. Big mistake, I ate the entire plate!!!! I couldn't help myself, it just tasted too good. The entire top tier was saved for our anniversary, free of charge from Barbara. We had 130 guests and ordered for 150, well we had 1 and 1/2 tiers left over. We just got the leftovers back from my brother-in-law yesterday and thawed out a piece, it was still delicious, 3 weeks later! Everything is carefully wrapped in plastic wrap and in the freezer for future use. I highly recommend Barbara if you are looking for a beautiful, delicious, reasonably priced cake! Even though she did forget the white chocolate, which she is completely reimbursing the extra charge to us, I would hire her again in a heart beat.

schraudner

Cake: Chef Duff Charm City Cakes A+ Amazing, I wish you could see the color in these pictures my colors were shade of pink and brown and he really caputured the look I wanted (everyone kept saying that my whole wedding looked like my Kate Spade Purses to give you the theme idea). I got so many compliments about this cake, very original!

Muppet

BAKER – Fiona Bryson ([email protected]) A+
Fiona was great – she created exactly what I wanted and she’s not expensive. I very much wanted to go with Sugarbakers b/c I had heard so much about them, but they were just too expensive. I went to Fiona first and had a great tasting, so I went with her. She not only made my wedding cake, but she made the other desserts too. I wanted something very specific – a Krispy Kreme donut tower b/c donuts are my favorite, a “death by chocolate” groom’s cake b/c my DH is such a chocolate fanatic, some Southern pecan pies in honor of my southern family, and some Jewish apple cakes in honor of my DH’s family. It all worked out wonderfully and tasted great. This was my idea – but we even had little signs that said “The cake the bride really wanted” for the donut tower, “the cake the groom really wanted” for the groom’s cake, “In honor of the bride’s family” for the pecan pie, etc… Got compliments on that nice touch. The only negative thing I’d say about Fiona (the reason I didn’t give her +++) is that there were a few times that I couldn’t get in touch with her. She gives out an email address, but wasn’t super responsive on email to me. Calling was better

Hize

Groom's Cake: Mary Elliott
DH is a huge Syracuse fan. In fact, since we moved back to NY, we now have season tickets to both basketball and football so I knew I wanted a groom's cake in the shape of Otto, the Orange Guy. Mary made a round cake for our rehearsal that looked exactly like the picture and DH was truly surprised as was our entire Syracuse delegation. Plus, the cake was excellent: vanilla with raspberry filling! I wish I still lived in MD to get some more cakes

Mrsdaihdreamin1

Karen S. Rodkey (717*359*5040)
Our cake was absolutely DIVINE!!! Not only was it beautiful, but it tasted DELICIOUS!! We just ate our last piece last night (2 weeks AFTER our wedding) & it was still fresh, moist, & scrumptious! Karen was really easy to work with & had wonderful flavors to choose from. I came up with the design, shapes, colors, etc. & she was able to artfully (& tastefully, pun intended) recreate the vision in my head. I provided the ribbons, I wanted the same one's used in my bouquet & my bm kissing balls. Our cake was sooooooo tasty!! We received many, many compliments on it. We chose 3 different flavors, tiramisu-toffee, white w/raspberry chambord, & marble w/chocolate ganache, all w/a butter cream frosting. The cakes were very fresh & moist... I definitely recommend Karen Rodkey! I believe she also does many of the wedding cakes for Antrim 1844 brides. To Die For flavor!!! Yummy..YUMMY!!!

2004bride

Baker Mary Elliot, near Baltimore, MD – WEDDING CAKE

I had a picture of an applesauce cake that I had found online a couple of years ago – not your traditional wedding cake, but perfect for our fall wedding. The picture was tiny and hard to see, but I emailed it to Mary and she recognized it as a Martha Stewart cake from one of her "best of" books. Mary had the book, and showed me the full-sized picture when I met with her the first time. She also had a sample cake ready for me, made from the recipe in the MS book. The cake was delicious, and my meeting with Mary made me confident in her abilities.

Mary did a fantastic job, and the cake was beautiful and delicious for our wedding. Guests loved it – both the uniqueness and the taste. Mary used the ribbon from our invitations to wrap the wooden pillars holding up the top tier, and to decorate the cake board (we didn't get a cake stand to use). I would highly recommend Mary for her talent and reasonable pricing. You will not be disappointed.

Sweet_pea1031

Cake- Karen Rodkey Cakes, Highly Recommended

I loved, loved, loved our cake. It turned out almost exactly like the picture in my bio, which I gave to Karen. We had 2 layers of Red Velvet Cake and 1 Layer of Almond Pound Cake. I had many people tell me that it was the best wedding cake they had ever tasted! Her Prices start at 2.75 per person. Since she is out of PA there was a $75 delivery fee to Baltimore, but that only increased my price to $3.25 per person, which is far less then some Sugarbakers cakes and you can't beat the quality and taste of Karen's cakes!

Beth8

Cake by Karen Rodkey, Littlestown PA 717-359-5040
WE LOVED THE CAKE! We got so many raves on the cake. Our cake was chocolate ganache (chocolate cake with rich chocolate fudgey filling) which some told us would be too rich and no one would eat it, but we love chocolate so we went for it anyway. Lots of people had 2 pieces they liked it so much!

Hair/Makeup

Mrsrizzie

Hair and Makeup
Timoria McQueen (www.divacompany.com) - A+
I love Timoria! She’s so fun to be around (even at 4:30am) and she made all of my BMs, my Mom and myself look amazing! She arrived at 4:30am and stayed until 12:30pm when Larry showed up. I had two hair trials with her and was worried it wouldn’t hold all day but, on your wedding day, she will make sure that your hair doesn’t move! She has such a wonderful personality and waited until I was all dressed so she could see me and add some body glitter as a final touchJ She made all of us look fantastic! I highly recommend her - she was great to have around the morning of!

Sulla

Makeup: The amazing Carol Federman 301-571-8238. The consummate pro and a fun, laid-back person to have around while getting ready. I looked better than I ever have and ever will. Period. Worth every penny I paid for her.

Mosaicgal

HAIRSTYLIST - A+ for bride hair, B for bridesmaid hair
Twila Schulteiss
In-o-va-shens salon at Galleria, on her own time
Twila is a doll, her price was reasonable, and I LOVED the way my hair came out. It helps that we had trials. When my bridesmaids came in without ideas about what to do with their hair, she was a little hit or miss. One of my bridesmaids’ hair looked a bit 60s retro... kind of cool, but I’m not sure she was really comfortable with it. They all looked beautiful to me, of course!

Jells1107

Hair - Kimberly Steele

Kim did an incredible job on everyone and we all looked gorgeous. She traveled up to Columbia from NoVA and she is so incredibly sweet. Everyone commented on just how wonderful my hair looked. - A++

Makeup - Carol Federman

Carol, like Kim, is also incredibly talented. Our make-up was incredible. Everyone was thrilled with her work and she is so fun to work with. She, too, traveled to Columbia from Bethesda, and was worth every penny. - A++

Hize

Make-Up: Timoria McQueen:www.timoriamcqueen.com
Timoria was a joy to have around the morning of the wedding. She arrived at 8am and stayed until noon just after I got dressed and helped me finalize everything by helping me with my veil! I can not say enough about how talented she is and how much fun she is to have around on your wedding day! All of my bridal party said she was wonderful to talk to and have in the suite the morning of the wedding. My mom and I both agreed it was money well spent b/c we both felt like a million dollars! She is super sweet and super talented and highly recommend her to all brides looking for an extremely talented individual for make-up. The pictures only begin to show her talent.
Hair:Heather at Bubbles in Annapolis Mall
A number of other knotties recommended Heather to me on the Baltimore board so I scheduled a trial with her and knew that when she looked at the picture and had my hair up in 20 minutes, that she was the stylist for me! Heather arrived at 7am and by 10:30 she was finished, doing 9 people in the process. She was quick, fun, and reasonably priced for travel. I must say that I have never had a hair stylist do my hair and stay that long without a piece falling out or something. She did an amazing job on all of my bridal party. In fact, one of my BMs already booked her for her upcoming weddding in Jan. Highly recommended her. You can reach her at Annapolis Bubbles.

2004bride

Hairdresser/Makeup artist Heather of Studio 1612, Mt. Washington, Baltimore, MD – HAIR and MAKEUP

Heather is great. She is fun, and easy-going, and talented. She regularly cuts and colors my hair (she's amazing with color), and she came to us on the wedding day. She did my hair and makeup using colors I picked out at the MAC counter (I was unhappy with the colors she used during my trial). She did a good job, and showed us how to take my hair comb thingy out and detach the veil, and reattach the comb. I think my face looked shiny in the pictures, but who knows how much of that had to do with crying, flash bulbs, and the like, versus the makeup itself. I'll definitely keep going back to Heather.

AGB05

Make-Up: Karen Lanham I was given Karen’s name through another knottie. I had my trial, and she did exactly what I wanted. She was early the day of the wedding. She uses MAC and Bobbie Brown makeup. Her prices were awesome, and I can’t say enough about what she did. I wanted very natural makeup, and she did just that. She only charged my bridesmaids $25 to do their eyes or $50 for the whole face, no matter how many wanted them done. I HIGHLY recommend Karen.

Hair: Heather at Bubbles in Annapolis Mall I met Heather through a wedding I was in in Oct 2004. She did my hair..I started going to her regular to even cut and color my hair. Heather is amazing when it comes to bridal hair. I went in for a trial, and the decided that I didn’t like the hairstyle that I picked out. The day of the wedding I changed what I wanted. She didn’t stress or anything, and it was perfect!!! She did about 10 of us that day in about 4 hours. I would highly recommended Heather for anyone’s hair, bridal or not!!

Jenniekay

Hair: Heather at Bubbles in Annapolis Mall
Heather is the best, I cannot believe what she did with my hair. I was specifically looking for someone to do my updo with ribbons, and she made the suggestion to me before I told her what I wanted. She came out to me, and I was the only one getting my hair done, so you know that's rare!
Makeup: Karen Lanham
Karen was reffered to me from a friend, she used to me a makeup artist for MAC, now she's more of a stay at home mom. Again, just a wonderful person. I took her a bunch of pictures, and she knew exactly what I wanted. She always pointed out my good features, and worked with them, to really make me glow on my wedding day. I didn't want to look made up, I just wanted a pretty look, and I thin I got that.

Nicolem1970

Makeup:  Nicole Palermo  (Perry Hall) ~ A+
(410) 933-8608
An absolute delight to have around on my wedding day!  She not only made me flawless (or as close as she possibly could with her limited “canvas” ~ aka my face), she took on the task of trying to keep me relaxed (not an easy one), and did not leave until she felt everything was in order. Her makeup trial was free, and she took such care to find out exactly the look I wanted.

Hair:  Classic Images (Donna) ~ A+
(410) 638-0202
For the past 4 months, each time I went to my salon to have my hair cut, Donna would perform a “hair trial” ~ free of charge.  Mind you, it was merely a 15-minute process, but it gave me an idea of what looks I did/did not want.  (I tipped her well, too, for this!). I love what we decided on for my wedding day!

Daihdreamin1

**Hair**
Hair done by Terri @ the Crop Shoppe (410*871*9501), in Westminster.
She did a FANTASTIC job!! I **LOVED** my hair! I also had some of my girls have their hair done there. Again, Terri is FANTASTIC!!

Mericraig

Makeup: Carol Federman A++
Carol is amazing!! She did my makeup for a friends wedding and I knew I had to have her for mine. Yes, she did make me wait a bit longer than I would have liked to in order to book her, but she knows what she is doing and had a reason for it. Same thing with my trial, I think I actually booked the date the week of my trial on exactly the day and time I wanted it. She showed up to my house the day of the wedding on time and with a smile on her face. She was so much fun to have around. I didn't have to worry about anything. She set herself up while I was getting my hair done and started working her magic on my mom and bridesmaids. Everyone looked gorgeous!! My sister and 1 of my BM's told me they felt prettier that day than they did on their own wedding day!! They all looked HOT! My makeup came out perfect, exactly how I wanted. It stayed on all day with a few lipstick touchups. I highly recommend Carol, she is worth every penny!!! My advice to future brides who use her- TRUST HER!!! She is a very busy person but she knows what she is doing. If she tells you to call her back at a certain time to book her, do so, she'll figure it out. Same thing for trials, she will book you the week you want to go, I promise! Yes, I was nervous when she told me to call her that week, but it worked. And do what she tells you, bring pictures you like, even if they are totally different from each other, she's just trying to get a sense of your style.

Hair: Kim Steele B
Kim is a total sweetheart and I loved my hair but there are 2 reasons why I am only giving her a B. The first reason is that 4 days before the wedding she called me to confirm what time she should be at my house. We set the time and than a little bit later she emailed me asking me if she could come earlier. Being that our ceremony was not until 7pm, I didn't want to be sitting around with my hair done all day, it needed to last until 1am. Well she told me that she got a call to do a celebrity's wife's hair for a cover that she had to do in Virginia at 2pm. Well I live about 2 hours from VA!!! So she told me she would only have a 1/2 hour for each person. There was no way this was going to happen, not for what my girls were paying. I was so upset and disappointed, what was I going to do 4 days before the wedding? I told her politely that I was really mad and she asked me what she should do. Well a few hours later she called me back and told me she was going to bring someone with her to do half the people. I just assumed this person would be as good as she was, but she wasn't!! One of my bm's actually took all her hair down, washed it at my house and redid it herself. Another one had to be redone and touched up by Kim, and another one got a completely different hairstyle than what she asked for because the woman decided she couldn't do the one she wanted. She didn't even ask my BM if it was okay, she just did it! Kim did mine, mom and sisters hair and we all loved ours. I didn't realize until I saw pics, but mine was actually different from what it was supposed to look like in the back(the second reason for the B), but I wore my veil the entire day and nobody even saw it. Other than the mix up with the helper, Kim was great to work with and I do highly recommend her. Just don't let her bring the other person to do your girls. I'm so sorry I don't remember her name.

Beth8

Hair: Crop Shop, Westminster, MD
My hairdresser who cut my hair when I was in middle school came through for me- I had a horrendous hair trial at another hair salon in Westminster and Terry (owner of the Crop Shop) did a FABULOUS job at my trial with her, as well as agreeing to come in at 7am with one of her associates for my wedding! All my BMs got their hair done and they all looked wonderful. $50 for me, including hair trial, and $35 for each BM.

Makeup: Holly Harris 410-207-2163

She did a super job and very reasonable, less than $100 for consultation and wedding day! She will travel to you. She will do the whole wedding party, we had such an early wedding that I only had my makeup done.

Happyliz

Wedding Day Pampering/Beauty
A Final Touch Salon and Day Spa - Eldersburg, MD - A+

I was in a panic to find a place to do my hair and nails because we moved only two months before the wedding. After dealing with an incompetant hair dresser at Bubbles in the Columbia Mall, I decided to give this salon a try and they were great. My nails looked wonderful and the pedicure chairs really helped me to relax on my wedding day! My trial included a shampoo and trim and was only about $35-40. She curled all of my hair and really made an effort to help me, something that I did not experience at Bubbles, even though I was willing to pay. On the wedding day, she managed to curl my very straight and stubborn hair and it stayed all rainy night.

Coppergirl

Hair and Make-up: Jen at Hairworks Salon in Frederick, MD - (301) 695-4548 - She did a wonderful job!!! I had no trials at all and she did my hair and make-up exactly how I wanted it. I highly recommend her. Plus, my hair stayed exactly the same from 1 PM that afternoon til 4 PM the next day. I slept on it, went to breakfast, and it still hadn't moved. Whatever she put in it, definitely worked.

Autumnwed05

Hair: GEORGE OF NEW YORK
www.georgeofnewyork.com
I love this salon! They are so wonderful. They did both my makeup and my hair and all of the hair of my bridesmaids and mothers. Everyone looked great! And everyone is very friendly, cheery, and creative there. The make up artist is Stephanie and my hairstylist is Tineka, but any of the women there are good! I highly recommend this salon! They get a 10.

joking

Day Spa: Swan Cove Day Spa (www.swancovespa.com)
They were kinda hard to reach in terms of getting the appointments set up. No one person seemed to have all the answers regarding pricing and available services. Pretty much until the last minute I was not sure what to expect, but they did deliver. Myself, my mom and my sister were late because of all the confusion about the appointment times and so we understandably got some attitude and were made to feel less than welcome when we first got there. But overall the staff was very gracious and did a great job. I loved my hair and Karen the girl who did it was even able to fit in one BM who decided at the last minute that she wanted to have her hair styled. The spa itself is brand new and very beautiful and on a whole the staff was really nice once they got over their initial irritation with us being late. Recommend.

Limos

AGB05

Transportation: American Limo: www.amerlimo.com Well we had 20 people in our wedding party, and I called all over for a limo bus that would hold that many. Amerlimo really came through. They had the best rate, as well as the most hours you get to use the vehicle. The driver was awesome!! They really came through. I would recommend Amerlimo! Table Linens: Chair Covers and Linens About 2 weeks before my wedding, I found out that Amy the women I had been working with had quit the company, and no one decided to call and tell me. I had not given my final count or anything, so I called and go the manager on the phone. They were awesome!!! They apologized for not getting back to me, it seems I had emailed Amy and they did not get the emails from her account. All was good. My linens came in 4 days before my wedding and were beautiful!!! CCOL, really came through. I would recommend them.

Daihdreamin1

LJ Express, Inc.
**My sister (MOH) & her husband provided our limo service for us as a gift!!! We used LJ Express for both my bachelorette party (white 10passenger) & for our HUGE bridal party on our wedding day (24 passenger limo bus). Both times the limos were ontime (actually, they showed up quite early), the drivers were very friendly & courteaous. They had no problems whatsoever finding any of the locations (we had a few) & getting us to our destinations promptly, efficiently, & safely. I highly recommend this company. Their vehicles were clean & good looking, & as I've stated, their service, impeccable!!

Shellbelle04

Limo: An Extraordinair Limousine - Glen Burnie, MD. This was the most affordable limo company at the time that I booked and they were available late in the game. So, my expectations weren't high. But I went to their tiny office to check them out and the limos were very nice and they came with "red carpet service". So i booked them. On our wedding day, they arrived early with an even nicer and bigger car then I even rememember booking. The limo driver was in a suite and very professional. There was plenty of champagne in the car (unfortunately the groom and his buds drank most of it on the way to the church =). And all this for under $300 including gratuity and tip for a 6-8 passenger white limo with mood lighting and sunroof and great service. AWESOME!!!
Rating: A++

Hize
Transportation: American Limo: www.amerlimo.com
DH decided to rent the 18 passenger limo coach for 4 hours on the day of the wedding. They transported the bridal party to the church and then onto Centennial Park for outside pics. No problem with arrival on time (in fact, they were extra early) and there was ample room for all of our 15 passenger wedding party.

Schraudner

Limo: Z-Best Right on time, very nice and a great clean limo, very good experience.

Jells1107

Limos/Rolls Royce- Charm City Limos

Both cars arrived on time, were clean, the drivers were courteous, and they knew exactly where they were going. We were very happy with them. - A+

Beth8

Limo: Elite Limo 410-875-2426
Good service, reasonably priced, professional drivers. We got 2 limos, white and black, both 8-10 passengers, the white one is a little nicer/newer, if you only need one. We gave them 2 bottles of champagne before the ceremony and they had it chilled and waiting for us after the wedding

Baltobride2be

The Limo Lounge:

Paul (owner/driver) was great! He was very flexible and so nice! He even made a late night stop at Wendy's for us!

Happyliz

American Limousines - Baltimore, MD - C-
I was not pleased with our service from American Limousines. Mainly, I was not pleased with our driver. The people at the main office were very friendly and made booking with them easy. I offered directions and they were declined. My groom was picked up near BWI and dropped at the restaurant on time and with no problems. The driver then took 695 to Liberty Road to get to my house in Carroll County. He took the Baltimore Beltway on a rainy Friday at rush hour!! Needless to say, he picked me up about 10 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start and I ended up 30 minutes late for my wedding. He had never heard of I-70 and didn''t know the major highway that heads west. Someone should have contacted me or accepted the directions that I suggested. The driver called me when he was getting on to LIberty Road, but it was just too late by then (for those that don''t know, I-70 is a 65 mph highway with no lights and Liberty Road is all lights and maybe a 45 mph speed limit). Because of this mess, everything got pushed back and I had to pay for an extra hour of limo time, an extra hour of DJ time and for all the drinks while my guests were waiting. I should have complained, but I just wanted to enjoy my honeymoon and not think about it.

Gowns/Alterations:

Mrsrizzie

David’s Bridal (Glen Burnie)
Purchase - A
Unfortunately, my consultant has left David’s but I had a wonderful experience with the purchase of my wedding gown. I made the poor girl bring me about 20 dresses until I found ‘the one’ but she was wonderful.
My crinoline also came from David’s. A little funny story about my crinoline - I had originally borrowed one from one of my BMs as my “something borrowed” but decided to buy a new one so that the dress wouldn’t need quite as much hemming. Well, the crinoline I bought was very crinkled and poofy and I used it during all of my alterations. At my last fitting, they suggested putting the crinoline in the dryer with no heat to smooth it out - which didn’t work. The morning of the wedding I decided that it needed to be ironed and had one of my Mom’s friends iron the entire crinoline, which took at least an hour. Apparently, the poofy-ness of the crinoline is what kept my dress from dragging on the floor. So, between ironing the crinoline and losing more weight the week before the wedding, I was stepping on my dress. After taking pics with the BP, I switched the new crinoline to the one my BM had originally given me and it was better but I still wound up having to hold my dress up most of the time. My advice - don’t decide to change your undergarments the day of without thinking of how it will affect the way your dress lays. I don’t think most people even noticed and it didn’t stop me from being madly in love with my gown:)

Alterations - B
I loved my seamstress, Mui (pronounced like ‘toy’), and she did a wonderful job on my very detailed dress. The only reason I gave them a B is because their alterations department is chaotic and the manager is a little ruff around the edges. All in all, I had a good experience at David’s.

Sulla

Dress: Jim Hjelm Couture #7005 from Gamberdellas in Towson. Loved the dress, loved Gamberdellas.

Muppet

DRESS – Discount Bridal Service A+++
Using DBS was my saving grace when it came to my budget. If you’re budget conscious, I would highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of Bridal Bargains – which will arm you with everything you need to know to find a dress in a shop and then buy it elsewhere for cheaper. I found my dress for about $1200 in a shop and paid $340 for it through DBS. You just cannot bear that with a stick – unless you’re looking for the frou-frou bridal experience through a shop, which I wasn’t. Dress came on time, no problems.

SEAMSTRESS – Doris Dower A+++
What a woman!!! Again, a bargain find. Doris is so sweet, and she’ll do exactly what you want – for cheap! And I wish I had thought of her for my VEIL before I went online – she created something for me the week before my big day b/c I wasn’t happy with the color of my original veil (it was too white) – and she made it for me for $45. Can you believe that??? Definitely think about her for your veil!

Jells1107

My Dress - Gamberdella (Dress by Anne Barge)

My dress was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was everything I have ever imagined it would be and Gamberdella made sure everything went smoothly and that my dress was perfect. Even though I did not buy my veil there, they still kept it for me and steamed it just before I picked it up. I really loved the salon and its staff. - A+

schraudner
 Dresses (Bride and Bridemaids): David's Bridal B Dresses were great, service was not great but that was what I expected so no surprises, great deals for what we got.
Alterations: Doris Dower Sew Elegant A She was very nice got everything done quickly and at a good price, I was not thrilled with the top of my dress and the way it fit me but that may be my chests fault and not her alterations, I highly recommend her.

Hize

Dress, BM Dresses, MOB Dress, Veil: J&B Bridals: Chambersburg, PA: www.jbbridals.com
After having no customer service at many salons in the Baltimore area, I decided to look elsewhere for my bridal shopping needs. My Matron of Honor lived in this area, which is about 90 minutes from Baltimore, and recommended them to me, so I took a day off work and made an appointment. Let me say, that was the best decision I made. The customer service was amazing there. They let me try on as many dresses as I wanted, were completley honest as to what looked best, and allowed my BMs to take their time as well when trying on dresses. My mom and I returned a few weeks later and soon as I walked in, a girl was modeling a dress that I knew was going to be my dress and as soon as I tried it on, my consultant there agreed completely! I can not tell you how easy they were to work with; my dress was in in 3 months, my BM dresses took 1 month and all the service was outstanding. Plus, if your BMs pay for their dresses in full, they get 20% off. One more thing, my dress was about $300 less there than anywhere else in the Baltimore area!

Shellbelle04

Wedding Dress: Lady Hamilton's - Vienna, VA. I only stumbled across this store because I found a designer named Matthew Christopher who had very original and beautiful dresses who was having a trunkshow at this store. My dress was wonderful. The shop however could use some improvements. They have a flat rate for their alterations: $300 which I think is ridiculous if you only need some hemming and simple alterations. Also, one of the saleswoman was repeatedly rude to me. And the Head Seemstress is wonderful, except she doesn't do the 1st set of alterations or the custom veils. Which for me both were botched the 1st time. Fortunately she fixed everything in time, although it made me nervous since it was close to my wedding day.
Rating: B

Daihdreamin1

Wedding gown ordered from Bridal Fashions by NIKO on Eastern Ave., in Fells Point. The service their was great & they had a LARGE selection of gowns to choose from & browse through. No pressure & friendly service. My bridal consultant was Jean & she was absolutely WONDERFUL!! Very friendly & helpful! The other woman (can't remember her name) wasn't as congenial, but that just may have been a personality thing because I have heard wonderful things about her from other brides. I had a very positive experience @ Nikos & hightly recommend them!!
Alterations: Alena (Betsy Robinsons) 443-465-3273
I cannot RAVE enough about Alena!! She is an absolute godsend! Truly talented & quite sweet natured! I found Alena through the Baltimore board & all the raves about her are true! I gave her quite a challenge w/my mother's dress, my change into dress (I wanted it "remade" to suit my own personal style & taste). Neither one of us were certain it would work, but the finished gown is absolutely GORGEOUS!! I cannot be any happier about it!! Alena also created a beautiful bustle for my (tulle)ballgown. I also had Alena alter the majority of my BM's dresses. Some proved to be quite a challenge for her because of sizing issues. Esp. those that were too small (like 4 sizes). She was able to alter them beautifully & they looked wonderful! Super RAVE for ALENA!!! She's a MIRACLE WORKER!!!!

dmindgal

WEDDING/BM DRESSES: Davids Bridal, Glen Burnie

I highly recommend every bride at least looking at David's to get an idea of what they want. I had a great time shopping there and found THE dress (after trying on about 40). It was a lot of fun and I’ve always had good experiences. (however, weeknights and Sunday evenings are MUCH slower and easier to get help)

ALTERATIONS: Davids Bridal, Bowie

LOVE LOVE LOVE my alterations! I was nervous after some horror stories with alterations at Glen Burnie, but I loved the alterations department at Bowie! I'm bad with names, but the woman who did my bustle spent 45 minutes with me playing with different possibilities, and went out of her way to show the BM how to bustle it. The BM dresses were altered perfectly (one needed to be taken from an 18 to a 12), and they did a lot to help accentuate the slight train on the BM dresses.
My only complaint (which rest solely on my shoulders) is that I should’ve had the bustle done with my reception flip flops and not the heels… I lost almost an inch and the dress dragged. No biggie, but something for others to consider!

Agb05

Dress, BM Dresses, Veil: J&B Bridals: Chambersburg, PA: www.jbbridals.com--Amy I started going to J&B before my wedding as a bridesmaid. The minute I walked in there I knew once I got engaged I would be coming there for my wedding dress. I got engaged about a month after my first visit there. It is about 2 hours away, so I knew trying on dresses up there would be tough, so I went around the Baltimore area to try them on, knowing that I was going to order from up there. I went to about 15 bridal salons, and none of them even came close to the service that you get at J&B. After picking a dress I drove to Chambersburg PA and ordered my dress with J&B..I also ordered all bridesmaid dresses. The bridesmaid dressed came in about a month before they were suppose to as well as my dress. I went up there only 4 times the whole dress experience. About a week or so before my wedding I had to switch my final fitting due to a supposed snowstorm that was coming into the area. I called, and the seamstress that I had been working with came in on her day off, since I had been working with her since day one, and once someone touches your dress you would with that person the whole time!! It was awesome. Even throughout my wedding time I got regular phone calls from them just to see how I was doing and if they could help in anyway. I could not get over their service. I HIGHLY recommend them!!!

2004bride

Seamstress Doris Dower of Sew Elegant, Highlandtown (near Canton), Baltimore, MD – ALTERATIONS

Doris did a wonderful job. She hemmed my gown and hoop skirt crinoline, took up my shoulder straps and lowered the armholes, replaced the zipper, and created a 14-point Austrian bustle which was just what I wanted. The bustle was easy for my friends to manage (Doris color-coded the ribbons they tied) and would not come loose even after many people stepped on the back of the gown, pulling on the bustle. Doris also pressed my gown and my shawl. She is very reasonably priced (but beware, those Austrian bustles add up in price), and so nice to boot. I will definitely use her again.

Nicolem1970

THE DRESS & BM Dresses:  David’s Bridal (Glen Burnie) ~ B+
(410) 789-7308; www.davidsbridal.com
Eileen or Irene Bucceri (I believe), helped in my ‘quest’ for THE DRESS.  I showed her magazine photos of the styles I liked, and she immediately went to the dress that became THE DRESS.  She was very helpful and honest in all phases of my dress “trying on” experience.  I tried on about six different gowns, and wound up buying the very first one I had tried on (I loved it from the moment I tried it on!). 

SUGGESTIONS:  **Go to the store during the week….not on a weekend….Hectic.Hectic.Hectic. on the weekends.

Alterations #1:  David’s Bridal (Glen Burnie) ~ F

I went for five (5) fittings and spent $210 for alterations that actually made my dress look worse!  Some of the seamstresses are horribly rude…at one point, my initial seamstress (I believe her name began with a Z, maybe Zoya?) looked so agitated when I mentioned to her that my dress was still not fitting properly in one spot that she had already altered, that I just wound up telling her that it was fine (simply to avoid her ignorance).  A few of the seamstresses came toward me and told me how great the job was that she had done, and suggested (through their looks alone) that I was being overly critical.  I actually heard this same seamstress tell another girl that she must have gained weight since her fitting, and that is why her dress was fitting too snug.  I then requested Mui (rhymes with boy) as my seamstress (based on recommendations from some other Knotties)…and, while nice, she could not fit me properly, either.  My BM did not have too terribly much trouble;  some of the seamstresses were still extremely rude, but most only had to return for four (4) fittings a person.  The alterations department is chaotic, at best.  And the sheer volume of their alterations vs. seamstresses alone tells me why some of my own alterations were “rigged” (which I didn’t find out until I went to Dalinda’s ~ my second alterations experience). 

SUGGESTIONS:  **Just don’t go.  **If you must go and you need your dress hemmed, make certain that the seamstresses hem your dress AND your dress lining. 

Alterations #2:  Dalinda’s (Luda) ~ A+
(410) 602-0829

Eight (8) days before my wedding, I visited Dalinda’s (another Knottie suggestion) to have my dress properly altered.  I was astounded that Luda could fit me in!  She was incredible!  She asked if the way she was going to alter the dress felt “comfortable”…when I replied that, at this point, I didn’t care, I just wanted it to “look” nice, she responded “That’s not what I asked you….if it feels comfortable, I will make it look nice”.  And she did.  Incredible! 

SUGGESTIONS: Her address is 1860B Reisterstown Rd., but her shop is easier to find if you turn onto Mt. Wilson Lane, just off of Reisterstown Rd., and enter the parking lot via the entrance on that road.   

Sweet_pea1031

Dresses (Me, Brides Maids, Jr. BMs, Flower Girl)

Cecilia's Bridal in Westminster- Highly recommend I bought my dress at Serendipity Bridal in Hampstead more then a year before my wedding. I had bought several Brides Maids Dresses at Serendipity, so when I was looking for a Wedding gown I knew I wanted to shop there. I actually bought the very first dress that I tried on! That shop later closed (the lady retired) and she transferred all her accounts to Cecilia's in Westminster. Although initially I was disappointed that Serendipity closed, I have to say that I had a very pleasant experience with Cecilia’s Bridal. Despite the fact that my Dress was bought and paid for at another store, they stored my Dress for 9 months and didn't charge me a penny!

When I was looking for Brides Maids Dresses on-line I found one that I liked and I called Cecilia's to ask them if they carried the line. She said that they did, but that she would not recommend ordering from that company (Jim Helm Occasions) because she said that the company had been late in filling several orders causing much stress to several brides and bridal parties that bought from her shop. She said that she had a new line it that was actually less expensive and had just as much style as Jim Helm and that I should check out Alexia Designs. We did end up ordering Alexia dresses and I was very happy that the Bridal shop was honest with me in stating that they didn't recommend a particular company because of previous problems and steering me towards another designed that was actually cheaper then what I had been looking to order.

Based on all my experiences I highly recommend Cecilia's.

Alterations (and made JR. BM Tops and Flower Girl Dress) - Kathy at Serendipity/Cecilia's When Serendipity closed the Seamstress also moved over to work at Cecilia's. I had worked with Kathy several times before and I knew that she would do a great job. She did a wonderful job on my alterations and my bustle. I had heard horror stories about bustles being difficult and not holding, but mine was easy to bustle and held all night long. My alterations were very reasonably priced. It was about $100 for my, bustle, a fairly elaborate hem and putting in the cups.

Kathy also created the tops that my Jr. Brides Maids wore. My sister designed them and Kathy made them. The Alexia tops all looked to mature for Eleven Year old Girls (especially since I was using a deep red Color) So my sister designed an Ivory Sleeveless top with a scoop neck that had little red buttons down the back, which the girls would wear with the same red skirts as the older girls. Kathy did an Amazing job!

Kathy also created from scratch my Flower girl's dress. It Had an Ivory Satin top and an Ivory Satin underskirt with layers of Ivory Organza over the Skirt. To that we added a red Sash in the same color as the older girls dresses. The Girls looked so good. I can't wait to post pictures of how cute their dresses turned out.

I HIGHLY recommend Kathy for alterations or for custom work, she is fabulous and her prices can't be beat. I do know that even if your dress isn't from Cecilia's you can get alterations done there.

Beth8

Dress: David's Bridal, Glen Burnie
've heard mixed things about David's, but I had a great experience (went on a Sunday- less crowded) found my dress, ordered it, and it came in within 6 weeks! I got my alterations done elsewhere.

Alterations: JoAnns Fabrics, Westminster
Super job, and great price! Anita is very talented. When I went in to pick up my dress she commented that she has had to turn some brides away because she has gotten so popular due to good reviews on theknot. They even let me come in and try on my dress whenever I wanted to.

BM Dresses & FG Dress, Pearl's Place www.pearlsplace.com
For anyone worried about "ordering online", don't worry and go to Pearl's Place. They are an actual bridal store in Louisiana that gives huge discounts for over-the-phone orders (they will only spend 5minutes on the phone with you, but they will get you your dresses!) BM dresses were Watters&Watters (www.watters.com) and FG dress was US Angels (www.usangels.com) and they all came in perfect, on-time, and right size/color

Autumnwed05

The Bridesmaids Dresses: ALEXIA DESIGNs
www.alexiadesigns.com
Ordered through my discount bridal rep. No problems with any of the dresses. I loved these dresses and am a little upset I couldn’t wear one myself. The color was beautiful! Alexia Designs gets a 10.

My Dress: ALFRED ANGELO www.alfredangelo.com
I ordered the first dress I tried on and loved this one because it was so different. Also ordered through my discount bridal rep. Absolutely no problems with the dress. I received the dress two months earlier than what was scheduled and was completely satisfied. Alfred Angelo gets a 10. Side note – unfortunately, I do not think it is possible to still order wedding dresses from this company through the discount service, but bridesmaids’ dresses are still available.

Alterations:
DORIS DOWER OF SEW ELEGANT
phone: 410-327-2722
She was amazing! Such a wonderful person and so talented. My dress was difficult due to the princess waistline and all of the lace. She hemmed it perfectly and took it up on the shoulders for me, pressed it and even had to remove the zipper and put it back. I don’t really know how the price compares with other seamstresses, but considering what I saved on the dress by ordering it through discount bridal, the cost was very reasonable. Doris Dower gets a 10.

Esposa38

Review of Gamberdella’s:

For the most part, I enjoyed my experience at Gamberdella’s. I thought they were very accommodating without being overbearing, and I LOVED that they brought the dresses to me in the fitting room for me to try on, so I didn’t have to schlep through the racks myself. They listened to what I wanted and found the perfect dress for me. MAN, I loved wearing that dress!!!

However, when I ordered it in December for my July wedding, nobody at Gamberdella’s warned me that Richard Glasgow often “cuts it close” to the wedding date, and brides often will give him a “decoy date” of up to a month before the actual date in order to get the dress in with plenty of time left for the “just in case” scenario. So, sure enough, he did cut it VERY close, and with less than 10 days to go, I still didn’t have the dress. It did arrive in time, and it was absolutely perfect, but I would have appreciated a pre-emptive “heads-up” from Gamberdella’s when I ordered it in December; it would have saved me a lot of Dress Stressin the 10 days prior to the wedding…

The bridesmaids’ dresses came in well before the wedding and looked great. However, when my MOH went to pick hers up, she was advised that it didn’t need to be altered. Nice, because it saved her money, but it actually really did need to be taken in a bit. She was uncomfortable dancing in a strapless dress that was too big on her. My personal take is that Gamberdella’s seamstresses were just overly busy and didn’t want to do another dress…

Overall I would recommend Gamberdella’s, largely because I loved the dress itself so much, and the other beautiful gowns they carry. I think that they –hands down- have a better selection and a nicer ambience than Betsy Robinson’s.

happyliz
David''s Bridal - West Palm Beach, FL and Glen Burnie, MD - A+
I purchased my dress and my sister''s (MOH and only Bridal Attendant) at the Palm Beach store. The consultant was so helpful and helped put together a look that made me feel like a princess. They shipped my dress to me when it came in and it was perfect. I had alterations at Glen Burnie and they couldn''t have done a better job. It was perfect. They had to remove the organza overlay and satin cuff to take in the bust, and you''d never know it by looking at the dress. My sister''s dress came in on time and was altered in Orlando. It looked great and I did not hear of any problems with the alterations department.

Baltobride2be

Wedding Gown by Mori Lee,

Bridesmaids Gowns - DaVinci

All gows are from Niko's on Eastern Ave in Fells Point. They arrived in a timely manner and as expected. The only thing I will caution is that one of my girls had her dress altered there and it was a little off.

Oct.04bride

My dress and BM’s dresses - David’s Bridal - Springfield -- A+++

I had heard over and over again how bad the customer service is at David’s stores but it always seemed to be because they are always so busy. I made an appointment for a Friday morning and everything went great! The sales people were very nice, helpful and efficient. I’m sure that it definitely helped that we didn’t go on a weekend day, when they are so crazy busy. I even received a handwritten TY card from our sales associate. We ordered the BM’s and FG’s dresses from there as well and were

Joking
Priscilla Of Boston Tyson’s Corner. I have nothing but raves for these women. My dress was perfect. I have one of those bottom larger than top bodies, and they were able to special order the dress to fit. I did need to have some alterations cause I gained weight between the first and second fitting (don’t let that happen to you!!!!) so they altered it, but then I panicked and lost too much weight, and so they altered it again without charging me again. I think I was to say the least a difficult and neurotic costomer, but they were all very sweet and supportive. Clemencia who does their alterations is a little blunt about weight gain, but she means well. Highly recommend.

Videography

Mericraig

Videographer: MARTIN ANDREWS A+
I cannot wait to see what Martin has done! I know he was there, but I didn’t see him all night! He came up to me at the end of the night after our last dance and told me he captured some beautiful moments(my brother in law happened to see some of what he was getting and said we are going to be blown away). I told Martin I didn’t even know he was still there. I have to say that Martin is one of the most professional vendors we worked with. It took a while for us to get in touch with him , but I knew he was good so it was worth the wait to hear back from him. He worked with us when we were originally supposed to hire his associate Neil Benjers but then realized the night we were coming to give the deposit that he got booked the night before. W e really wanted Martin in the first place but didn’t think we could afford him. Well he met us somewhere in the middle and now we know that he is worth every extra penny we spent, if not more! He was a pleasure to work with!

Nicolem1970

Videographer:  Weddings Perfect ~ D
(410) 252-9974; www.weddingsperfect.com
The only reason that this company is not rating lower is due to a gentleman named Carroll Brown, who took the time to listen to our concerns regarding our video footage.  We booked this company to film only raw footage video (DH is able to create professional DVDs from this footage).  The contract was broadened to include an additional 1 ½ hours worth of filming prior to the ceremony, where I requested the videographers film my girls and I preparing.  Instead, they showed up 45 minutes before the wedding was to begin (the original, not adjusted contracted time)…the videos filmed confirm this.  We went on our honeymoon a day later, and the day after we arrived back, we were able to review the footage…DH and I both called the company at separate times that day to mention the fact that we had paid additional money for the extra 1 ½ worth of footage that was never filmed…we received back an absolutely NASTY message on our answering machine from a gentleman named Joe Rossano (whom we had our initial meeting with), the gist of which was that his videographers were there at the contracted time (no, they were not), that he had heard no complaints prior to the phone calls we placed when we arrived back from our honeymoon (Um, we were on our honeymoon for a week and I made mention of the fact that the videographers were late to the videographers on the evening of the wedding) , and that all communications, from that point on, were to be documented and/or sent through U.S. mail.  We have NO VIDEO of the guests mingling while DH, myself, and the bridal party were off taking pictures after the ceremony (which was an entire hour), and no table interviews, which (we were told) were automatically done unless DH and I requested they not be done ~ we wanted them. Also, the reception video is extremely choppy, even for a “raw footage” video. On a positive note, the ceremony footage is wonderful.  And the videographers could not have been nicer, or more patient.  And we did eventually receive a partial refund.

SUGGESTIONS:  **Speak to a gentleman named Carroll Brown, for everything!  **Make certain that, if you want table interviews, that someone keeps track that they are actually filmed.  **Have this same person keep track of the time the videographers arrive.

AGB05

Video: Don Smith [email protected] I don’t’ even know where to start. My grandmother in FLA has Alztimers, and I knew she was not going to physically make it for my wedding in Baltimore, MD. I am very close to my grandparents and I didn’t want them to miss the wedding. I started off by trying to do a live feed for the ceremony, but decided that it would not work since my grandparents are not into computer. So I decided to hire a video person for the wedding. I contacted Don Smith, and right off the bat I knew that he was the own that would capture my wedding the way I would want it. He was amazing!!! We decided at our Rehearsal Dinner to have a video shown that includes every one of our wedding party. He included this in the price. Everyone was really happy with the video. He already has my video done, and it is only 2 weeks since the big day. He was there the whole day and night of the wedding. I can’t wait to see my video!!! I HIGHLY recommend Don.

Daihdreamin

**Our Videographer**
BuerhausDesign
All I can say is, WOW!!!!! Matt did a phenomenal job w/our video (check out our highlight/spotlight reel- link is @ the top of this bio), words cannot describe how truly BEAUTIFUL, BREATHTAKING, & AWESOME our video is. I've watched it over..& over.. & over.. & still can't get over how wonderful it is (I can't stop watching it). He captured so many of the little details I was afraid would go unnoticed. He also was able to capture the raw emotion & bring everything back to life. I cannot say or rave enough about Matt Buerhaus!!! Plus, boy is he quick in editing & getting the final, finished product back. My wedding was Saturday (2/19), he had my video finished that Wednesday(2/23), & my father picked it up Thursday (all while I was away on my honeymoon). Super quick!! My father has probably watched the video 20+ times & my sister @ least 15 (my wedding was just 2 weeks ago), both confiscated a copy (he provides 4, I had to order 2 more). Also, I think Matt invented the word, "unobtrusive", I'd like to rename him the "invisible one", you didn't even know he was there!! I could go on..& on about the outstanding job Matt did, & his artistic talent & captivatingly beautiful workmanship... If you haven't settled on a videographer, definitely check him out.. he's still fairly "new" to the scene & a true talent!! @ his current prices, he's a bonafide STEAL!! (Lucky me found him before the price increase last year). He's worth every penny & soooo much more!! Okay, enough gushing about Matt!! Can you tell I'm ecstatic over my video?!?!?

Okay, I just received my "Outakes" (raw footage) video (I ordered this AFTER seeing my video, about a week ago) & "WOW"!!!! !!! Even the raw footage was WONDERFUL to watch!! I had thought he caught a ton of details in my "refined" video, but little did I know just how much ground he actually covered until viewing the "Outakes". Again, MATT IS AWESOME!! He captured sooooo much!! The "unedited", raw version was as exciting (& touching) to watch as my finished video, or rather, movie. He was EVERYWHERE!! It's amazing how he somehow "knew" what to film & focus on, for example, me changing into my mother's "revamped" wedding dress. I did not tell Matt about that, or the importance of it, it was a suprise..(no one but my sister knew), well somehow, he "knew" to focus on my mother & I. He caught EVERYTHING!! The suprise & shock on my mother's face when she finally recognized my gown as her old gown, her raw emotion & reaction (she cried), us hugging!! I came in on her as a "soul train" line was going on, that's what Matt was initially filming... Anyway, to me, it was just amazing that he captured that & zoned in on that moment. More gushing, I know.. but again, I reiterate... if you haven't already booked him.. definitely scoop him up!! You won't regret it!! My only regret is that I didn't upgrade my package! Matt is easily my FAVORITE vendor!!! He's a gem!!!!!

Oct.04bride

Videographer - Matt Buerhaus of Buerhaus Design-- A+++

Matt has such a wonderful reputation and we were thrilled to hear that he wasn’t booked yet. We felt completely confident in hiring him the moment that we met him. He is very up on the latest technology and is upfront with it’s pluses as well as it’s negatives. Things that are extra’s with other videographers are Matt’s standards (i.e. multiple copies, DVD’s and certain package features and editing techniques). I believe his first love is playing baseball but he was born an artist.

We received our 4 DVD’s in the mail a week and a half after our wedding. It was so amazing to watch our wedding come alive again, not to mention seeing things that I had missed on the actual day. To anyone who is up in the air about getting a videographer, get one. You won’t regret it. And if Matt’s still available, get him!

Jells1107

Videographer - Martin Andrews

Martin is another incredible vendor. He is so incredibly talented and his work brings tears to my eyes as well! He custom made a package for me since I was looking to do something a little different and I have no doubt that my video will be spectacular. Just the few minutes of clips I have seen were truly breathtaking! Also, as with Amy, his website truly speaks for itself. - A++

Muppet

VIDEOGRAPHER – Matt Buerhuas (www.buerhausdesigns.com) – A+++
The best thing about Matt, other than his great work, is that no matter when or how many time you contact him, he gets back to you right away and is always in a good mood! I got his basic package b/c I was on a serious budget, but I got a lot more time that is listed in his basic contract. Check out his website for clips of his previous work (including mine!). He’s the best – no doubt.

Mosaicgal

Videography - A++ for both his professionalism during the day and for the quality of the video, which was exactly what we wanted (no extreme effects, straightforward but classy). Tim and his wife/assistant were very easy to work with, easy to be around, totally unobtrusive. Service and product were perfection and after I sent him a thank you note, he sent me back a free 9-minute highlight video on CD - so nice!
Tim Reca
Video Accord
3812 Bayville Road
Baltimore, MD 21220
410-335-1884
www.videoaccord.com

Sweet_pea1031

Video- Matt Buerhaus, Buerhaus design- Highly Recommend

Matt was also great to work with. I was a little (okay a lot) neurotic about picking songs for the video and he helped me pick some great selections for parts where I wasn't sure what to pick. On the day of, we did run into one snafu- Matt's projector died during the middle of showing our video montage during dinner. Matt was really upset about it- way more so then my husband and I were. We understood that sometimes things just happen. As compensation Matt put our Montage up on his website so that all our guests can go there to see it. I thought that was really nice of him. He is also going to give me 2 extra copies of the video for free.

Beth8

Videographer: Odyssey Productions 410-876-6312
I have known Donna from Odyssey since I was in high school, she photographed me playing sports and cheerleading and graduating from high school! I haven't seen our video yet but I am sure it will be fantastic. Call her early, I know she is busy in the summer, she even photographs Micheal Jordan for a month every summer.

Invitations:

Muppet

INVITES – www.einvite.com – A+++
I’ll definitely use einvite.com again – I got great Checkerboard invites for a great price. And best of all – I got my invites 3 days after I placed my online order. That was amazing to me!

Nicolem1970

Invitations:  Hallmark (Timonium) ~ B
(410) 561-4748
I had great help at this Hallmark store, and the invitations were absolutely perfect, and arrived very quickly after I placed the order (I believe it was within 5-7 days).  My only concern is that the prices seemed a bit high, and the selection (though very expansive) was not very creative ~ in fact, it was boring.

AGB05

Invitations: Exclusively Weddings All I wanted was simple but elegant invites. I looked all over, and could not find anything that I wanted until I saw Exclusively Wedding. They were awesome. I only ordered 125 invites with envelopes and all the enclosures, but they sent 150 for no charge. I had them in about 5 days, and they were awesome!! I recommend them.

Hize

Invitations: Funny Buggy Creations: www.funnybuggy.com
I looked all over for an invitation that was exactly what I wanted but to no avail, so I contacted Funny Buggy and they came through for me in 3 days! It was such an easy process and they helped me every step of the way with wording, design, etc...and I could not have been happier

Jells1107

Invitations - Regency Invites (By Invitiation Only)

I searched high and low for the exact invitation I had envisioned for our wedding, and Regency not only had exactly what I wanted, but the quality was good and the price was great! I had budgeted quite a bit for invitations, but ended up spending 1/3 of what I expected. The invitations were printed and delivered to me in less than a week and they were perfect. - A+

Mrsrizzie
PreWedding (www.prewedding.com) - A+
This company was one of the few that had a bright, springy invitation and sent me an actual proof instead of an online one. They also emailed me with a suggestion of making the Bride and Groom names larger than everything else and suggested an ink color and the invites came out perfect and were delivered fast. I definitely recommend them.

Sweet_pea1031

Invitations- Invitations by Dawn- Recommend - Invitations by Dawn was the Only place I could find the Double Heart Invitations in Gold (a lot of places had it in Silver). I found ordering very easy. The package arrived just 2 days after I ordered and I did not even pay for express shipping. They had a large selection of complimentary items (we got cocktail napkins and matches.) I think that the price was pretty reasonable as well.

The only thing I would recommend it to be sure that you know how many invites you need. I ended up with a ton left over! I took the number of people I was inviting and divided it in 2 then added 25 to order my invites. But what I wasn't thinking about was that we were inviting a LOT of kids, so I way overestimated what I needed.

Oct.04bride

Invitations - My Gatsby -- A+++

My Gatsby was so great to work with. We really wanted pocketfold invitations with color and they have tons of options to choose from. I ordered invitations with pressed flowers (you have to assemble the invitations yourself and glue the flower on yourself). After the flowers arrived, I realized how fragile they were and I didn’t feel confident that they’d arrive to people, intact. We even tested mailing one to ourselves, and it did break a bit. We had ordered, what I realize now, was a very fragile kind of pressed flower with little wispy things coming off of it (the fuscia’s). It wasn’t a good choices and they were very good about refunding me for the flowers. I still had the dilemma of having ordered invitations that now had a big, empty space at the top of them. We decided to stamp a design where the flower would have been. It looked great and no one was the wiser.

Joking

Invites: www.liongraphics.com.
Cheryl was very helpful. I did they layout online, She helped me with the design for the map and directions. There was a minor crisis when one shipment got stolen from my front door after UPS dropped it off, and she mailed me a replacement set right away at no cost to me. The invites were very affordable and and she gave me a great price when I needed to get additionl ones. Highly recommend.

Miscellaneous

Mrsrizzie

Bra and Veil
Trousseau (Vienna) - A+
Vienna is quite a hike for me but after the raves they get on the DC board I drove out there (MANY times as the wedding got closer). They altered my bra several times during weight loss at no charge. They also made a custom circle cut, fingertip length veil with scattered sequins and a blusher and took the combs off of my tiara and added bobby pin loops. The service is incredibly attentive and their custom work is absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend them - it’s worth the drive!
Shoes
ebay – Seller: nikki2272 - A
I wore adorable platform wedding sneakers that I got nothing but compliments on all night - and my feet didn’t hurt a bit! Fast shipment, well packaged, and came with a keepsake box. I loved my sneakers:)
Tiara - ebay seller veilandbejeweled - A
I loved my tiara and I got it for $20.00 with fast shipment.

Calligraphy
A Fine Letter (www.afineletter.com) - A+
Melanie is a joy to work with and the envelopes were beautiful done and very inexpensive. I highly recommend this company!

Sulla

Private dance lessons: Mike Santos. [email protected] or 410-790-9214. Great guy. Highly recommend.

Muppet

DANCE INSTRUCTION – Lee & Christine Gedansky of Beginning Ballroom (www.beginningballroom.com) – A+++
My DH and I went kind of crazy with the dance lessons – we started 8 months out. But I’m so glad we did, b/c it took us that long to figure out how to dance together. We wanted to really learn how to dance, not just choreograph one dance. During our first dance, I had no idea what moves my DH was going to pull – it was completely off the cuff – and it was great! We will definitely keep dancing – Lee & Christine do instruction (salsa, swing, ballroom, you name it!) at places like the Walters, the Belvedere 13th Floor, etc.. We liked our lessons so much that we ahd Lee and Christine come to our wedding and give a lesson to guests. Lots of fun!

Jells1107

Calligraphy- Dayna, "The Calligraphy Lady"

Dayna was one of my most proactive vendors. Her work is amazing and so is her customer service. She did my STD envelopes, invitation envelopes, rehearsal dinner invite envelopes, table names and place cards. I got so many compliments on her work- even from men! She is located in Missouri, so you have to ship your stuff to her, but she is very quick and reliable. She keeps you constantly updated on her progress and even includes photos! Her prices are wonderful for her skill level and she is a doll! - A+++

Hize

Table Linens: Chair Covers and Linens: Amy
. Amy came through for me when I decided to get overlays for my tables and a new cake tablecloth at the last minute. She recommended fabrics to me and I completely trusted her vision and they were excellent. We got many compliments on how beautiful the fabrics were and how well they added to the decorations. I am so happy and fortunate that Amy was able to help me out in a bind. Definitely give her a call if you want an added touch to your big day

Dmindgal

JEWELRY: Creme-De-Luxe

Jenn is so helpful and really enthusiastic about designing jewelry to fit each bride.
I got the finished products, and they are PERFECT!!! Fantastic, wonderful, perfect!!! HAZZAH! The prices were reasonable and Jenn’s service is second to none!
Everyone complimented my BM and my jewelry for matching perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for better results and love the fact my MOH wants to wear her necklace again and again!

SHOES: My Glass Slipper

The David's of shoes! They have so many different styles, shapes, prices! It was so great to be able to try on so many different ones in one store. I got both wedding heels and reception flip-flops, and both matched the beading in the dress perfectly!

Nicolem1970

Veil and Tiara:  Labella Bridal & Formal Shop (Towson) ~ B+
(410) 882-2888
The tiara is absolutely gorgeous!  The veil is exactly what I ordered.  My only concern was that I had specific instructions regarding the tiara that they said they’d take of, but never did (which turned out fine, in the end).  And I had to keep calling them

Autumnwed05

Discount Bridal Representative:
Tiffany at FROM THIS MOMENT ON BRIDALS in Catonsville

email: [email protected]
phone number 410-744-1000
She was wonderful! She has a million catalogs, was willing to research any product for me to see if she could get it cheaper, and was always prompt with her responses. Tiff is also extremely organized and can offer a lot of wedding advice and suggestions. Not to mention the money she saved me. I received a savings of over $500 on my dress compared to what one bridal shop was asking for it. My bridesmaid’s saved about $40 each on their dresses too. I would definitely recommend using a discount bridal representative and Tiffany is the best. She of course gets a 10.

Joking
Coordinator: Vaneisha Paytner ([email protected]). This girl was a lifesaver. Deciding to use her was the smartest thing I ever did. I was kind of on the fence about having a coordinator, but she made such a huge difference. She got involved months before, meeting with me, helping me brainstorm, and work on my DIY projects. She found the spa for our day of services, and bought all the last minute things that I’d forgotten. She was the contact person for all the vendors and the wedding party for the last week. From the time of the rehearsal, she just took over and I did not have a care in the world. She got everyone dressed and where they need to be on time. She oversaw the setting up of the room and the tables exactly like I wanted. I did not have to lift a finger or give it a second thought. My wedding was at 4pm and I spent the day, having a leisurely breakfast, at the spa with my girls, having lunch with my mom. No one bothered me with any details. She paid the vendors, packed up everything for me later on. I mean every last detail and we were perfectly on time. And she did it without pissing off anyone! My entire family loved her. She was firm but sweet and professional and she’s so sweet you cant get mad with her. My very favorite vendor and highest recommendation.
Shoes

My glass Slipper in Alexandria. All the raves are true, I spent hours in there walking around in various shoes and finally settled on one. Just don’t go on the weekend. Their business has definitely outpaced their physical space. Highly recommend.


Unmentionables: Trousseau. Again, they lived up to their rep. Great service. (Avoid the weekend). Helped me find the perfect underwear for my dress and suggested all kinda lingerie for me to try. Highly recommend.
Chair covers/draping:
Tracy Burch 301-884-3551. Was a little difficult to work with in the beginning because she does not have a website or a catalog or anything tangible. I just had to go on the recommendation of the manager at KMI. But it all worked out, she returned my phone calls promptly and does beautiful work. She installed and picked up the chaircovers for $4, and the draping was beautiful. If you need lots of detail and contracts etc, she may not be for you, but if you can have a little faith it’s well worth it. Recommend.

Oct.04bride

Program Covers, Table # Tents, Favor Tags/Place Cards - Gaddis Designs --- A

Melissa Gaddis’ work is so amazing. I loved just browsing her website, especially the ‘Works in Progress’ section. Everything that she does is custom, meaning she has no templates to choose from. You work with her on the kind of feel/look that you’re going for and she comes up with several styles for you to choose from. You can go back and forth to find tune things to fit exactly what you want. Because everything is custom, you can get any size, color, design and quantity that you want.

We had her do our program covers (we did the insides ourselves on our computer and printer), the table # tents and the place cards which were also the favor labels (we made caramel apples and people’s names and table # were written in the middle of the label). Her work really helped us to add that little extra customized touch to the wedding, and people definitely commented on how nice the programs and apple labels were.

The reason why I don’t give her the “+’s” is because, when the color turned out more pink than the red brick that I thought I had chosen was, she was not accommodating about it. She didn’t even really apologize and said that we could buy more of a different color for less of a price. I wasn’t willing to pour more money into something that people just end up throwing out anyway.

Overall, she’s definitely worth hiring. Her talents and originality make up for the lack of customer service (I should mention that she was very nice and accommodating up until that point though). Just make sure that you’re judging a color from a sample that is on the same color cardstock that you want, because it can really make a difference and you’re pretty much stuck with whatever you end up with.

Monogrammed Cocktail Napkins - Party Basics -- A+++

Monogrammed cocktail napkins were something that I decided that I’d like to have because it’s a cheap, easy and quick way of adding a personalized touch. We used Party Basics because they had what we wanted at a good price. The napkins arrived quickly and we were very pleased.

Tim’s wedding band - iWeddingBands -- A+++

We didn’t want to pay store prices for a simple platinum band with milgrain edges. We checked out iWeddingBand.com based on a friends experience and we were very pleased. Tim even contacted them when he realized he needed a smaller size and they promptly exchanged it for free.

Rental Company - Loane Brothers-- A+++

Oakland does have tables, chairs, a podium etc. but they can only be used inside. If you want to use anything outside, you have to use Loane Brothers. They are the only vendor that Oakland insists that you use. You end up benefiting from this though because Loane Brother’s discounts all of their rates for Oakland weddings. I always spoke with Daryl Wyatt (I believe he’s the one who deals with Oakland weddings) and he was always so nice and accommodating. He always got back to me right away and never sounded like he was just out to get my money.

Advice

Mrsrizzie

My $.02 of advice:

1) PLAN an in-law dance - our biggest regret is that neither of us danced with our new in-laws (see above re DJ). Even after reading hmwende’s regret post a few days before our wedding, where she commented about not dancing with her FIL, we STILL forgot to do it. If I had it to do over again, I would have had an announced, planned in-law dance.

2) DON’T decide the morning of the wedding to altar any of your undergarments - see above re David’s Bridal crinoline.

3) READ Sulla’s wedding advice. I kept it in my wedding binder and read it whenever I needed to be reminded of the point of all this. She’s a wonderful writer and her words of advice helped me SO much. I thought of her words when I started to get upset about small things not being exactly perfect at the reception - never let your guests see you get upset… handle it after the wedding. And, ultimately, as long as you wind up marrying the right man, the day was a complete success.

4) DO disposable wedding cameras (just not from theknot:). We got some great shots and, if nothing else, it helped hold me over until the professional ones were ready. Besides, guests had a great time taking pics!

5) Finally, I know that everyone says it but be sure to stop and take it all in. The day goes by so fast and then it’s gone forever. Eat, drink, dance, laugh, hug, kiss, smile - have a blast! Oh, and relish in how fabulous you look and all the compliments you receive because, damn it, you’ve worked hard:)

Sweet_pea1031

I have 2 pieces of advice for future brides. 1. Have a coordinator- If you can't afford to hire one ask a girl friend or a relative. Just make sure that you have a person designated to take care of things that pop up on the day of. I did not have anyone to act as a coordinator for me and that is the one thing I wish I had done that I didn't do. I thought I could take care of everything, but as the bride- you just can't!

2. Don't over schedule yourself on the day of. I built an extra hour into my day of timeline and it is a good thing that I did. Understand that you will run behind and plan for it. I built an extra hour into my time line for getting ready and it is SO good that I did. Just as we were getting ready to go to have our pictures taken, I was walking up my parents front steps I fell!! I hurt my knee pretty badly. It was to the point that my Dad thought he was going to have to take me to the hospital to have my knee x-rayed! Luckily one of my Bride's Maids was a nurse! She checked me out, said it was just a bad bruise and helped me to alternately ice down and exercise my knee so it wouldn't stiffen up. With all that happening we ended up getting about 30 minutes behind schedule, but I still got to the church 25 minutes before the ceremony began! And thanks to my wonderful BM I was able to walk down the aisle and dance at the reception.

BETH8

My 2cents: pick vendors that you trust and are accessible to you. You want someone who will listen to you but also give their input- remember, they are the professionals and do this for a living! Some of the best parts of our wedding came about from vendors that I gave the freedom to do what they thought would work, and it was perfect! I didn't give any grades to my vendors because I would highly recommend all of them.