Vendor reviews

I think the fact that it has been weeks since I felt like blogging about the wedding stuff is a good thing. I think it means I am moving out of wedding world and back into the real world. :) (In fact, I started writing this post 3 months before I finished! Yikes.)

I did want to post my vendor reviews though, because I think they can be really helpful. I have to say that I was overall very pleased with all my vendors. I consider myself lucky to have had no real problems with anyone. I will try to post a few additional photos here of things I didn't blog specifically about earlier.

Church--St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Yardley, PA--A+
What can I say? Our church, our priest. We loved being married there. :)
http://www.standrews-yardley.org/

Reception Venue--The Prallsville Mills, Stockton, NJ--A
Really loved the uniqueness of this venue. The historic aspect of it provided a few challenges (only 2 bathrooms and they were across the driveway, we had to rent a special tent for the caterer, we literally had to bring in EVERYTHING, etc.). However, it really was exactly what we wanted for the feel of our reception, so the minor inconveniences were just that--minor.
http://home2.netcarrier.com/~drms/

Rentals--Brillman's Rental Barn, Newtown, PA--A-
We didn't actually have any choice for our rental company because the PM has a contract with Brillman's. Overall, everything was fine with them. The owner who we worked with primarily was very nice, although she was occasionally challenging to get in touch with (I think she is stretched very thin). In the end, we got exactly what we ordered, and there were no complications or drama, so they get a decent grade. :)
http://www.brillmansrentalbarn.com/

Caterer--Max Hansen Caterer, Bucks County, PA--A+
Wonderful food! Truly delicious, great quality food. All of our guests claim it was the best food they have ever had at a wedding. (Maybe people are told this all the time, but I happen to agree!) The day of service was great, as was the communication leading up to the day. They even accommodated my last minute special request for fresh Mojitos at the reception--they were the best I have ever had!
http://www.maxhansencaterer.com/

Cake--J. Scones, Doylestown, PA (Jodi Schad)--A+
Jodi's cakes are phenomenal. We knew from the start that we wanted a cake that was simple in appearance but big on taste, and Jodi provided just that. The cake was simple, beautiful, and delicious, and Jodi was great to work with! We can't wait to order a small one for our one year anniversary!

Florist--Hairy Mary's, Upper Black Eddy, PA (Mark Bryan)--A+
Mark did a beautiful job with the flowers--just check out all the photos throughout the rest of the blog! He really took my ideas and brought them to life in a way that was natural and unique. He was a great choice for us.
http://www.hairymarysbuckscounty.com/

Photographer--Laura Billingham Photography, Frenchtown, PA (Laura Billingham)--A++
I love Laura as a person, I really do. On top of that, she is a spectacular photographer. I am so pleased that we picked someone that we really like, because I continue to be in touch with her 6 months after the wedding, and we still need to sit down and design our album! (Yes, we are procrastinators.) I cannot say enough good things about her talent, her professionalism, and her personality. :) I'll post my favorite portraits next.
http://www.laurabillingham.com/

Day of Coordinator--Jean Louise Design, West Chester, PA (Jeannine McKnight)--A++
I also love Jeannine! She was a last-minute addition 2 months before the wedding when we realized we needed a DOC whether we thought we could afford one or not. It turned out that Jeannine's prices were very reasonable, and that she herself was indespensable! She gave me such peace of mind for the last few months leading up to the wedding as well as on the day of. I was really worried about a non-traditional venue like the PM because there was no one to oversee all the bits and pieces, but I honestly did not have to worry about anything on my wedding day thanks to Jeannine. I would recommend her to other brides in a heartbeat.

Transportation--Advanced Limousine Services, Newtown, PA--B+/A-
We had to rent an entire limo bus for our ginormous wedding party. Not exactly our style, but what can you do. The bus was in pristine condition, and it was prompt. The prices were fair (not as negotiable as I wanted for the fact that they were only driving us from the church to the reception, but that seems to be standard for the industry). The driver himself was not my favorite (he thought it was funny to swerve the bus as a joke--not dangerous, but kind of annoying) and he did make a few wrong turns.
http://www.advancedlimos.com/

DJ--Silver Sound, Philadelphia, PA (Dan Breslin)--A+
Dan was great. We hired him right away after hearing him DJ at our best friends' wedding. At both events, he kept the dance floor full all night. He was very accomodating when we sent him a CD with our somewhat non-standard cocktail hour and special dance songs, and he was helpful in keeping the evening on schedule. Definitely a good choice.
http://www.silversound.com/resume.asp?djcode=DJB&resume_type=

Dress, tuxes--The Country Bride and Gent, Bensalem, PA--A
(groom's and groomsmen's ties by Brooks Brothers, argyle socks by J.Crew)
Very nice, low pressure little shop. Their prices for Casablanca were on par with the companies that allow you to order online, and their alterations were reasonable (they don't even require you to use their seamstresses). They also had the khaki tuxes we were looking for for the guys and at decent prices, so that was great. The only negative point was that they measured me incorrectly as a size 8 when I first ordered. I was suspicious of the size, so I double checked the Casablanca size chart when I got home, and it was definitely off. They had the manager re-measure me and then ordered a 6, which worked out okay, but I think a 4 was probably the right call in the end. Not the end of the world, and I would recommend them to other brides even so.
http://www.countrybrideandgent.com/

Veil--veilshop.com--A+
Since I wasn't even sure I wanted a veil to begin with, $200 at a boutique was definitely too much for me to spend. Veilshop will send swatches so you can match the color of your dress perfectly, and their website is great for getting a good idea of what each veil looks like. For about $50, I got a chapel length single layer cut-edge veil of very nice quality. Score.

(I don't have any real pics of the veil. You can kind of get the idea here. Plus gown. :) )

Bridesmaid dresses and sashes--anntaylor.com--A+
When I found these on sale for less than $60 each, I called my girls for sizes and ordered them on the spot. They were a great deal, and they could possibly be worn again. Even if they aren't though, can you beat $60? AT has great customer service, also.

(You can see the two different styles we picked, plus the cute sashes.)

Hair--Natalie & Co., Yardley, PA--A+
Kirsten just started cutting my hair about 6 months before the wedding. She did an awesome job right off the bat at the trial we scheduled--she just seemed to know exactly what I wanted--soft and natural. I had no anxiety at all about the hair, which was great. Most of the girls got their wedding-day hair done at Natalie & Co. and they were all very happy with it. There was a mix of all up, part-up, and completely down styles, and everyone looked great and really natural.

Makeup--The Face and Body Spa, Yardley, PA--A
Makeup is hard for me to guage because I wear little to none on a regular basis. Yes, this makeup seemed a little heavy, but I did feel very pretty, and it did look good in pictures. Ashley picked great colors for me (I am very fair), and the Youngblood products they use at the FBSpa are great quality mineral products, so I was very happy with those aspects. Overall, I would recommend FBSpa for special occasion makeup.
http://www.fbspa.com/home

(For pre-makeup, see the hair photos above. This was everything but lipstick, I believe.)

Rings--Hamilton Jewelers, Princeton, NJ--A+
We are simple jewelry people. I like that Hamilton is a smaller upscale company and mostly local. They set my husband's family diamond very simply and prettily for us and were very helpful with band selection. Overall great experience.
http://www.hamiltonjewelers.com/

Liquor & Beer--Phillips Fine Wines, Stockton, NJ--A
For any of the potential caterers, we were going to have to buy liquor separately (must be a NJ law or something). Phillips was very helpful in estimating what types and amounts of booze we would need, they were super-close to the PM and delivered for free, and they had a good selection of beer and liquor. They also gave a bulk discount, and they let my father-in-law return anything unopened up to like 10% of the bill or something.
http://www.phillipsfinewines.com/

Wine--Crossing Vineyards, Washington Crossing, PA--A+
Wonderful family-run local winery. Their wine is delicious and great quality, and they were very helpful selecting and purchasing. Great place!
http://www.crossingvineyards.com/

Etsy vendors-->
Paloma's Nest (ring bowl)
Pavoreal (hair pins)
Annie Howes (bouquet charm)
All Etsy vendors A+, previously blogged

Pretty flowers

Mark from Hairy Mary's did such a great job with our flowers, I thought a small post dedicated just to the personal flowers would be in order. Overall, we were going for a very natural, romantic, garden feel in creams, whites, and greens, and I think Mark was able to capture that beautifully.

The bouts were primarily greens, herbs, and berries with a just a few small blooms. Mark used rosemary, which all the guys really loved--it smelled great.

Photos courtesy of Laura Billingham Photography.

I wanted the bridal and bridesmaids bouquets to have a just-picked-from-the-garden feel. Mine was predominantly creams and whites with green accents, and the girls' were smaller with a bit more green. Mark used a variety of garden roses, stock, Queen Anne's lace (one of my main requests), and hydrangeas.

Photos courtesy of Laura Billingham Photography

As I previously mentioned in the decor posts, I would highly recommend Hairy Mary's if you are in the Bucks County area. Mark really took my ideas and brought them to life.


Next up: the final installments in my wedding recap--favorite portraits and vendor reviews.

Nom, nom, nom

Alternative title: our delicious wedding day menu (and cake!).

Because our reception was held in a restored historic building, there was a set list of caterers to consider. Fortunately, there were about 10 on the list, and I think most of them would have done an excellent job. After narrowing it down, we quotes and sample menus from four and went for tastings at two. In the end, we chose the delicious food and classic, unpretentious presentation of Max Hansen Caterer in Bucks County, PA. Both the food and the service were really, truly, excellent.

We started with a cocktail hour and a half both in and outdoors on the lower level of the mill--passed HD's and cheese and crudite display--and then moved upstairs to the main level for dinner. We settled on a seated dinner because there was really no difference in price, and nixing the buffet table saved us a lot of room. We did continue with an open bar throughout the night, but the Max Hansen staffed circulated with wine throughout dinner. And although I initially really wanted a cookie buffet for dessert, for financial reasons we just went with our wedding cake garnished with mixed berries. (The cake was so delicious, I don't have any regrets about having only a single dessert.)

(For alcohol, we had to work separately with a local liquor store for our beer/wine/liquor, but Max Hansen supplied all the mixers, sodas, etc. At my request, they also created a yummy yummy fresh mojito mix so our guests--and the bride--could enjoy one of my favorite summer drinks while they socialized.)

Here is the menu. Sorry for the weird caps, I am cutting and pasting from the caterer's PDF.

Passed HDs:

• Wanton Crisps with Pekin Duck Breast, Hoisin Sauce, Cucumbers and Scallions
• Smoked Salmon Napoleons with Chive Cream
• Mini BLTs--Local Heirloom Tomatoes, Alderfers Pepper Bacon on Brioche with Basil Aioli and a Fried Basil Leaf
• Mini Lobster Potpies with Chanterelle Mushrooms, Sauce Americaine and Fresh Chervil
  
• Creamed Spinach Tartlet with Garlic Breadcrumbs and Reggiano Parmesan

Cocktail Stationary Display:
A Display of Fine Cheese and Vegetables-->
Decorated with Grapes, Berries, Crackers and Breads accompanied by a Seasonal Vegetable Crudités with a variety of Sauces and Dips

Plated Salad Course:
Watercress, Radicchio and Belgian Endive with Toasted Walnuts, Sliced Pears, Crumbled Gorgonzola and a Aged Balsamic Vinaigrette
Served with a Sliced Herbed Baguette Crisp

Split Plate Entree:
Chianti Braised Beef Short Rib with Pancetta and Fresh Rosemary Jus
-and-
Pan Seared Jumbo Lump Crab Cake with a Fresh Mango and Cilantro Puree
Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes with Fresh Chives and White Truffle Oil
served with Sautéed Haricot Vert with Toasted Sesame Seeds

Dessert:
Wedding Cake--Chiffon Cake layered with Fresh Strawberries and White Chocolate Buttercream
Fresh Seasonal Berries
Regular and Decaffeinated Coffee ~ Assorted Herbal Teas

Unfortunately, I don't really have many photos of the food. Laura did take some of the appetizers and salad course, but I don't have any of them in digital form. What I do have, however, are cake pictures!!

Photos by Laura Billingham Photography

Regarding the cake, we knew from the outset that we wanted something very simple in appearance but big on taste. Jodi Schad of J. Scones in Doylestown honestly created exactly what we wanted. She was willing to work within our budget, creating a smaller tiered cake for display and additional sheet cakes to meet our guest count. The chiffon with strawberries was light, fresh, and delicious, and the buttercream frosting was everything a buttercream should be. For the look of the cake, we wanted a natural frosted appearance (not too smooth), and we had Jodi wrap the bottom of each tier with raffia. Our florist created a small floral piece for the top and interspersed loose flowers around each tier. Simple, beautiful, and delicious.

As an aside, the cake stand you see in the pictures was one of my exciting wedding deals. I purchased it online from Pottery Barn--on sale for half price. It is a really neat faux mercury glass look--perfect for our rustic, vintage vibe, plus I get to keep it! Here is one of our guest's photos that shows it a little closer--

As pleased as we were with the service of our vendors and the quality of the food itself, we were really equally pleased to be able to support local Bucks County small businesses. We tried to keep this in mind throughout the wedding process, as it is a concept that is very important to both of us. Public service announcement from my blog--support your local small business owner!

Ok, now the entry table

I was really proud of the table at the front door of our reception. Here it is (with escort cards) captured by Laura Billingham.



The centerpiece of the entry table was actually rather unexpected. The crafter we arranged to have build all the rustic wooden centerpiece boxes was an incredible find--she is super-talented, and all of our wooden items were made out of repurposed wood (old decking, old lathe, etc.). She doesn't have a website that I know of, but I can get her contact info for anyone who is interested--she is located in suburban Philadelphia.

Anyway, we had her make a whitewashed wooden "wedding" sign for the parking lot, and while we were at it, we also asked her to put one of our favorite lines of poetry on a whitewashed board as well (e.e. cummings). This is what it ended up looking like, modeled by our best girl, Mollie:
(And not part of the entry table, but here is the equally fun "wedding" sign...not in action, on a Target box at my house. I think Candie ended up charging us about $10 for each of these signs!)

I told our florist, Mark, that I wanted to use the piece as a centerpiece for the entry table, and I trusted him with the rest. I had no idea what it was going to look like, but all I can say is, "wow." I love, love, loved this. It was beautiful.


The other less incredible by still crucial components of the table were: our DIY photo mat "guest book," our DIY card box, and framed photos of our families.

I know the photo mat is not necessarily an original idea, but I happen to think it is a really good one, and I am looking forward to displaying our mat with a wedding photo on our wall! It was really inexpensive and simple. Using Joann's 40% off coupons, I purchased an art easel for $8 and the custom-cut ivory mat itself for about $12. (I think the mat is a 16x20 with a 4x6 cut-out.) Per many recommendations, I lined the edge of the mat with 3/4 inch chocolate brown ribbon. This is so people don't sign all the way to the edge of the mat, causing their messages to get obscured when you place the mat in a frame. Two archival pens (about $4 total) completed the guest book. The whole thing cost about $25--very nice.
And here it is still sitting on the easel in our house, waiting for its next job. We actually still need to get our parents to sign it--they are currently trying to think of profound things to write.

The card box was easy and actually pretty fun to make. I ordered an 8x8 brown kraft box off of Ebay (it actually came nested with a 6x6 as well). I simply traced an appropriately-sized "card slot" on the lid of the box and cut it out with an exacto knife. A sharp blade was crucial, and I did use a fingernail file to smooth the edges. Next, I took 1.5 inch chocolate double-faced satin ribbon and wrapped it around the box from one edge of the slot all the way around to the other, securing each ribbon end on the inside of the lip of the slot using glue dots. I did not wrap the lid and the box separately, as I did not really want anyone to be able to open the box on the DL. Finally, I tied a big basic bow on the top and printed a label for the front. Voila, card box! Total cost, approx $15. The box was about the perfect size for a wedding of around 90 guests.

Finally, the family photos were a project I could have completed well in advance but chose not to because I am giant procrastinator. Months before the wedding, I purchased some packs for 3.5x5.5 plain wooden frames from Ikea, along with mini easels and whitewash stain (also from Ikea). I paid about $10 for everything. So despite having these supplies for months, my poor father was staining frames the night before the wedding, and I was at Kinkos resizing pictures (please refer to procrastination on programs and escort cards for further Kinkos details...). We whitewashed the frames using the Ikea stain and then filled them up with pics of our parents and grandparents. To help identify the photos, I numbered them and printed a key on a leftover table tent (see menu cards). In the end, I think these really made a great impact--people were looking at them all night. Due to aforementioned procrastination, I have no in progress-pics, but here they are at the reception.

I was really, really happy with the way the table turned out. And other than the floral arrangement, everything was reasonably priced, and I was able to create a lot of it myself--an all around win for the home team. (Actually, I think that just about does it for details of my DIY projects--the remaining items to blog about don't really entail me doing much of anything!)

Various reception decor (except entry table, that comes later)

For the reception decor, I have to admit that I had a lot of specific ideas about the way I wanted things to look. We were lucky to find an awesome, rustic venue that was exactly what we had in mind for the feel or our big day, and we (ok, I) wanted the decorations to complement and reflect the rustic vibe.

The central component was really the centerpiece that I blogged about a few weeks ago. I was thrilled to have it turn out so beautifully. I absolutely loved it more than the inspiration piece!

The tables themselves were rounded out with actual burlap linens covered with sage overlays/napkins and the simplest china/silverware/glassware available from the rental company. We also has our coordinator place some plain white votives around the tabletops, as well as inside the centerpiece lanterns. The candlelight was awesome as the night wore on. For chairs, as pretty as chivari chairs are, they simply weren't in the budget. I think the wood folding look worked fine.

We wanted to make use of the many windowsills around the room, but we did not originally have the budget to do so. Our florist Mark from Hairy Mary's created two beautiful arrangements with flowers, branches, and hanging votive candles for the front two windows of the mill--you can see one of the two arrangements in the first table picture above. For the other windows, we planned to move the six church sill arrangements to the mill, although that still left a few windows empty--no big deal. However, we weren't able to finalize our guest count (90) until the very last minute, and Mark already had over 110 potted herbs for us to use, so he was able to arrange them for us using our extra crates and lanterns, and those made up the remaining window sills. It was really much more than I had anticipated, and it looked gorgeous! These pics don't do it justice, but you get the idea.

Miscellaneous decor-->
There is a really neat lower level of the mill with a door opening out back to the canal and Delaware River. We had the cocktail hour down there. Bar, a few small tables & chairs, everyone got to check out the cool old mill equipment and stroll along the canal. Unfortunately, I don't have very many pictures. This is one of the stone walls with candle effect.


Back door of the mill lower level (cocktails) with reused ceremony pew cones hanging from $0.99 shepherd's hooks.


Stairs on the main level (dinner and dancing) with reused wreaths from the doors of the church (they did get centered up on the banister). The other two wreaths were hung from pillars in the middle of the reception floor. A nice addition.

And of course, don't forget the DIY escort cards and menus--they were also in attendance!

Since this is already super long, I will share the details of my mostly-DIY entry table in a separate post. Cake and menu will also be discussed. :)

Finally, some of my favorite detail shots from the super-talented Laura Billingham.

Ceremony decor

We were originally planning to have the ceremony onsite at our reception venue, the Prallsville Mills, but about 6 months out, we decided we preferred to use this wonderful little church we recently started attending. Luckily for us, St. Andrew's was available on 6/21! The church is small and really very pretty without many decorations, but I did still want to add a few touches of our own...

For the two sets of red doors, I found round moss wreaths (I think 10in) at Joann's for eight dollars each, and I tied 1.5in ivory double-faced satin ribbon in a half windsor knot at the bottom of each wreath (ala Martha and her elusive cushion moss wreath--go ahead and try to find that stuff). After the ceremony, our coordinator took the wreaths and hung them around the Mills, so they did double duty! (And now I have one on my front door and I gave one each to my MOH and MIL.)

For the windowsills (6), I purchased small pillar candles, simple glass holders, and river rocks from Ikea (about $2 a set-up). Hairy Mary's was able to make up small half-circles of greens and moss to curve around each candle. These were also transferred to the Mills for use in the windowsills there. (My poor coordinator was an angel and switched the pillar candles out of the Ikea holders for church to mason jars for the Mills at my request!)

I was in love with pew decorations, but didn't want to budget much for them. Luckily, there are only 6 or 7 rows of pews on each side of the church! Using big sheets of khaki cardstock from Paper Source and thin green gingham ribbon, I fashioned my own pew cones using this guide (there are tons out there, but this size worked well for me). Our florist provided white hydrangeas and a bit of greens for each cone. I ended up doing 6 cones total, so we just placed them on the first three pews on each side. (FYI--make sure you measure how much ribbon you need in advance! I just estimated, and the poor florist couldn't get the cones over the pews. My wonderful bridesmaids went down to the church prior to the ceremony and re-tied all the ribbons for me--and they took all of these detail pics to boot!) The pew cones were also rounded up by our coordinator and taken to the Mills, where they hung on shepherds hooks to decorate the outdoor cocktail hour.

Finally, we did have a few standard floral arrangements as well. There is a small shelf at the front of the church that I wanted to leave an arrangement on for the congregation, so the florist made up this:

And, in retrospect, I think we went a little overboard with the altar arrangements. They could have been much smaller, or potentially single, and we would have saved some cash. They were beautiful, but a little more than that small space needed. They were also transported to the Mills for reception decor, which was nice. However, at the end of the night I realized I had these two ginormous arrangements, so my father swung back by the church after the reception and placed them back on the altar. Had I thought ahead, we could have donated them to a senior center or something maybe?

The amazing thing with all of this, and really throughout the day, is that even though bits and pieces of things may not have been exactly how I envisioned, it didn't matter one little bit. Everything was perfect. :)

Here are a couple of my favorite ceremony shots taken by our amazing photographer, Laura Billingham.