Thursday, March 24, 2011

Vendor Reviews

I have to tell you that every single one of our vendors were absolutely amazing! I know it sounds cliche but they all went out of their way to make sure our wedding was as magical as it possibly could be. Most were provided by Disney Fairy Tale Weddings department but there were some outside vendors that we used as well. I'm going to highlight each person and give a review and a link to their websites if they have one.

Wedding planner
Name: Amy R.
Disney Fairy Tale Weddings Department
Amy was assigned to me by Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings Department at the 8 month mark. I will admit that I was slightly nervous about how I would be treated by my wedding planner. I had heard that there was a stigma around Disney brides who chose the "escape" package. (The escape package being Disney's answer to small weddings) The rumor was that "escape" brides were handled differently because they were not the big money makers like the "wishes" wedding brides who have over 150 guests and 20 people in their bridal party. I was pleasantly surprised by my experience with Amy. In the 8 months leading up to the wedding, Amy was in constant contact with me. Whether it was through email or phone calls, she was always willing to answer any of my questions and give the best advice possible. The day of the wedding went off with out a hitch and it was thanks to Amy's attention to detail and constant communication with Adam and I. She was everything a Disney employee should be. She made me feel like I was the only bride in the world and that no matter how much money I spent I would have the most magical wedding. Any Disney bride would be lucky to have her as their wedding planner.

Disney Floral
Name: Rosie

Along with a wedding planner, I was assigned a florist through Disney. I did a ton of research on flowers and, anyone who knows me knows, that picking my floral was one of my biggest challenges! I was completely indecisive and I changed my mind a hundred times over. The first time I spoke to Rosie over the phone I explained my budget issues to her (which was that I was on a tight one) and that I was completely indecisive about what exactly I wanted. We talked for an hour and it was like talking to one of your girlfriends. She gave me a few ideas on things to think about and then she gave me her email address and told me to email her pictures of flowers and decorations I liked. She would call me in a few weeks to discuss pricing, cheaper alternatives and to finalize everything.

After looking over bridal bouquets on the Internet until my eyes were ready to bug out of my head I found exactly the bouquet I was looking for.
Photobucket
I wanted this bouquet only without the calla Lillie's in it. I emailed it to Rosie and we set up a time to chat over the phone to finalize everything. She gave me some ideas on less expensive decorations for the ceremony and the reception and she even helped me coordinate the flowers for the bridal party.
The day of the wedding I was so excited to see how everything came out! The floral and decorations were the one aspect of the wedding that I took the most amount of time on (research wise). Here is what Rosie designed based on the picture I sent her and the conversation we had.
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When I do the wedding day recap I'll go into more detail about my giddy outburst, but the long and short of it is that when they brought me my bouquet I squealed like a little girl and jumped up and down! I'll show all kinds of pictures of our floral and decor in the wedding recap.
Rosie was fantastic! Just like Amy, she took her job seriously and made me feel like I was the only bride she was working with. She made me feel special and confident in my decisions which was not an easy task!

Photography
Name: Randy Chapman
Chapman Photography
Randy was hands down BRILLIANT! I love every single one of my pictures and I HATE pictures of myself. The second he walked in he started snapping pictures like crazy. He had no problem putting himself in the grass, behind a tree, or asking the hotel staff let him on the concierge floor so he can get an aerial shot. After the ceremony he set us up with the boardwalk and the boats in the background and made sure we got pictures with all of our family and friends. After the family and friends pictures he whisked Adam and I away to take the Husband and Wife pictures and we had so much fun! He was so friendly and easy to work with and I swear that his personality makes all the difference in the pictures. We don't look posed and we look natural which was really important to me. He has some wonderful packages for Disney brides and is willing to customize packages to fit your needs as well. I highly recommend Randy to any Disney bride and as you'll see in my wedding recap his pictures are really beautiful.

Officiant
Name: Pastor Luther Kistler
http://weddingswithpastorluther.com/
When Adam and I first started researching Officiants we found a Reverend that we wanted and booked him right away. Unfortunately three days before we were heading down to Florida he called me and told me that he double booked and would be unable to officiate our wedding. I cried, screamed, and panicked. Adam and I had already talked with him about our ceremony and the vows that we wanted to do. This all took alot of time and planning. I really was not a happy camper! I got a phone call from Amy who told me that she had already heard the news from my officiant but that she had found another in officiant to do our wedding. She reassured me that he was fabulous and gave me his phone number and website. She told me to calm down and look over his website and then to give him a call.
I called Adam all freaked out and he hurried home as quick as he could. We looked over Pastor Luther's website and decided to give him a call. Pastor Luther was so sweet! He apologized that we were dealing with someone else's mistake this close to the wedding. He promised me that he could fix it and make sure we had everything we wanted. He met with us the day we arrived in Orlando (I left that out because it was brief) and he quickly went over the ceremony with us. I liked pastor Luthers ceremony much more the the original Officiants!
The day of the ceremony he did a wonderful job incorporating all of our guests into the celebration. Everyone made comments about how great the ceremony was. It wasn't like the average ceremony with the same old "do you _____ take ____ to be... blah blah blah" no offense to anyone who likes the traditional ceremony but ours was different and had special mean to us.
Stepping in so late in the game and being able to give us what we wanted and more in a ceremony was amazing to me. Again he is another vendor that I highly recommend!

Hair and Make up
Name: Laney and Rosie from Beaute Speciale
http://www.beautespeciale.com/
Not only did I love my hair and make up but I LOVED these girls! Laney did hair and Rosie did the make up. They showed up with bells on! They were high energy and I swear I was getting a comedy show along with my hair and make up. They made me feel at ease and kept me laughing when they could clearly see I was nervous. My sisters and I looked BEAUTIFUL! (Not to toot our own horns) We all had hour hair in Up Do's and they all stayed all day and all night. I was worried about my make up sweating off in the Florida heat but it stayed on perfect. I felt like a model all day! Yet again, I highly recommend them too!


Tux rental and Dress Steaming
Name: Carolyn Allen's
http://www.carolynallens.com/
I didn't deal with Carolyn Allen's too much. They came in and steamed the dresses in the morning but that was my only interaction with them. Adam dealt with them more but I'll give the review from what he told me. Booking the tuxes was very easy (I mean Adam did it all on his own!) and Adam did say that they were very nice over the phone. They came the night before the wedding (before the boys went to Down Town Disney) and measured them. The next morning around 10am they brought the tuxes and made sure they fit the boys like gloves. The women who came to steam the dresses was very nice and made sure that I inspected everything with her to make sure I was satisfied with it. All in all they were also very easy to work with and Adam said he would absolutely recommend them to any groom looking to rent a tux.


I hope that these reviews help out people looking for these services. Like I said before I like to give credit where credit is due, and all of these vendors deserve all the praise in the world!

2 comments:

  1. Great reviews!! I'm sure this has helped many other brides to be :)

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  2. Thank you! I hope that they did. I loved all of the vendors that I worked with... any bride would be lucky to have them be a part of their wedding

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