San Diego Wedding Vendors Review

Vendors are huge part of planning and executing a perfect Wedding and overall I had a great team a vendors. So without further ado here is our review of our wedding vendors:

(Quick note: the vendors are graded like a college class from A to F with no A+s or A++s. I tried to not have "grade inflation", either, so a B is a OK grade)

Item: Wedding Cake
Vendor: Grove Pastry Shop
Grade: A
Rationale: Great little bakery with great prices. Made a beautiful cake based on my design in delicious flavors. Was easy to work with and I loved the cake.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Ceremony Music
Vendor: Camelot Strings
Grade: B+
Rationale: Played great music for the ceremony. Were a little hard to work with prior to the wedding which its what took them down from an A to B+.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Flowers
Vendor: Flowers by Erin
Grade: A
Rationale: Erin is a total sweetheart and made gorgeous arrangements for a great price. She even added on some ceremony flowers when our arch changed at the last minute.
Would hire again: Yes



Item: Invitations
Vendor: DayDreams
Grade: B
Rationale: Daydreams did my invitations which were beautiful but expensive (as are many wedding stationary items). When I went back for Menus/ Programs the prices were even more outrageous. They make great stuff, but given what I realized a person can do at Kinkos, I’m not sure if it’s worth it.
Would hire again: Maybe -- knowing what I know now, I may have done DIY invitation

Item: Photography
Vendor: Kim Irons Photography
Grade: A
Rationale: Kim is fantastic! She has great prices, does amazing work, and is so fun to work with. My only wish (and my Mom's wish) is that we'd gotten more "traditional wedding” shots -- but that's not really what I wanted anyway when I hired Kim because I think a lot of traditional shots are boring and Kim does not do boring shots. We got some really cool candid photos and lots super interesting shots of Jonathan and me. But my favorite thing she did was our engagement pictures. So beautiful and natural.
Would hire again: Yes. When we decide to start a family, I'd definitely have her do our family photos. :-)


Item: Reception Music
Vendor: The Ultratones
Grade: A
Rationale: The Ultratones are a fantastic Wedding Dance Band. They played great music and kept people dancing all night long.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Rehearsal Dinner Catering
Vendor: Gerardos Catering
Grade: A
Rationale: Delicious catering at amazing prices. Authentic Mexican cuisine.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Tuxedos and Wedding Dress
Vendor: Bridal and Tuxedo Galleria
Grade: D
Rationale: The only reason I did not give them an F is that did my Wedding Dress and the Groom's/Groomen's Tuxes, and the Wedding Dress experience was OK. The Tuxes were horrible. They were totally disorganized, tried to overcharge us, and tuxes were ill fitting.
Would hire again: No

Item: Wedding Ceremony and Reception Venue (including catering)
Vendor: Hilton San Diego Resort on Mission Bay
Grade: C-
Rationale: I can't summarize my feelings about the Hilton in one post only. I could write pages. The venue is beautiful. The food is good. The rooms are lovely. Their Banquet Coordinator/Wedding Planner is awful. He's unresponsive, uncreative, and handled the Union situation horribly. At the end of the day I feel ripped off by the Hilton because we paid for this beautiful, expensive ceremony site and didn't really get to use it because the Hilton was in the midst of Labor Dispute (that apparently they had known about for months which would have given us ample time to think of contingency scenarios).
Would hire again: No

Item: Videography
Vendor: Jason Johnson of Bandini Productions
Grade: B+
Rationale: Jason did a good video at a great price. He doesn’t do HD or any kind of cinematography but does a great Wedding Video for the price he charges. While the angles he shot were not incredible, the editing was really good -- some really neat montages.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Wedding Coordination
Vendor: Carlee Jiminez from Events by La Bella
Grade: A
Rationale: Carlee ROCKS! She pulled off a flawless wedding and is total sweetheart. Some major drama occurred the week before the wedding and Carlee handled it amazingly! I'm a huge stickler for details and Carlee covered every detail for the big day. She threw in a bunch of "extras" as well that made the day even better.
Would hire again: Yes

Item: Morning-after Brunch Catering
Vendor: Bekkers Catering
Grade: B+
Rationale: Very good brunch, but nothing earth-shatterng. A bit expensive, but oh well, all caterers are expensive.

Item: Bridesmaid Dresses

Vendor: Nordstrom.com
Grade: A
Rationale: Ordered the $98 Maggie London dresses online. Nordstom.com had plenty of sizes and the dresses came promptly. And they looked fantastic on the day of.
Would hire again: Yes

(All images are from Kim Irons or my personal camera)

Bridesmaid and Groomsmen Gifts

This is definitely something I could not blog about before the wedding... the Bridesmaid and Groomsmen Gifts.

Here's a picture of the gifts all wrapped up... can you guess what they are?

The Groomsmen got mongramed money clips/wallets that be bought on theknot.com. You can never tell with guys, but I think the guys liked them.

The Bridesmaids got engraved wine decanters from Crate & Barrel. The engraving was a small "8.16.08" on the back. I also wrote each girl a letter. I think the girls really liked them as well and hopefully they get some good use out of them.

My Maid of Honor was a special case since she's leaving for the Peace Corps very soon and really has no need for wine decanter. So I bought her a water-purifying water bottle from Katadyn. I think it is pretty slick and it could definitely come handy while hiking or serving in the Peace Corps in South America.

Bridesmaid Profile: Megan

Megan

Nicknames: Megs, Megan J, MJ

How we met: First week at USC in the dorms but didn’t become friends until I October of Freshman year when my computer broke and Megan let me use hers. From that week on, we were pretty much inseparable.

Favorite memories: Spring Break 2003 (a classy tour of Rosarito and Las Vegas), being 9-0 twins, and living it up as roommates post-college in the South Bay (too many great memories to list)

Why I love Megan: Megan is so fun to be with and we always have a blast together. She was an awesome roommate for three years and I miss her already :-(. And she is brutally honest (she will tell you when she doesn’t like your outfit, but on the flip side you know she’s telling the truth when she says that you look cute).

And finally, some pictures of Megan and I over the years:

Bridesmaid Profile: Carolyn

Carolyn

Nicknames: Care, Care-o, lover

How we met: First week at USC as Gamma Phi Beta Pledges. We both lived in Pardee Tower and Carolyn invited me to walk to the row for a pledge meeting. We started chatting, she asked if I had a boyfriend, and I said yes. She got the disapproving look on her face and said “Ummm, this is college” (she hates when I tell that story too). I laughed and Carolyn and I were friends from that day on. And, for the record, she was right; said boyfriend and I broke up a few months later (obviously).

Favorite memories: Being crazy little Gamma Phi Beta Pledges, living together Sophomore year in 4-man rooms, and Senior Spring Break in the Bahamas (braids, get your hair done, braids)

Why I love Carolyn: Carolyn is so amazingly thoughtful; she’s always taking the time to email, message, call, or arrange get-togethers. And she is always uplifiting and fun to be around.

Some pictures of Carolyn and I over the years:

Bridesmaid Profile: Iliana

Profile removed :-)

Bridesmaid Profile: Michelle

Michelle

Nicknames: Michi, Michelle My Belle, Dogg

How we met: Early on in third grade, I thought Michelle was the prettiest girl in the third grade and wanted to befriend her (she hates when I tell that story)

Favorite memories: Toilet papering a friend ours’ house and then caught because of a 7-11 surveillance camera when were 16, having “dates” at El Torito, and Rockstar Summer of 2002 (where we partied like Rockstars and lived to tell about it).

Why I love Michelle: She’s the sweetest, kindest, future civil litigator I know. She’s “had my back since day one” (like in the 7th grade where she slapped a boy who did me wrong) and I know she’ll always have my back.

Some pictures of us over the years in San Diego and LA:

Bridesmaid Profile: Laurel

Over the next few weeks, I'll be profiling some of the most important women in my life and my wedding. I'll go in order of length of time I've known them, which means I'll start with Laurel.

Laurel

Nicknames: Lolo, wowo, lo, lo-ho

How we met: First day of Kindergarten, Laurel let me play me marbles with her when a mean girl didn't let me play (now Laurel and I have been friends for almost 20 years!)

Our favorite childhood activities: “Rocking out” to my playschool tape player and playing “Old Hag” where I’d pretend I was princess and Laurel was an “old hag” that I befriended (mean game, huh?)

Why I love Laurel: She’s been there for me through thick and thin for pretty much as long as I can remember, and I know she’ll be there for me until we’re old and grey.

Some pictures of Laurel and Me over the years (1999, 2006, 2007)

The Bridesmaid Dress!

After a long quest to find cute aqua/ turquoise bridesmaid dresses and determining that the "Pool" dresses from David's Bridal were just not our thing (I wasn't crazy about the color the girls weren't crazy about the cut), I've finally found THE dresses. I give you...

I love the color! It's so summery and feminine and the price is right. It's by a chiffon dress from Nordstrom by Maggie London in "Clear Pacific".

Rethinking Bridesmaid Dresses

Just when I thought I had the Bridesmaid Dresses, I found dresses on Nordstrom.com that I think I like EVEN more! Mainly because I think the Pool/Aqua/Turquoise is prettier (I'm realizing there are a LOT of names for this color)

So I'm going to order these two dresses from Nordstrom and see if I like them in person:

Hopefully this my only crazy-change-my-mind-bride moment.

Bridesmaid Dresses

I went to David's Bridal and I found a couple of pretty nice and really affordable. I think the bridesmaids will be wearing "Pool" blue dresses in one of these two styles!:

Dresses They Will Actually Wear Again?

It’s almost obligatory for a Bride to say to her Bridesmaids, regarding their Bridesmaid dresses, “Oh! You could totally wear this dress again!” But it’s a rare Brdesmaid that ever wears said Bridesmaid dress again (usually because it’s a pink, taffeta, nightmare of a dress with awkwardly placed bows on it someplace). However, as a bride I am on a quest to find dresses that could potentially be worn again by my Bridesmaids.

When my friend, Laurel, got married in October she let us pick our own dress from J.Crew in the color Espresso. I’ll fess up that I was worried that it might look weird, but it looked REALLY good. AND I even wore my dress out on the town a few times before the wedding because I liked it so much (much to my Mother’s dismay… she was appalled that I’d wear the dress before the wedding and risk ruining it).

So I’ve been thinking about matching the color (ocean blue/turquoise) and material of the Bridesmaid Dresses but letting the girls pick their style. Right now I have two options on the table…

1) Siri. Their styles are classic, adorable, and fun. Below are my favorite Siri styles. All of them come in Shantung material in the color ocean (see below, the Yale dress is in Shantung- ocean). I’m not sure 100% if the Bridesmaids would necessarily wear these again (I mean how many occasions do you have to wear an ocean blue party dress?), but at least the girls would feel more comfortable if they got to pick their own style for their figure.



(Click to enlarge)
http://www.siri.com/


2) Two Birds Bridesmaid. These dresses come in a “one size” with directions for how to wrap it in over 10 ways. You can do strapless, backless, sleeved, halter, etc. The material looks really comfortable and I love idea of many ways to wrap the same dress (they have a nice turquoise color as well). I feel like bridesmaid would definitely wear these dresses again because they are so versatile. My only concerns are a) formality (they look a bit casual) and b) is the dresses really fit as well as the company says that they do. Check out the colors below and the models wearing them. They are all wearing the same dress wrapped in a different style and it looks really matched without being “matchy-matchy."



(click to enlarge)
http://www.twobirdsbridesmaid.com/