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)

Top 5 Things I Loved Most About Our Wedding

Like I said a couple of posts ago, I got our Wedding Pictures. I'm still going through them trying to pick out the ones I like best to post and share. But looking at them really helped to remind me what I loved most about our wedding. Here are the top 5:

1. The guy I married

Duh. What kind of wife would I be if I didn't say that? But really, he is the best. When he said his vows to me, it was one of the best moments of my life.

2. Our Ceremony

I loved the whole thing. I loved the readings, the music, the Pastor, the message, our attendants, our vows, the view, the San Diego summer air. I loved how we involved our faith and our families in the ceremony.

I loved All. Of. It.

(I promise to write a whole post about it later)

3. My Dress

I LOVE that dress. Can I please please wear it again? For anything?

4. The Band and Danceing the Night Away

I wanted a dance party and I got a dance party. The Ultratones rocked and I literally danced until the last song.





5. The UpLighting in the Ballroom

I know this is a random thing to love. But just $400 turned an ordinary ballroom into a spectacular tangerine and turquoise paradise. The uplighting was the most ambiance-changing decor item we did.

Wedding Retrospective: What I'm Glad I Did and Wish I'd done Differently

This post beings my "Wedding Retrospective" series on the wedding. This post is the full list of "Things I’m glad I did", "Things I wish I’d done differently", and "Things I have mixed feeling about" now that I'm looking back on our Wedding. You have to tell me which one(s) from each category you want to hear more about and I will do another post about the top ones and explain them in detail...

Things I’m glad I did:

• Had a Day Of Coordinator (with a detailed agenda/checklist)
• Had a Videographer
• Saw each other before hand and did pictures
• Had a girlfriend stay at my parent’s house with me nights before the wedding
• Had live music and danced until the end of the reception
• Hired a photographer that let me own my digital negatives
• Did DIY stationary for all of the wedding ceremony/reception itesm
• Did not do chair covers/ chair upgrades (because the stock chairs were fine)
• Had a Smashed Potato Bar at Midnight (so fun!)
• Involved our faith and families in our wedding ceremony
• Had beautiful turquoise and tangerine uplighting in the ball room
• Had a day-after brunch (did not leave for our Honeymoon right away)
• Did charity favors for wedding favors
• Had simple elegant centerpieces
• Had bouquets without a lot of greenery
• Gave each other wedding gifts (besides rings)
• Made out-of-town gift bags/buckets for the guests
• Did dance lessons for our first dance
• Did our own vows
• Actually ate our food at the wedding
• Had a Sweetheart table (let attendants sit with their family/boyfriends/wives/etc.)
• Created a "Play" and "Do Not Play" list for the Band
• Changed into sandals for the reception
• Put out pictures of us and our families
• Gave the band an iPod to play at breaks
• Had my dad make me a big omelet the AM of the wedding
• Had beautiful bright bridesmaid dresses and flowers
• Did a Bridesmaid Brunch and Mani/Pedi the day before
• Did the Rehearsal Dinner at my parents house
• Did assinged seats/escort cards

Things I wish I’d done differently. I wish I’d:

• Got ready earlier
• Had them box the cake to take it to go
• Had more group pictures – USC people, HS people, me with each bridesmaid, etc. and more photos of guests
• Bought a professional makeup mirror to check my makeup in
• Not ordered cake for every guest
• Reapplied makeup before the reception after being out in the sun/wind for hours
• Paid more attention to the guys tuxes and not gotten the ugly cheap ones
• Not stressed out so much morning of the wedding
• Told my bridesmaids/groomsmen exactly how to enter the ballroom
• Instructed the cake servers of how to serve the 3 flavors of cake
• Gotten a few more “traditional” photography shots to add to all the creative ones we have

Things I have mixed feeling about:

• Getting married at a hotel
• Doing my own makeup
• Not doing a receiving line, instead doing table rounds
• Doing a big, expensive wedding
• Wedding blogging

Wedding Reading: The Unbroken Circle of Love

From the moment we started planning our Wedding Ceremony we knew we wanted our families heavily involved in it. We ended up with my Dad doing a song, my Mom doing a Reading, Jonathan's Dad doing a Scripture Reading, and both of our Moms participating in the Sand Ceremony.

I'll do posts on the other parts of the ceremony later, but I wanted to start with my Mom's Reading entitled The Unbroken Circle of Love: We… We & She … She & He… He… We



The reading was actually a mix of several abriged readings including:
On Children by Kahlil Gibran
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
The Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Linbergh
Jerry McGuire
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

And it turned out great! We loved it and our guests did too.

You can check out the full text of the reading here:
http://docs.google.com/View?docID=dhmdd69g_45cmbdg8ct&revision=_latest

My DIY Pride & Joy: The Programs

My favorite DIY project and the one I'm most proud of are my Programs.

I got a bid for programs from Daydreams, the stationary store who did my invites, for programs and it came out to about $700. I thought to myself, "I can do that for less". And I did. When it was all said and done, with paper, printing, and ribbon, it was about $100.

I designed the programs in Word using a mix of Honey Script and Century Gothic fonts. I had them printed up and cut at Kinkos. I used a blue cardstock for the cover and a ivory resume paper for the contents. We bound them together with two colors of orange ribbon.

Here are some shots of the inside of the program:

The contents were:

- Cover

- Page 1: Welcome

- Page 2 & 3: Wedding Party

- Page 4 & 5: Ceremony Program

- Page 6: Picture

- Page 7: Wedding Weekend Agenda

I admit it, I'm completely in love with my programs and way to proud of myself.

Message me if you want my template. :-)

License to Wed

Today we got our marriage license! It was actually surprisingly easy. I filled out an online application and then we had to pick up the License at a Registrar-Recorder County Clerk office.

The closest Recorder to us was the Florence/Firestone Recorder's Office in Compton (7807 Compton Avenue). It neighborhood was pretty ghetto, but the office was nice and the staff was friendly. We were the only white people in the place, but we live in Long Beach so we're used to that. And Compton doesn't intimidate us since we spent the best four years of our lives in South Central LA (Go Trojans!).

The highlight was that the license cost $70 and they didn't take credit cards so while standing in line Jonathan and I managed to come up for $70 in mainly $1s, $5s, and a couple of $10s (don't ask why we had so many small bills). The Recorder must have thought we were run-a-ways emptying our piggy banks to pay for the license... but I'm sure she's seen stranger things working in Compton.

So the State of California officially says we can wed! Now the license just needs to be signed by the Pastor and we're officially hitched! It's really happening...

Here's the happy couple with the Marriage License in Compton:

ONE Month!

O.M.G. Our wedding is in one month! I'm so excited and trying not to panic.

All of our vendors are set and ready. Our Pastor is ready to marry us, the band is ready to play, Carlee is ready to coordinate, and Kim is ready to photograph.

What's making me panic are all of the minor decor items that I have left to do - table numbers, menus, programs, favors, escort cards, baskets, signage, and out-of-town gift bags. All of the things that allegedly "make it all come together".

I'm so glad that I decided to take two weeks off of work before the wedding.

Note to Friends in San Diego: I'm hostessing a "favor, program, placecard making party" on Saturday August 9th or Sunday August 10th, so save the date.

These are the thing that make me lose sleep:

Unity Sand Ceremony

In many Christian wedding ceremonies a unity candle is used to symbolize the uniting of two people and two families into one. Instead of doing the traditional unity candle:

I really like the symbolism of this event so we've decided to use "Unity Sand" instead. Unity Sand goes well with out beach theme and will be a lot easier since we're getting married out doors. In my quest to find a Unity Sand on the Internet, this is what I found:

I liked the nautilus shell ideal but I worried that people in the back wouldn't be able to see the sand or the shells would just look like white blobs in the picture. So I opted for two small Hurricane Vases and one large one. Like this:

Yesterday in a mini - "omg I have so much stuff to procure before the wedding" - freak out I went to Michael's (which, on a separate note, has THE ugliest wedding stuff ever) and bought the Hurricane Vases and sand. At home I have raffia ribbon and small sand dollars which I'm going tie around them.

Yay, one project is almost done! And bonus, the vases will look great in the condo after the wedding!

Next project on the docket: procuring hundreds of sand dollars and starfish for favors, decoration, and placecards.

Our Married "Life Verse"

I realized that this blog is missing something. Although flowers and dresses and photographers are important... the MOST important thing is what you get after the wedding ... a marriage.

In order to prepare not only for our wedding, but our marraige too, we started doing pre-marital mentoring with a couple from Mosaic, Goodie and Lucy. Amoung our many assignments was choosing a verse from the Bible to be our Married "Life Verse". A Life Verse is can be a verse defines your life, gives you inspiration or direction, or ca be something that you hang onto as you face difficult circumstances. A Married Life Verse, should do the same for your marriage.

We chose:
"Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." - Romans 12:9-12

Wedding Coordinator- La Bella Weddings and Events

I met with my Wedding Coordinator, Carlee Jimenez for La Bella Weddings and Events, this weekend. She's new to the industry, so I got her for a steal! I'm so excited to have her as my "Day Of" Coordinator.

Carlee's "Day of Services" Include"-

Pre Wedding -Reviewing vendor contracts and conformation of requested services, organizing vent delivery/arrival times, collecting floor plans, creating wedding day timeline and distributing timeline to vendors.

Ceremony - Coordinating with all vendors, organizing wedding party for their entrance, directing guests, and collecting personal items.

Reception –Coordinating with all vendors, setting up of guest book table, gift table, decor, place cards, etc., maintaining the night's timeline, distributing final payments to vendor, and gathering personal items.


You can reach Carlee at cj@eventsbylabella.com

Videographer

I booked a videographer, Jason Johnson of Bandini Productions.

http://www.bandiniproductions.com/

I was debating whether of not to get a videographer, but I'm REALLY glad I booked Jason I know I'll always treasure my wedding video.

Our ceremony site where Jason will be filming our vows...

150 days to go

As of today we have 150 days until the BIG DAY! I can't wait for the wedding to get here but I still have a lot to do. This weekend I'm going to San Diego to work on several wedding activities. As of next week I will know:
- The Menu
- The Tuxes
- The Coordinator
- The Videographer
- The Bridesmaid dress
- The MOB Dress
- The Inviations

Stay tuned for posts on those!

My Wedding Inspiration Board

Abby at the Blog, "Style Me Pretty" (http://www.stylemepretty.com/) loves to create Wedding Inspiration Boards. And they are quite inspirational... in fact, inspirational enough to inspire me to create my Wedding Inspiration Board. Here it is (Click on it to see the full-size version).
BTW- Do you think I could use the word "Inspire" more in one post? I don't. Anyway take a look...