Wedding Night Stay: I booked through Priceline, which seems silly in retrospect, but I got a great rate. My understanding was that we would still have a room available like I requested (one queen or king bed), and I called ahead to confirm that reality. However, they had only one room with two double beds when we arrived after midnight. Perhaps it was miscommunication, perhaps it was my fault for using a third-party booking system, but it was a bummer when we were obviously just coming from our wedding and all they had was a room other than what I asked for. The hotel is in downtown Milwaukee and has a beautiful view, however. I would just recommend checking in before midnight.

I booked on recommendation and should have checked out the limos first – the one I saw when I finally went out there (to a somewhat suspect part of town) was a little dingy, and the man in charge had a shoddy phone system (didn’t return messages and his voicemail was full at one point), leaving me with some anxious moments. But the service itself was superb – on time, good driver, willing to take a detour to an Oktoberfest celebration nearby, and nice interior. No hitches at all. We accidentally double-tipped the driver – two people wrote checks, and nothing was said by the driver – but I can hardly blame the guy for taking the money and running.

The venue was offbeat and perfectly fit our vibe, though you’re probably better off capping your party to 120 people or fewer. We had 150 and were a touch tight, but it was still a blast and our guests raved about the evening. Coordinator Dave is an unusual guy. He is very good at details, but he always seemed very frazzled on the phone, and he was not very reassuring in the early stages of the planning process. He didn’t give us straight answers on a couple matters and I was second-guessing our decision to book early. However, the night itself went off without a hitch, even if it meant dealing with some less-than-warm Sprecher employees along the way (the woman in charge of personalized bottling was a bit chippy, as well). Part of this might have been the natural up-tightness that comes with planning a wedding, but I tried to be very objective and friends I asked seemed to think Sprecher took some blame in that. In the end, the employees gave us what we needed and we didn’t have to compromise because of this customer-service shortcoming.

My wife was disappointed with some of the group shots and what she sensed was a lack of organization (but to be fair, we forgot a sheet that laid out what group shots we wanted). For candid “action” shots, however, I felt he was exemplary. John is a former co-worker, and he was very flexible and gave us all our photos on disc, and we could use them as we wished from there. He’s very easygoing and gave us lots of different looks – serious, funny, somewhere in between. The lighting was very difficult to work with at our reception site, but I was impressed with the quality of photos, regardless.

It’s nice because it’s located all over the map, and my groomsmen were coming from many locations. For simplicity’s sake, this is still probably the right call. But they promised me they could get the tux below a certain price, and then I found out my groomsmen were paying higher than I wanted, and higher than I was quoted. When I inquired, I was given an explanation that had not been laid out for me before. I could have done better, but I didn’t do much shopping around since I knew this would be convenient. As for the overall experience – it met expectations. I’ve been fitted for tuxedos before, and the staff is usually pretty helpful and the quality of the product is more than adequate.

Mike Mapes was a humorous, easygoing jeweler who gave us good advice and reasonable rates. He made us feel at ease, as we know very little about jewelry and are not typically people who make purchases of that variety. Did a favor for us – fused my wife’s two rings together even though the engagement ring was purchased elsewhere. We bought our wedding rings there and will probably make all additional jewelry purchases there. Entire staff seemed very friendly in a down-to-earth locally connected sort of way. It was important to us that we not go with a mainstream jeweler such as the much-ballyhooed Jared, and we received the personal attention we were hoping for.

Connected through a friend. It perfectly fit our style – great design and color scheme. We had many positive comments, and it was a perfect representation of what we wanted. Becky was able to pull off a look that was not too ornate (some people thought we made them ourselves, and were very impressed), and they were also able to create matching table numbers for our guests at the dinner. They’re a relatively small operation, but they have a very contemporary and charming sense of design.

Honeymoon: Beautiful hotel, fall rates, quiet atmosphere and spacious, relaxing rooms. Loved it. Can’t wait to go back. Don’t eat in the restaurant though – the price doesn’t match the taste. We ordered some pretty expensive dishes and wound up feeling like we were supposed to appreciate the food with a palette far more refined than our own. It’s right one on of the lakes in the area, which is a gorgeous location for a weekend getaway. We had a room with a hot tub, and the staff was very amiable. We were lucky because we went the weekend the fall rates kicked in, so we weren’t swarmed by tourists and didn’t play top dollar.

No complaints. The procedure for requesting the room was confusing to some, as many came back to me saying the special rate was not available. Guests need to call the hotel directly, and not the typical hotline. However, the woman I dealt with was very pleasant and did make it clear that guests had to call the hotel directly (I tried to pass that on, but many people naturally dialed a number they found online). The rooms are very nice and some are right on the Milwaukee River, and the hotel has a special discounted room rate with the Sprecher Brewery if you hold your reception there.

We didn’t really know what we wanted, and Lorri was very good about taking the reins when we asked and produced beautiful fall flowers for our Sept. 20 wedding. She was flexible and very invested in our event. She put together good combinations that we liked, even though we only gave her some basic details about likes and dislikes. She also gave us a small discount on a couple things after we spent a long time waiting for a needy customer to be finished (it was not her fault for the delay, but she was very gracious). They also had free or inexpensive delivery. It’s a one-woman operation, so there is the chance for some slow service, but nothing to complain about.