Our reception was aboard the Edelweiss II cruise ship and it was a memorable and reasonably priced venue. I would recommend working with Jordan rather than Dan; Jordan was much easier to work with, more responsive to questions and email, and more organized. I would recommend keeping the guest list to about 100 on the Edelweiss II even though it accommodates 130 because with the tables and chairs, it will be very tight for more than 100 people aboard.

We used Ari Rosenthal because he offers the option to receive a DVD with all our photos rather than buying an album. We enjoyed worked with Chris; he was wonderful and very professional. With our compressed time frame, he managed to get all the photos in after the ceremony and still make the reception at the other end of town on time. The photos turned out just beautiful too despite the weather.

Diana did a phenomenal job with my wedding makeup. The reason I initially went there was because I read airbrush makeup can be used to cover tattoos and not many offer this service. She used airbrushing to almost perfectly cover my tattoo, and regular makeup for my face. Diana was open to suggestions and spent a great deal of time perfecting my look. I also received a spray-on tan there before the wedding and was perfectly bronzed in the photos.

Ruth was a very kind and helpful woman to work with. My husband custom-designed my engagement ring with her help, and I was so pleased with it that we went there for matching wedding bands. She was very receptive to our questions and ideas and the bands were reasonably priced as well.

I arbitrarily picked Karen at Carenza because I don’t have a regular stylist and I liked her bio on the Carenza website. She was very receptive to my suggestions and offered suggestions of her own, and we came up with a very elegant updo that worked well with my tiara and veil. Karen was enjoyable to work with.

Bel Aire did a wonderful job with the flowers. The owner took the time to understand exactly what look we were going for and all the bouquets, corsages, and altar flowers were delivered on time looking gorgeous. There was some confusion because one was mislabeled, but otherwise the arrangements were beautiful.

Paul was very accommodating to our needs; when we unexpectedly changed our reception time and venue two months before the wedding, he was able to renegotiate our contract and work with us. Sound by Design had the best reviews from coworkers and online, and they didn’t disappoint at the reception. Our DJ worked with us at the last minute to put together a song list that kept all the guests happy.

Elizabeth’s Cakes is a small, independent bakery without an actual store location, so we had to meet at a Starbucks in order to sample her cakes. The cake we tried was amazing! We placed an order that day without even trying another bakery. I received so many compliments from our wedding guests on the presentation and taste of the cake that I would recommend her over anyone else.

We used the loft area for my bridal shower which holds about 30 people and was separate from the rest of the restaurant. It was a nice, secluded area surrounded by lots of greenery. The service was rather slow and the food was mediocre, although reasonably priced. They did let us decorate how we wanted to, but we felt we had to be somewhat quiet since we were in the same room as the dining area.

Carol came highly recommended by a friend who told me she did a great job with her wedding dress. I needed quite a bit of work on my dress since it was too big on top and didn’t have a bustle, but Carol was able to work with me in four sessions to make the dress fit perfectly. She even custom-made my veil for me, all for a very reasonable price. MUCH better than going to David’s Bridal!