We reserved the gated part of Heritage Gardens in Shelby Twp. for pictures. It was $25 for an hour (we used a friend who lived in Utica - its more if you aren't a Utica or Shelby resident). It was pretty, cool for an August day (shaded), and semi-private. There are lots of other areas there that are free, but if you reserved the gated part, its all yours. I called the week prior to verify they still had our reservation - they did, and we had no problems.

Not much to say. Best price I found (1.75/cover with sash when I signed). She even let me lower my count below the minimum I had on my contract for no penalty/fee. The room looked great - at first I thought chair covers were an unnecessary expense, but they make a TON of difference, and are totally worth the value.

Awesome. We had 25 people at the Champps in Utica for our rehearsal dinner, and had reserved the room there. We had a smaller menu - 4 items I think - for our guests to pick from. Prices were very reasonable. Service was awesome, and they even handled all the special requests (soups instead of salads, special this/extra that). I highly recommend this if you are looking for a casual, but sit-down RD.

I really don't have any complaints. Not one. We were looking for a place to have both our ceremony and reception - the ceremony site is a beautiful arbor overlooking a pond, and their banquet hall was the perfect size for us (plus it allowed us to be the only wedding there). I adore Maggie, the wedding coordinator at Greystone. She was a doll, and did way more than a coordinator should. I didn't hire a DOC because I had Maggie. She set EVERYTHING up for me. Yes, everything - DIY centerpieces, placecards, candy buffet. (She did laugh at me when I handed her a packet with mock-up pictures of how I wanted everything set-up when I dropped off my some-teen boxes of decor and candy 2 days prior.... but she executed everything to a tee.) She also coordinated the rehearsal, helped guide guests before and after the ceremony, worked with the DJ to execute the timeline for the night, called ALL my vendors for me the week prior.... Seriously. I have some sort of crush on the woman. Oh, and Maggie had been pushing Greystone to get chargers to dress up the tables - she succeeded a month before my wedding, and included them at no extra cost. Love her! Jerry, the banquet manager, isn't so bad himself - he actually ran the wedding after 8pm, everything was perfect, he helped load up cars, etc, etc. We were a little bummed that they didn't offer a tasting, so Jerry invited us to their Easter brunch, on the house. When I called ~6 weeks prior asking if I could have a signature drink, I had to explain the concept to Jerry, he had never heard of it before. I already had a premium bar package, but it didn't include any blue liquor to make a blue drink to match my decor - Jerry told me to pick a drink or two, and he would make sure the bar was stocked with everything needed - no extra cost. We went with their Saturday package with a duet plated meal (raspberry chicken and filet mignon) and the guests raved about the food. I liked that we had a dollar minimum and not a people minimum - especially since our decline rate was high in the end. The service was great, I have heard nothing but raves from our guests - and am still hearing great things months later :)

Hmmm.... this one was tough for me. Photography was important to me, so we spent more here than DH would have liked. Craig’s work speaks for itself. I really liked that we got 2 photogs - Craig, and his wife Bonnie, to shoot our day. We are really happy with our wedding pics, our album, and the CD we purchased. And I like Craig and Bonnie. Here are the semi-issues I had: 1. I was really disappointed in our E-pics. DH and I don't consider ourselves photogenic. We warned Craig about our quirks - closed eyes, half-smiles, squinty eyes, etc. Our e-pics session seemed pretty rushed, (he had another appt. after us), and we weren't really happy with the pics. A lot of them had the flaws we were concerned about. We talked to Craig about it, and he said he took notes of exactly what to watch for on the wedding day. The wedding day pics were much better. 2. When we got the album proof, I was 'eh' about it. Craig implied he just wanted my OK to send it to the printer. I expected a sit-down design review. I found some duplicate pictures, and 2 of the layouts bugged me a bit. Craig set up a meeting, we went though and swapped out some pictures, changed a few layouts, he did some more editing (removing the microphone from out ceremony pics and some other touch-ups), and I can't wait to get the final product. I love my pictures, and I love the fact that the proofs were ready 8 days after the wedding, and I will have my album only 3.5 months after the wedding.

One Groomsmen had to go and get his shirt size switched. But no other issues, and they took care of it immediately. When we picked out the tuxes and they heard my dress was ivory, they tried really hard to convince me I wanted the guys in ivory shirts. I stood my ground though. No real issues though.

Not exactly Metro Detroit - but I have to recommend them. Lovely old shop, great service. DH picked out my set from there all on his own. We got DH a tungsten carbide ring, and they had it laser engraved. The engraving looks great! (Don't let anyone tell you TC rings can't be engraved).

I live out of town from my wedding, so I don't have a regular stylist in the metro area. I wanted someone on-site, and Toni's prices couldn't be beat (I think she was just starting her on-site stuff when I booked her). Toni does hair, and her cousin Karlye Ghrist did my make-up. My BMs got their hair done, and I also paid for my sister (MOH) to get her make-up done. BMs hair was great! Make-up was great! I liked my hair, but it looked a tad funny on the side to me - it was a little different than the trial. I didn't notice until later, so its my fault for not getting it fixed. Everyone's hair and make-up stayed all night. And we were outside in August (80 degrees) for a few hours taking pics before the ceremony. A few touch ups on the lipstick and some minor blotting and we were fine!

Ugh. This is the ONLY thing that went wrong our entire wedding day. And it didn't happen until 12:45am. Not too bad, but at that point DH and I just wanted to get to bed. Here were the issues: 1. I called the morning of to see if we could check in early, they said no, so I said we needed a late check in - likely wouldn't get there until 12:30am. Was told that would not be a problem, also confirmed our reservation "king room non smoking". (I should preface by saying that I knew they were booked, the best man waited until the last minute and had to find a hotel room elsewhere). DH and I arrive at 12:40 am. He goes in to check-in (I wait in the car) - he comes out with this info: they only have 1 room left it has 2 double beds, and there are 2 more couples behind him in line, one of which is a bride and groom . Umm, I don’t want a double bed, (which I find hilarious b/c my aunt and uncle wanted 2 doubles and got stuck with a king and the kids sharing the pull out couch) and what about these other people who don't have a room at all?? Their excuse was that their website sometimes lets them overbook. They offered and we took a comp over at the Holiday Inn Express across the road - we got the only king room there. I called the next week to verify that the room was comped completely, and that they weren't just picking up the difference from our original reservation (we didn't pay a dime, good!). Did we NEED a king bed? Probably not. But its the principle of the whole thing. I gave them how much business in the room block and they f-up our room?!? I just feel bad for anyone else trying to check in after us. 2. I dropped off OOT bags (in a well-labeled box with a list of guests that they provided me along with their check-in dates), and found out not all my guests got one. Yet, they couldn't find the leftovers when I went back to ask for them. So who got all my goodies, if it wasn't my guests??? 3. They had some staffing issues in their sales department. Someone went on maternity leave, then the guy that took over was in the hospital for a while. I left lots of messages in the weeks leading up to my wedding (to see how many and who made reservations - my family is lazy and slow), and rarely did I ever get a call back. I sent emails that would be answered days later. Communication was frustrating. I did talk to a manager about all of this after we got back from the HM. He sent us a certificate for a free night stay, with his apologies (this is when I found out about the staff-juggling). That was nice, but we don't need it (my parents live 4 miles from there) - I guess we have a "getaway" to use. So overall, they did sort-of correct the room situation, but it was disappointing and shouldn't have happened (and I never got my other bags back). It is a really nice hotel inside though, brand new, very modern.

I really liked working with Katie, and I was thrilled that her quote was much lower ($100's less) than some other florists. I also loved her creativity. She brought me a lot of options and ideas - other places threw books at me and told me to pick one I liked. I wanted to keep my flower budget pretty low - bouquets, bouts, corsages, and half the centerpieces. I really wanted hydrangea, and I loved what she gave me. I loved the bouquets, the centerpieces, and the entry table arrangement. I had some gripes about some of the bouts - we went with orchids - and they were soooo big! I think they just opened too much, and they didn't look awful, just a little big for my taste. Also, the moms corsages were a little weird - the way they were assembled showed a lot of the stems and the wrist band. Nothing major. Did I mention I LOVED my bouquet????