If we had to pay full price on a Friday or Saturday night (and weren’t rich) then I might give them a lower rating… but we really got a great deal for having our wedding on Labor Day Monday! It was a gorgeous time of year, end of summer, and we had an outdoor ceremony and indoor reception. The ceremony was in the rose garden with gorgeous flowers and fountains and greenery, and while it was a bit hot, it was well worth it. We got some great photos on this site. The location is a B&B in a historic mansion so we also got some nice photos in the mansion rooms and in front of the buildings. Our coordinator there, Keith, was decent but very practiced at his business. He acted very calm and cool when we spoke to him but almost to the point that we felt he was putting on an act. He did stress a bit on the day of the wedding and snap at a few people but he treated us like royalty that day which made us happy. And the wedding really went off without a hitch. Everyone kept talking about how beautiful the wedding was, and it really was an extraordinary location. The food was absolutely fantastic and the bar mixed good drinks. It is a day we will truly remember and we are so glad we did not settle for a hotel or all-indoor location. Our bridal suite was ours for the night, and we had a few guests stay in rooms as well, and the rooms were fantastic. We had a big Jacuzzi and a huge king bed… it was a very neat experience and a good bonus at the end of the night to get to stay at the location, and be some of the only guests there. The next day we swam in their pool before checking out!

Our photos are awesome, we spent more than we wanted on a photographer but it was very worth it. He is a younger photographer but has been doing weddings for quite a while. We received thousands of photos from him and the assistant and have yet to sort through and find the ones we want prints of, that’s the hardest part!! The photos came out crisp, clear, and soft, making everyone look beautiful. He really captured some great moments and emotions and made sure they got everyone in the photos. Fabulous!

Laura was great, and agreed to work with us even though it was not the most convenient time for us. She met with us once and planned out our wedding ceremony. It was so easy and the ceremony was beautiful. She added lots of personal touches about the way we met and the family loved to hear it all. She also added several unique ceremony pieces that we will remember forever. She was very kind and we didn’t feel like we were being treated like “just another job”. She worked with us by sending the ceremony draft back and forth a few times and revising anything we felt we wanted in it, and the response time was very fast. I highly recommend her. Lots of complements on the ceremony!

Dean did a makeup lesson for me, and then I bought my own makeup and did it for myself on the wedding day. He was really great and showed me how to do everything in great detail. He wrote down every piece of makeup he used on my face and I went to the store and bought what I could. Granted all the makeup was ridiculously expensive but it was a good excuse to buy myself some nice stuff. My makeup looked great without being “too much”. When I got home my fiancé said he was surprised I looked really good—he thought I would come home looking like a clown I guess!!

Groom's Wedding Band: Easy… we picked out a tungsten band that looks awesome on his hand. It is completely scratch-proof and indestructible. The only thing is that it can’t be resized, but the scratch-proof bit was very important to us. He’s had it for over a year and gets complements on it and it’s been through so much and still shines and looks great. The price was decent and the service in this store was very nice.

We made a bad choice picking out an engagement ring here while we were on vacation in Rehoboth Beach… The ring looked great and it was such a great deal that my husband bought it then and there, and it was a set with a matching band. We knew we had to get married really soon so that made sense. Unfortunately we had tons of trouble with this company. We were told they could size the rings in a day, but that was completely false, they took over a week the first time. When I got the rings sized and went to pick them up, they had horribly bent one of the bridge-like pieces framing the center stone on the engagement ring. The store clerk who was very young said “I don’t see anything wrong with it.” And I practically had to force her to take it back to fix it. I went home with the wedding band. When I finally got my engagement ring back it was the day before we had to go to the courthouse (we had a quiet wedding and then a big one 10 months later). I took the rings out of the box and to my horror the band was gold looking next to the engagement ring! It wasn’t yellow gold but it almost could have been! I took it to another store and we called customer service millions of times, we just wanted to return the rings and go somewhere else for them, because clearly they were a horrible choice and this was a lifetime commitment to the store as well! They refused to take returns as they were an outlet store and we were over the exchange time limit. Finally we spoke to someone who authorized an exchange as long as the other item cost more. It took us many trips to an outlet store in Arundel mills before I decided on another ring. At least we could afford more then. The diamond in the center had quite a few large imperfections but honestly no one sees them but me, so it looks much bigger and prettier than the small one I started with. I get lots of complements on it but the band and diamond get dull very quickly. All in all, I’m happy with my ring today but I would never recommend anyone shop for their jewelry here. It was way too many headaches and I had to go to the store every week for 3 months I think.

Party city has huge books of invitation styles that you could spend days looking through. I wasn’t too fussed over invitations and didn’t want to spend a fortune on them so I found a style in a booklet that was printed on a shiny blue paper with chocolate writing that looked good to me. I was able to order them and pick them up within a week or so, and I thought they looked nice. The card stock was heavy but it wasn’t really fancy like a lot of invitations I’ve seen.. then again I spent under 200 dollars for 100 invitations, so maybe it’s relative to what you pick out. I was happy with the ease, service and turnaround time.

I had not-even-shoulder-length hair that I tried desperately to grow even to that length before my wedding so that I could have a nice style. A month before my wedding I met with Erin to get a trim because it was driving me nuts, and we talked briefly about a style for the wedding day. She showed me a few things we could try to do and I had shown her a photo of a hairstyle I saw that looked nice, and she sort of pinned my hair a couple places to imitate the look. She said it wasn’t necessary to get a trial done which was a relief and saved me money and time anyway. The haircut was great in the meantime. On the wedding day she arrived on time early in the morning at my apartment and did my hair, two bridesmaids and the mother of the groom. The bridesmaids were pretty happy with their styles, but I don’t know that they thought they were the best look they’ve ever had. In photos they looked great and I thought they were very nice, but to be honest it was my look that was most important to me. I was so impressed with my style, I have never seen an updo on my that looked so good. She made my tiny amount of hair look amazing! It looked like I had so much hair! She twisted romantic curls into the back and gave me height in the front. It stayed put all night (so did everyone’s) and didn’t hurt at all.. I was even able to get the veil in and out of the underside of the hair do (I didn’t want to cover it because it looked so good). I was sad to have to take out all the pins and let it back down. The groom’s mother wanted really big hair and was disappointed that Erin wouldn’t style it exactly as she wanted, but I thought her hair looked better than I’ve ever seen, so once again, maybe not everyone loves their look but if you are concerned you could meet with her ahead of time for a haircut or something.

Judy was very kind and worked with us at last minute. We picked a bridal bouquet from a booklet and asked her to design a number of corsages, boutonnières and bridesmaid bouquets for us. We also wanted centerpieces but couldn’t afford to spend much per table, so we provided her with tall cylinder vases and colored beads, and she put a single orchid in each glass and arranged the glass beads and also rose petals around the table with candles we provided. She did this for a decent price, however I don’t really feel we got a good deal on the flowers. We spent a lot more money than intended, and the bouquets were not large when they arrived. I believe we paid something like $75 per bridesmaid bouquet which were hand tied (but not calla lilies or anything super fancy) and they were tiny. The other problem was that although the flowers were pretty, they bruised and fell apart within a few hours. I realize our wedding was in the summer on a warm day but this really was upsetting, that my groom’s boutonnière was crumbling into pieces during our first dance, and all the corsages looked 5 days old by the end of the night and had to be thrown out. My bouquet survived best of everyone’s, but I wasn’t wearing it. I thought going through the florist would be best but honestly I’ve gotten better condition flowers for prom that lasted all night and they were cheaper, too!

Heart-shaped (wine) bottle toppers. Inexpensive, decent/good quality, arrived quickly and easy to order. I received 120 wine bottle toppers from efavormart.com at a price of about 1.35 per item, which was much cheaper than I found anywhere else for wine toppers. The guests loved them, and they came wrapped in a gift/display box with a silver ribbon tied around each.