We picked SCCA (formerly the Cleary International) for the spectacular view of the Detroit skyline and proximity to hotels since a number of our guests will be coming from out of town. Their chef is from the same region in Italy where my mom grew up and has an excellent reputation around Windsor and Essex County. They are also very flexible with my decorator and will allow her to go in early to set everything up.

I stood in a wedding that was photographed by John at Sooters. He was an absolute riot to have on the party bus with us and really put us at ease. When looking through the albums afterwards, I was quite impressed with the amount and quality of candid shots.

So I made an appointment with John moreso so my Fiance could meet him - I already knew his work was great. Prices were very affordable too considering the amount of pictures he takes (and we get to keep all of the proofs)!

I met Tammy from scrapPAPERsizzors at one of the bridal shows I attended. She helped me create my invitations to match our wedding colours exactly and had a number of samples, sizes, designs and colours to chose from. Her work is excellent and her prices are very reasonable considering the complexity of the invitations I chose. I will definitely recommend her to anyone looking to design their own custom invitations.

I met with Brenda from Milestone Wedding and Events (Windsor, ON) and was very impressed with her ideas, creativity and past work. She helped me chose items that coordinated with eachother and the "look" I wanted for my reception all while staying within my budget. Her prices were excellent as well. I was referred to her by a number of my friends who also hired her to decorate for their weddings. She has offered to do a demo of one table for my Fiance and I at our reception site which is a great way to preview what we are getting and make any changes.

We hired "Forget Me Not" in Windsor, ON to do all of our bouquets, boutonieres and flowers for the church. The sample they made for me of the colours and type of flowers were just perfect. Very reasonable prices as well.

We had little bottles of wine made by Aleksander Estate Winery with our picture on them to hand out at our reception as favours, instead of something people might not ever use. It was a hit!

We bought the flower girls dresses at Winners for a fraction of what the dresses would have cost elsewhere. They were off-white satin with gathered skirts. The only alteration we made was to the sash...we swapped it for one made from the same fabric as the bridesmaid dresses.

We went to a wedding last year where this band was playing and they were excellent. Two of the band members strolled the crowd during dinner with their accordians playing classic Italian songs and dances from the old country much to the delight of both the Italians and Polish crowd. The band had an excellent repertoire of current hits as well as ethnic songs like polkas, the tarantella, some latin beats and of course, some Italian songs as well. In addition to the vocals and accordians, they have a sax, trumpet, keyboard and a drummer as well (5 people total I believe). I have hired them to stroll and play at my upcoming wedding

The smaller of the two shows in Windsor, I attended this show to get ideas and prices on limousines, invitations and decorations. I didn't feel too crowded and was able to speak to all of the vendors immediately or within a reasonable amount of time. There were a few give-aways too...

I bought my wedding dress at It's Your Day Bridal in LaSalle, ON which was the very first place I went to try on dresses. They carried most of the designers I was interested in (Maggie Sottero, Pronovias, Paloma Blanca) so I brought a folder full of dresses I ripped out of magazines to help me in my search. The consultant who was working with me pulled a number of dresses off the rack that matched the look I wanted. The dress I bought was one of the ones I pulled from the magazine and was much cheaper than I budgeted for. I also bought my veil and hair clips to match the beading on my dress... Very happy with the whole experience