When I look back at my wedding and all the planning that went into it, the biggest mistake I made was getting a wedding planner…at least this one. Kitty will make a great first impression on you – that’s about the only thing she does well. She claims to have 40 years of experience, but come to find out she only recently received some planning training. She did an ok job in the beginning, but as the date got closer, as we made more monthly payments to her, and as the planning started to get hectic, she became very lazy. Things she had agreed to do for us were now thrown on our plate, and we felt more disorganized as the wedding day neared.

She constantly came up with excuses, did not communicate clearly and often lost important information. She complained about planning our wedding, was disgruntled about doing anything out of the ordinary, and was extremely grumpy on our wedding day. She was horrible at following through with our vendors and if it weren’t for my family and friends, I wouldn’t have trusted my wedding day to be the dream it was. We felt more worn out with the planning than if we had done everything ourselves! Kitty is not someone I would recommend to hire as your wedding planner. To put it nicely, stay away!

After being convinced by my mom that we should go for a videographer for our wedding despite our budget, I am very pleased with the results. The initial meeting was very pleasant – he has a nice home office set up in a quiet area of town, where he can show you samples of the weddings he’s filmed. Very professional and easy to work with.

He and our photographer worked very well together – as a team creating the perfect combination of memories of our wedding. The DVD he created was absolutely amazing! He was able to capture all the precious moments, and even though the wind on the beach was somewhat noisy, we could hear our vows. The music, the color and the details all came out beautifully. What’s more important, we were able to share our wedding day with my grandparents, who were physically unable to attend. We will be able to treasure this DVD forever…sometimes moms do know what they are doing!

When we found out the location we originally had in mind was booked for our wedding day, we had to sigh and move on. We came across Heritage Park on accident – while looking for the tourist information booth, we saw this area of beautiful, old Victorian homes. Since we knew we wanted a vintage/antique themed wedding, we were curious as to what this place was. Our first impression of Heritage Park was that it was perfect!

The character resonates throughout the 12 Victorian homes and the historic scenery is stunning. There is a rose garden, central square patio, and the terrace area near the Galvan House, we were held the actual reception. The Galvan House is the perfect 100-year old home to host the cake cutting, to invite your guests in for cool air, gather gifts and keep the guest book while the main reception is being held on the terrace. The full kitchen there also makes things easier for your caterers.

The terrace is a gated, paved patio area with a veranda and restrooms. The area is quite large – we had 75 people and there was more than enough room with the table, food buffet, bar, DJ & dance floor. There are plenty of outlets too, for your decorators to work their magic. The mature trees and natural historic beauty of the area makes for a charming back-in-time reception area that your guests will love.

The price was right for this perfect reception place. There was a reasonable per hour rate, plus a deposit which we received back in full promptly after the wedding.

We met Ron through our wedding planner. Ron is an all around great photographer. We used him for our engagement photos, my bridal portraits and for our wedding. He takes beautiful photos, is very detail oriented and is willing to go the extra mile to get that gorgeous must-capture shot. Ron’s prices are generally affordable; of course, if there’s one corner I would recommend not cutting on your wedding day, it’d be your photographer!

Our engagement photos are stunning – he was able to capture the special moods we were going for when we went to the different locations. He portrayed the vintage look in our photos at the Victorian home park (where we had our reception) and the fun, coastal look when we were on the beach. I was just as happy with the bridal portraits Ron took. Again, different locations and different moods. He was very helpful in creating poses and adjusting the lighting.

On our wedding day, Ron was there from the time we were all getting ready to the end when we waved goodbye from the limo. At our ceremony on the beach, he didn’t mind the wind and laid down completely in the sand to capture some unique shots! The wedding package we bought included a wedding album – I never thought it would be as gorgeous as it is. It’s a thick, high-quality book with a photographic and artistic timeline of our wedding; customized to go with our theme and colors.

While Ron is a wonderful photographer, he is not always the quickest to deliver results. It took many months before we received our wedding album and the photos we had ordered. Good things are worth the wait though!

After having no luck searching for a tuxedo to rent or buy that wasn’t black or white, we got frustrated enough to consider suit options for my husband. This didn’t thrill us much, since we were on a budget and things weren’t promising when we looked at the price tags on the suits available. We received an ad in the mail advertising a huge sale at the Jos. A Banks nearby.

We ended up finding him the perfect suit there the very next day! Gorgeous color, very well made, free tailoring and a great price. The suit was originally $500, but the sale price was $199! This is more than a tuxedo rental, but he looked so handsome on our wedding day and he now owns a nice suit. The staff was very friendly and would be willing to order your correct size if the one you needed was not in stock.

Having a vintage/antique wedding makes it a little more difficult to find the perfect wedding invitations. Since we were on a budget, many of the gorgeous, detailed, old-look invitations were just not on our list of choices. We searched many sites and went to many bridal shows until we came across “the” invitations on The American Wedding website. There are many beautiful ones available – and most come with font, color and text placement options. Most often, their invitations will come with everything you need – invitations, envelopes, response cards/envelopes, tissue paper and even thank you cards. They are organized into easy-to-search categories, and the website offers wording samples and invitation etiquette.

After we placed our order, American Wedding offered shipment tracking; the invitations arrived fast with everything printed beautifully and correctly. We were thrilled with our invitations and we received many compliments on their vintage look!

One tip for this website – we found our perfect invitations in the clearance section! Don’t forget to browse that area on the website. They have many elegant ones available and perhaps you can find some at an affordable price that fits your budget.

After looking at many nearby hotels and getting frustrated with unfriendly staff, we came across the Best Western in Corpus. Not only was the location perfect – right near our beach and reception area – but the price was right. We negotiated a great rate for our guests ($99/night) and the staff was very accommodating to meet our needs. They had a reasonable minimum number of rooms that you needed to block off and they did not charge you if all the rooms were not booked by your wedding day.

The rooms were nothing like the Omni hotels nearby, but they were clean, fairly large, quiet and had great ocean views. Our guests enjoyed the short walk to the beach, the free breakfast and the covered parking. I will definitely stay there again when we return to our favorite beach spot in Corpus.

Using Razzle Dazzle to create our flowers & decorations turned out to be a wonderful choice. By the end of the first meeting with Aida, I knew our wedding would be beautifully decorated. She is calm, creative and open to your ideas. There are almost too many options at Razzle Dazzle, but Aida will be there to help you pick out exactly what you need, even if you don’t know what you want!

Not only did she do my bouquet for my wedding day, she created a gorgeous one for my bridal portraits. This was a choice worth the extra cost – you get to see what your real bouquet will look like and the real flowers really do look better in the photographs.

My wedding bouquet was just perfect – fresh flowers, vibrant colors and the right mix of all the flowers I’d dreamed of. My bridesmaids’ bouquets also came out beautifully.

Razzle Dazzle is also a company you can trust – the staff and Aida herself were there before the scheduled time and decorated in a timely and delicate manner. Attention to detail, flower freshness and friendly service are their specialties. You can feel confident that your wedding will look amazing with Razzle Dazzle!

Our wedding on McGee Beach was just perfect. The city was easy to deal with in order to get permission to hold the ceremony and they keep their beaches really clean. The price for holding the ceremony was only $55, so it was an affordable location. The spectators were very polite – they kindly let us have our space but added a unique audience in the distance for our wedding. The sand was perfect for walking barefoot down the “aisle”, and the noise from the waves provided a peaceful soundtrack. It was a windy day, but our guests didn’t seem to mind. Parking was easily accessible and available just across the street (there was even a pedestrian crossing). Just the perfect, clean and quiet beach for a wedding ceremony!

After seeing that there weren’t many affordable options for Mexican-style catering in the Corpus Christi area, we decided to go with Salina’s. While the staff and owners were pleasant and the price per person was very affordable, the results on the wedding day were not quite what we were expecting. The food was nothing outstanding and they forgot to bring fajitas, which were a main dish we had ordered and paid for! We were upset that there might not be enough food or options for our guests. The food didn’t stay warm long enough for seconds, and food ran out quickly. The rice and beans were just above horrible and the enchiladas sufficed.

The staff that were supposed to help cut up the cake and serve it to our guests did not show up either. We had to find volunteers to cut up our cake, and then guests had to scramble to get a piece of our delicious cake! The only thing notable about Salina’s was that their prices were decent.