Phila's reviews

Charles (hair) and Atiya (make-up) were AMAZING. i brought a picture of a style i wanted, and Charles recreated it perfectly, and added some orchids that i brought. Atiya really listened when i told her i wanted the make-up to be natural and on the light side--i don't normally wear make up, but it felt light and natural all day long.

Franca at La Piu Bella is an old-school tailor who really made beautiful alterations. I had the length & train of my gown shortened, and had it taken in a little bit under the shoulders.
1611 E Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19148

I wanted just calla lilies and baby's breath for my bouquet and boutionnieres. these came 2 days before the wedding (you can choose your delivery date), giving us ample time to "revive" the flowers and arrange them. they were fresh and beautiful the wedding day, and b/c the design was rather simple, pretty easy to put together. my friend & i made my bouquet + 12 boutionnieres in 3 hours.

Our reception site was BYO, and we had to supply our own wine glasses. After researching the costs of renting wine glasses, we decided to just buy the SVALKA red wine glasses from Ikea ($5 for 6-pack). After the reception, we gave away several dozen to friends, and now we have a huge supply for any future parties.

We had another celebratory dinner here--for 12 people. the waitstaff sings opera, which was a special addition to our evening.

225 S 18TH ST, philadelphia (rittenhouse square). we had a big table of 15 ppl. we "ordered" the banquet menu, which is a 3-course prix fixe menu with 4 entree options. I added $10 extra to price per person for alcohol. with so many BYOs in philadelphia, we wanted to find a BYO restaurant for our rehearsal dinner. (i only took 1 star off b/c it's not byo, and the alcohol bill was larger than our original budget allowed). but this place was great and everyone liked their meals.

(i got 2 boxes--of 50 invites each--at $35 per box). Target has a line of Gartner Studio letterpress-blank invites--with the design letterpressed into the paper. I wanted to make my own invites b/c i wanted bilingual invites (chinese), but didn't find any that i really liked. this gave me the flexibility of creating my own PDF with asian characters. the invites came out beautifully!

My husband & i both wanted titanium wedding rings, which is harder than platinum but much much chepaer. unfortunately, we didn't find a wide selection at jewelry stores. this website has a large selection, and they will customize a ring to your liking (which is what i did). my husband got a rather simple, bevelled-edge band, and i got one with a small light-blue sapphire (to represent my husband's birthstone).

Brown Betty was already one of our favorite cupcake places, and I was so excited that we could get our wedding cake from them too. The staff was nice and helpful, and they delivered the cake with no problems.