The place was very lovely. There are two connected floors (one is a few steps higher than the other). We're ballroom dancers, so we decided to seat all 118 guests (plus the two of us) on the upper floor, with the lower floor reserved for the band and dancing. The staff was wonderful, and there are private rooms and bathrooms for the wedding party. There is also a lovely veranda and garden in the back, which is really nice for guests to relax at.

They were easy to work with in planning the wedding, with everything spells out ahead of time. They're run by Whitehouse Caterers, and I'm not sure if you can pick your own caterer or not.

The caterers were very nice to work with. We planning the Baltimore wedding from Boston, and they were very accommodating with our visiting/travel schedule. They let us take food sample home for example. The terms were spelled out very clearly. The food was very good, although I think the samples were a bit better--I'm not sure if that was just my high expectations though.

We had a very nice sit-down dinner with two entrees per person, along with appetizers and such. Alcohol was separate (they work with a vendor that delivers and picks up from the venue, and allows us to return any unopened bottles). The $75 price includes sodas, tax, and tip.

John and Roberta at Makaira by the Sea were absolutely wonderful. The cottage we rented was wonderful and had beautiful views of the ocean. They were located on a cliff so it was a ~2 min walk down the stone steps and across the street to the beach/ocean, which was relatively private (no one else was on the beach but you can see other people on other beaches).

Some of the best coral reefs were a 50-100 feet swim away! It's perfect for snorkeling.

The best part -- the food there was absolutely wonderful -- the best on the island (we tried multiple places, and eventually just ate at Makaira all the time). We paid $2600 for 2 weeks there, not counting the food. I think having about 10 breakfasts and 10 dinners there cost another $1000, but I forget if that was US dollars or Fiji dollars.

John is a master fisherman (they both are, but he's still active), and you'll get to enjoy the *very* *very* best sashimi you'll ever have.

Hunan Manor is probably the only descent Chinese restaurant in the Baltimore area. We were seated in a nice private room with 3 large round tables (seating ~11 each). The food was excellent and the service impeccable. Their Peking duck was very good (I'm really picky about that), and they had these cool swans made from salt. We had a very good set menu, and all the guests really loved the food. Many of my wife's family have never or rarely had Chinese food before, and they were all very impressed. The $45/person figure includes alcohol, tax, and tip.

They were wonderful! We got a 3-layer chocolate raspberry and white cake with raspberry. It was one of the two best-tasting cakes places we tried. The $550 was for a 3 layer cake that fed 100 people and a matching sheet cake that fed 75 people. Their price was much better than the other really good baker. The best part: on your one year anniversary they bake you a fresh mini-cake! No more trying to figure out if that thing in your freezer is edible or not.

We hired a violinist and a pianist for our wedding (the vocalist was separate). They were excellent and very professional. They are members of the Baltimore Opera Company and plays with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. They are also much less expensive than other musicians of their caliber. My wife is a trained soprano and was *very* picky about the musicians. They passed with flying colors. Tammy (the violinist) organized the ensemble for us, and was very helpful throughout.

We ordered 100 invitations from them. Their web interface was intuitive. They were very responsive via email. We arranged for $10 to put a piece of custom artwork (an image of the Chinese "double happiness" symbol) on our invitation. The quality of the invitations was excellent. The envelopes were very nice. The invitation itself (along with the reception card and response card) were not as heavy as I would have liked, but that may have just been the z-fold type invitation that I ordered. Overall an excellent vendor.

We hired a 5 piece band with a vocalist. They were absolutely wonderful, very "old time" big band. Gene was great to work with. All of their music sounded really great, and it made our wedding a very classy affair. They played lots of beautiful songs.

Disclaimer: we received a very generous discount, because they were close friends with some of the members of my wife's family. I think they would normally be about ~$2000-$3000 depending on the pieces that you want.

This florist was wonderful! They are floral designers -- we gave them a budget and a very rough idea of what we wanted, and they designed something beautiful. They really worked with us to create the look that we wanted. Many other florists we talked to required that we needed to know *exactly* the types of flowers we wanted, and then gave us a price on what we said. Like most people though, we're not that familiar with flowers and how much they cost. Flowers and Fancies takes the look that we wanted with how much we wanted to spend and came up with something beautiful. Our flowers looked a lot more expensive than what we paid for (decorating the church, reception, and all attendant's flowers).

We had two photographers who were both very nice. The head photographer, Rachel Lea-Johnson, was *extremely* good -- not only did she take beautiful pictures, but you didn't really notice her at all. As such, everyone was very relaxed around her and she was able to take some very natural candids. She had a great knack for helping my bride relax during the many photos of the day. The associate photographer, Glenn Davies, also took nice photos, but wasn't as natural -- he was more noticable.

Ordering was nice -- I met with a sales person at a local Starbucks where she talked me through the different options and showed me samples of the albums, but the followup is via email and phone with someone at a national office -- there isn't any human contact after the initial sale. The contact person also changed twice, although with no loss of service and each contact person was very nice and professional. Their matching process involves picking out pictures that you like.

We were able to speak with the main photographer over the phone a few weeks before the wedding. We were somewhat concerned that we couldn't meet her before the wedding, but it worked out okay.

The pictures turned out great and the whole process is very smooth.