We hired Oliv'r Twist to handle the bar for our wedding. It was a great deal because almost everything was included in one flat fee (the bartender, glassware, mixers, juices, napkins, etc.). The only thing we had to provide was the alcohol itself. We literally saved over $1000 by hiring them rather than purchasing the liquor through our caterer. Our bartender was fantastic and even lent a hand with breaking down the chairs after the ceremony. I took away one star only because the coordinator at the main office was kind of scatter brained (due to how busy they are) and never sent me an official contract in the mail like she was supposed to. They have a good reputation though so I didn't worry about it too much.

We stayed at the Old City House for two nights, and I got ready there along with all of my bridesmaids. We liked that it was within very short walking distance of the Government House and that it was cheaper than the Casa Monica. The room itself was also very nice, but we did have a few problems with them. It mainly had to do with their poor record keeping and miscommunication between their employees. We booked our room several months beforehand, but I had to call/email them back on several different occasions because they kept messing up the dates of our reservation. It was like they couldn't keep anything straight. Needless to say, it started to get annoying after a while because it wasted a lot of my time. Also, they charged us more for the room than the original quote they gave us (they seem to change their prices all the time depending on the "season", but they couldn't give a straight answer as to what dates were considered low and high season; it was very frustrating). I don't think we would stay there again.

Andy was recommended by our wedding site manager, and he didn't disappoint. For the most part, he was very prompt with replying back to my questions and he did everything we asked him to. He's also reasonably priced. We didn't want a wild, crazy party so we just needed some good background music and someone to keep us on schedule with the introductions, toasts, etc. which he had no problem with. About a week or two before the wedding, he kind of dropped off the face of the earth so I wasn't sure if he had received our final paperwork. That made me a little nervous, but everything turned out great. He's a reliable guy, and he was probably just really busy considering it was the holiday season.

Defore's far exceeded my expectations. We first met them at a wedding show in St. Augustine and ended up booking them because their price was only a little higher than Publix, and they had many more flavors to choose from. The cake was absolutely gorgeous and tasted great too so we were 100% pleased. They even stuck around to help decorate the courtyard for the ceremony! (Obviously that wasn't in the contract so it was really generous of them to lend a hand). I took away one star only because the cake was slightly tilted but despite that, I would still highly recommend them. I think it was just a one time mistake, and it might have had something to do with the fact that our whole cake was covered with poured chocolate ganache which started to get soft from sitting around on the table for hours. Maybe that's what contributed to the tilting. It was just very slight though so it looks fine in the pictures.

A1A Aleworks is a popular restaurant in St. Augustine and now I understand why. We never did a tasting with them ahead of time; we just booked based on reputation and price. But our guests loved the food, and we thought it was exceptional for a buffet (bacon wrapped scallops, mini kobe beef burgers, chicken mojito, pork loin with brandy cream sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, etc.). Not only that, but their staff was incredibly helpful. They do weddings at the Government House all the time so they were already familiar with everything there. I couldn't believe how quickly they cleaned everything up at the end of the night. They were just a great value- top notch food for a relatively low price. The only downside is that we had to rent the linens, dishes, and glasses through a separate rental company. On the upside though, they didn't require us to purchase any of their alcohol packages so we hired our own bartender and brought in our own alcohol which saved us a bundle!

We decided to hire Andy Taylor Rental because they were recommended to us by several people we talked to. In general, good rental companies are hard to come by in this area and Andy seemed to be the lesser of two evils (there was only one other company we considered, and we heard awful things about them). Overall they were okay, but they initially put a bad taste in our mouth at the consultation. Amy (the coordinator) had already done many weddings at our venue so she was very opinionated as far as how things should be set up. When we mentioned that we had other ideas and didn't want to do things her way, she got a slight attitude with us which caused me to get upset. That was only a few weeks before the big day so I was a bundle of nerves at that point and didn't need the extra stress. We thought their prices were fairly high, especially for the linens because we could have rented them cheaper elsewhere, but ultimately we decided it would just be easier to use them for all of our rentals since they were like a one-stop shop. It was more convenient so we sucked it up and paid the extra money. On the actual wedding day, things went pretty smoothly. They delivered everything on time, but they only brought 59 glasses instead of 60 (a relatively minor issue, but they still should have noticed).

Richard plays regularly at the Cafe Alcazar in St. Augustine, and his music is beautiful. For sound clips, you can visit his website here: http://www.musicby.com/kuncicky/. Originally I thought I wanted a harpist or string ensemble, but then we realized that a guitarist would be more appropriate for our setting (and it was also much easier on our budget). He was great to work with, and even though the church bells across the street wouldn't stop ringing, he didn't let that affect his playing at all.

We arranged a trolley to come to the Government House at about 5:30 when the ceremony was over to pick up our guests and take them around for a 30-40 minute sightseeing tour of the Christmas lights. We mostly did it because we needed to get them away while the caterer broke down the ceremony chairs in the courtyard and finished setting up. We didn't go because we decided to take some more pictures instead but when everyone came back, they were all raving about what a great idea it was. They all thoroughly enjoyed it so I'm really glad that we didn't cut it out of the budget. Luanne was the contact person, and she was great to work with. She was even willing to negotiate on the price a little. Apparently from what our guests told us, the driver was wonderful and told some really interesting stories along the way.

My husband and I are absolutely thrilled with how our photos turned out. Jaime Smith and her team did such an amazing job! Jaime showed up on the wedding day with a terrible case of the flu so we felt really bad, but she was a trooper and stuck it out for as long as she could. She brought along two other photographers as a back-up so we actually ended up with three photographers which is probably why we received so many pictures! They really went above and beyond, and the photos are breathtaking. We have received endless compliments. The only problem now is going to be narrowing down our favorites to put in an album. There are so many good ones, I have no idea how we're going to choose!

I first found out about Flower Works from someone on the Knot messageboards. Their prices were pretty reasonable, and the flowers were stunning!!!!! I almost cried when I saw them. The floral designer Becca did everything I asked for and then some. I was completely blown away, and I was so in love with my bouquet that I couldn't stop looking at it. She had hundreds of leftover rose petals so she put them all around the courtyard and reception room for us (even though we didn't pay for any) and also gave us a lot of extra flowers to put in vases.