TomGirl's reviews

Andie is this amazing, talented woman w/a voracious appetite for life. Her enthusiasm and warmth are infectious, and my husband and I loved our engagement session w/her! We laughed a lot, and just had a great time getting to know each other. She's silly and kind of a renaissance woman who seems to know at least a little bit about everything.

Oh, and the kicker is that she takes great pictures. :) Even though it's been 4 months since our session, the photos make me smile every time I see them. They're sweet, silly, fun, happy and so telling of who we are as a couple and how talented Andie is at what she does.

Kim was the second shooter at my wedding, and I actually did a little happy dance when I found out a few days in advance. :)

She did an amazing job on all fronts--professionalism, picture taking and delivering an amazing final product. She was also very friendly and on any other occasion where I had less to think about, I'm pretty sure I would have embarrassed myself by gluing myself to her side. Nice people make me want to do things like that!

The photos she took were beautiful. Even after months of sporadic blog stalking and knowing how talented she is, I was still impressed when I saw the final product. It was such an all-around blessing to have her be a part of our team of vendors.

Foster was INCREDIBLY easy to work with. We'd seen his work firsthand at a friend's wedding, plus we heard other secondhand glowing reviews.

Foster knows his stuff. We set up a complimentary consultation w/him at our site, and he was full of suggestions ans answers to our many questions. He's pretty laidback, which at first made my Type-A self nervous, but I quickly realized that he seems so blase because he's so adept at what he's doing. He was really easygoing about making changes and revisions, and I think we had a couple more on-site meetings to finalize everything.

We had hanging lanterns in various shapes from some trees, some uplighting and wash lights. Despite what some would understandably consider impossible circumstances the morning of our rehearsal, Foster delivered.

When I got engaged, a friend pointed me in Sarah's direction. Upon seeing her work, I threw out my list of "possible photographers" because Sarah's work really set a new standard for what I wanted my wedding photos to be.

Sarah's a total pro. She showed up early to both our e-session and wedding, and at both she took BEAUTFIUL, AMAZING photos that have so much more to do w/her talent than it does w/how we actually look. The photos really reflect our personalities and who we are as a couple, and for that we love them.

At our e-session, Sarah miraculously made us comfortable in front of her camera, chatting w/us as if we were old friends and letting us be ourselves. She used the most unexpected backdrops, and when we got the pictures back we couldn't even identify all of the backgrounds but we loved how they came out. The girl knows what she's doing!

At the wedding, I had no worries about Sarah, and for good reason. Looking at the photos makes me laugh, and it also makes me cry. All the emotions of that day are packed into those wedding photos, and seeing it all captured through Sarah's lens is priceless. We don't just have focused "by the book" photos, we have beautiful, heartfelt photos that tell our story and have Sarah's special touch and style to them. THAT is why we hired her, THAT is exactly what we got and THAT is what makes us love our photos.

And another thing: not only is Sarah insanely talented and a pro, she's also just plain nice. I'll be honest--great photos aren't enough for me to give Sarah a 5-star review. She earned the 5th star for being an all-around nice person. :)

I found Sugar Fix through Yelp, and set up a tasting. Kristene was friendly, knowledgeable and very professional. I asked her a bunch of questions, and I really like that she didn't just say yes to all my requests but instead gave me her honest opinion about what would and wouldn't work.

She's super sweet, and I believe we actually had 2 tastings. Her cupcakes were so good, that I'd order a dozen at every meeting we had to share w/friends and family. They never lasted very long! I also appreciated the bulk discount she gave me for a large order, and she was very flexible w/adjusting quantities.

Most importantly, I didn't see or hear Kristene or her crew on the day of my wedding, but all I know is that when it came time for dessert there was a display of beautiful, yummy cupcakes that guests couldn't get enough of and are still raving about. In fact, the only problem was that we didn't order enough! Guests wanted to try one of each flavor, which we didn't anticipate but we can't blame them because they did look really good!

We ordered strawberry, cookies & cream and red velvet. Each flavor was amazing! The only reason that DH and I had any was because we ordered 2 of each flavor, separately, to have for dessert after the wedding, and Kristene even included a very thoughtful congratulations card.

Mmmm... I think I'm going to email an order now. I'd recommend Sugar Fix Desserts to anybody.

There is no question that Kelly and her girls are amazing at what they do! All of my BMs, my mom and my MIL all looked gorgeous. We're all Asian except I had one white BM and everybody looked great individually as well as collectively.

Kelly and her girls are also very professional and they do a brilliant job. I really appreciated that rates are posted online... no game playing and no wondering whether or not you're being charged on the same scale as everyone else. I'm so glad I chose them.

My only concern was that when my girls and I arrived at my venue, there were some pins that didn't hold very well and we had to push them back in throughout the day. Maybe it's the styles we chose? Maybe it's the texture of our hair? Not sure, but it wasn't a huge deal. I'd totally recommend Kelly and use her again for any of my future beauty needs.

Weighing the impact the photobooth had with the cost, it's clear that the Cheesy Photobooth we had was some of the best money we spent! More than anything else, people talk about the photobooth and more than a few friends who are planning weddings have asked for more info.

I particularly liked having a booth rather than a live photographer. I think having four walls around the guests made me them feel more comfortable, though the screen outside showing the shots that were taken is awesome! We had a variety of props from leftover Halloween costumes, and that was a lot of fun also.

The staff I emailed w/beforehand as well as the attendant that showed up the day of our wedding were professional, knowledgeable and laidback. My kind of people! All in all it was a great experience... and the guestbook is such a nice coffee table book to welcome guests to our home! Initially I thought I'd need to get my own guestbook, and I got so frustrated shopping for the right kind and style that I just gave up and figured I'd deal w/it after the wedding. Cheesy Photobooths fixed that dilemma for me, and the book is wonderful.

If there's any way to squeeze this into your budget, DO IT!

I was SO worried about choosing a rental company. I have friends who've been burned w/exorbitant shortage and damage charges without knowing if the charges were merited or not. Arcadia Party Rentals had fair prices, friendly service and a clean, presentable storefront. When we added space heaters the day before our wedding after our other rented items had been delivered, APR handled it w/ease and gave us a BIG break on the add'l delivery fee.

Their delivery guy called me the day before my wedding w/a couple of questions about my specific requests, and in talking to him I could tell he was very kind and knowledgeable about my venue and his job.

I got charged for NO shortages or damages, despite the fact that I know at least one glass got broken! They were very gracious.

*I rented dinnerware, silverware, glassware, tables, chairs, bars and heaters. I bought my linens since I found them cheaper than the rental price, and also because I was worried about shortages/damages. It would have been nice to have them all ironed and not had to deal w/selling them afterward, though I did save some money and make some back after the fact.

Matt is wonderful. He was out of town when we wanted to meet, so we arranged a phone interview and he totally won us over. He knew his music, he was friendly, he has a great voice, and he came highly recommended to me by a friend.

We met Matt in person a few months later at a walk through, which only confirmed to us that we'd made the right decision. He voluntarily attended our rehearsal to do an additional walk through just in case, and then he showed up bright and early the day of the wedding.

We couldn't have asked for more. I love that he charges a flat fee for unlimited time, too. We'd met previously w/another popular DJ who seemed to be in the business because it was easy money and he happened to be good at it--not because he loved it. Also, we kinda felt nickled and dimed by this other DJ! We didn't get any of that w/Matt. He even provided the screen for our slideshow and accommodated a rather complex venue setup w/three different locations on one site being used.

His assistant Brianne was also onhand to help, and she was a dream to work with, as well.

Reasonable prices, though the peace of mind that Mahtab gives to brides like me is priceless. I had to drive 1.5-2 hours each time I went for a fitting, but it was well worth it. I would have driven further and paid more for Mahtab's expertise.

She didn't just agree to my requests, she answered my questions honestly and offered her opinion. In the end, she replaced my dress' zipper, took in the sides, hemmed A LOT from all 3 layers of my dress, reattached the lace edging to the bottom of the skirt, created straps out of the hemmed material layers, created a ridiculously awesome bustle (I hated all the other bustles I'd seen on my dress twins!), and even dragged my dress to the fabric store w/her so she could find the perfect edging for the sleeves. She also did so many other small tasks to make the dress beautiful and to help me fall in love w/it all over again.

By my second fitting, I never got dress envy again. Mahtab rocks. Believe the hype.