ordered my photo magnets from Angie at savethedateoriginals.com. I got 100 magnets for $50.00. The turned out great! Angie is great to work with and very efficient. She will work with your own designs or if you aren’t creative (like me), she’ll create some designs for you. It took about 3 weeks total from the first time I contacted her to receive the magnets. I highly recommend Angie.

We have been taking dance lessons since March and we absolutely love them. They choreographed our first dance and we wowed all of our guests. They were amazed at our dancing and enjoyed it much more than the typical “hug and rock”. We are continuing to take lessons after our wedding because we are having so much fun. I highly recommend promenade.

We received a 2 for 1 cruise deal from Afterhours formal wear through Capitol Cruises. I immediately called them and booked a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise on Carnival. The travel agent at Capitol Cruises was very nice and very helpful. Our cruise was fantastic! Our cruise went to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. The food was fantastic. We had filet mignon, lobster, steak, veal, beef Wellington just to name a few. You can order as much as you want, there were a few nights that DH ordered two dinners. We went to a show every night after dinner which was also a lot of fun. They also have a dance club, a piano bar, a sports bar, and a dance lounge. There are tons of activities going on every day or you can choose to do nothing and lounge around by the pool and sip cocktails. We went swimming with the dolphins in Puerto Vallarta which was incredible. It was such a great experience and worth every penny. We also went horse back riding on the beaches in Cabo which was also incredible. It was so beautiful and so much fun. The cruise (which includes room, food, shows, activities, etc) cost us $1100 total for 7 days. It cost us an additional $800 for excursions, alcohol, gambling, and souvenirs.

If you haven’t hired a DOC, make sure you do and if you’re having a Palm Springs wedding, you MUST hire Carolyn. She was AWESOME. I can’t say enough wonderful things about her. She took care of everything and made our day absolutely perfect. To save money, we did our own decorations and Carolyn took care of all the decorating. She made sure everything was set up for the ceremony and reception, she picked up my flowers, she was constantly checking on me to see if I needed anything, she made sure everything ran smoothly and on time. She coordinated everything with my vendors, helped with the timeline, and conducted the rehearsal the night before. She took care of every detail and helped make it the most wonderful day of our life. It truly allowed me to enjoy the day because not once did I ever feel stressed or nervous because I knew Carolyn was taking care of everything. I was able to just relax and enjoy every moment. I HIGHLY recommend Carolyn – desertweddings@aol.com.

riscilla was great. She did a fantastic job on everyone’s makeup. She also arrived right on time and finished everyone on time. I have a lot of sun damage on my face that she was able to cover up and even out my skin tone for the day. The make-up lasted all day and that night when I washed it off before bed, I literally had to scrub my face and eyes about 5 times before it all came off. She did a great job and I highly recommend her. priscillagutenberg@dc.rr.com or (760) 578-7355.

Kristy was great. She did hair for me, my bridesmaids, my mom and MIL, and my flower girls. Kristy arrived on time and finished everyone’s hair with time to spare. She did a great job. Everyone was so happy with how there hair turned out. I highly recommend Kristy. bridalhairartist@aol.com or 714-322-7433 (don’t be fooled by her “714” area code. She used to live in Huntington Beach and never changed her cell phone number. She now lives in Palm Springs).

I have heard tons of horror stories about David’s Bridal but I have nothing but great things to say about them. I initially went to the Corona store and purchased my dress. It was such a great experience. The sales girl was very helpful and we had a lot of fun. We went to the Redlands store to purchase the bridesmaid dresses and have our dresses altered. We had a similar experience here. The sales people were helpful and we had a lot of fun. We had to order the bridesmaid dresses and were told it would take about 6 weeks. I received a call 2 weeks later that they had already arrived. The alterations lady was very helpful and did a great job. Every time I went there we had a great experience.

This was another place that I heard horrible things about but we didn’t have any problems. We initially went in to the Corona store to place our order and for my DH fitting. We chose Afterhours because they can match the tux colors to the bridesmaid dresses from David’s Bridal and because they gave us a 2 for 1 cruise deal (see honeymoon review). Several months after we placed the order at the Corona store, we decided to transfer the order to the Redlands store because it was closer to my parents’ house. They transferred the order with no problems. The only problem we had was when we went in to pick up the tuxes two days before the wedding, they had ordered the wrong color ties for my dad and FIL and my FIL’s jacket was one size too small. The corrected it and we picked up the ties and jacket the next day. Other than that, everything was exactly what we wanted and had no problems.

We purchase my engagement ring and our wedding bands at Robbins Bros. We had a great experience there. The sales rep was extremely nice and not at all pushy. It was a very fun experience to get to select your diamond separate from the setting and see it under the microscope. They also have a terrific warranty. We are very happy with our purchases and would highly recommend them.

Shane was FANTASTIC! We hired California DJ after we received several recommendations. Through the planning process I worked with the owner, Michael, who was great. He was very efficient and thorough in getting every detail to make sure everything went well. Michael was originally supposed to be our DJ but a few weeks before our wedding he called me up and said he had to go out of town for a family emergency. He was due to fly back the day before our wedding but said he didn’t feel comfortable staying on as our DJ just in case something happened and he wasn’t able to get back in time. He said that if it was ok with us, he would like to have one of his other DJ’s take over. I really appreciated Michael keeping in contact with me and letting me know what happened to insure that there weren’t any problems or conflicts with our wedding. He said that Shane has worked for him for 19 years and that he knew he would do a great job at our wedding. He was right! Shane was awesome. He was the best DJ I have ever seen. There were so many guests at my wedding asking me where I found him because he was so great. We had so much fun and Shane really kept the party going. He did an amazing job and far exceeded our expectations. Everyone said how much fun they had and that he truly was the best DJ. I highly recommend Shane and California DJ.