Elegant Cheesecakes has been around for a long time. The owner, Susan Morgan, has designed cakes for Elton John...blahblahblah. Her cakes are by far more expensive than other cake designers. I do have to say that her cheesecakes were very good. The green tea cheesecake stood out to me the most and was delicious. However, she came with a big price tag...for me, $27 per slice. With the cost:taste:design ratio, I did not think that it was worth that price and decided to go with another cake designer. Also, she charges $35 for a tasting.

I Dream of Cake is one of the newer cake designers on the block. I am so glad that I chose Shinmin to design my sculpted cake!! She kindly accomodated me for a second tasting to confirm my flavors and I decided to go with the toasted almond and vanilla with caramel. Those are two very distinctive flavors that I do not think you can find anywhere else. Her artwork is the best that I have seen compared to other local cake designers. I fully trusted her to carry out my dream cake. My cake was a super hit at the wedding. Guests raved about its unique design and micro detailed elements that Shinmin was able to pull off without a flaw and it tasted so...good. The toasted almond was my favorite and I will definitely be ordering from Shinmin again. I have to say that the pricing noted on this board is inaccurate. For most designs, you can expect to pay more than $10 per slice. It was pricy, but worth every pretty penny.
Also, she pulled off a pretty last minute custom cake stand without extra charge.

Dan McCall has a great reputation for throwing over the top events. When I contacted them for catering, they were very responsive. That was a big plus. However, they do not provide tastings to their potential clients. They do invite you to events that they are catering so that you can see their setup and taste some of the food. Personally, I did not like this method because they cannot spend a fair amount of time with you since they are actively working on another's wedding and secondly because you do not get a real good flavor for their food. That is why I decided not to go with them. They may have a great reputation, but being that food was a top priority for me, I needed to sample it.

Monique Lhuilier dresses are gorgeous. I was originally looking to buy a Monique, but went with a Vera instead cause I wanted a gown that had more of a stream-lined look than a ballgown. FYI: You can buy them at Pearl's Place for 20% off retail.

Very nice wedding maps that you can print at home for a very reasonable price or ship out to a printer. Amanda, the owner, will custom design your map and is very flexible.

They rock!! My invitations turned out so.....awesome!! Of utmost high quality and service. I worked with Joe who was great! He implemented my ideas (for a small fee) and it came out beautifully. Another option would be to pay a designer or calligrapher ~$300 to design it and you can take your file to them to print. I recommend their Somerset paper because the press is deeper set. Unless you want colored paper, then the Arturo works. Good communication and turnaround time. The only negative is that if you would like liners, they do not offer that. But, you can get them online.