I loved Capitol Catering. They have top notch food, service and presentation but are not as expensive as the other top few caterers in Washington. They worked within my budget to get me exactly what I wanted. Cheryl Mazo is wonderful - she is so well organized and has a lot of experience. Our guests raved about the food and our plates, and the decor, looked beatiful. Highly recommend.

Although providing bus transportation to all of your guests is an expensive proposition, I found Sunny's to have the best rates with the largest fleet of buses. Lucy Diefenbach is terrific to deal with - she was very responsive. Everything was on time the day of the wedding and I have no complaints other than that the price is still high for buses in DC!

I decided to go with Nicole Miller in Tyson's because my bridesmaids loved one of their dresses, which I have to say was beautiful on all of them. The problem started when they asked my bridesmaids to take their measurements (or come into the store and do it) and that they would then pick the dress size for each bridesmaid based on their measurements. They overestimated for every dress, including telling one petite friend who is 5'1" that she needed a size 10 dress. All of my bridesmaids rounded down by at least a size and many of the dresses were still too big. I am convinced that NM does this so that you will go to them for alterations. The first woman that helped us explained that we could exchange any of the dresses in the store if they came in and were much too big, but when we tried to do that, I was met with extreme resistence and a serious attitude by one of their managers. One of the women, Stephanie, was great to deal with and set everything straight, but it was so difficult to deal with their manager that I would not recommend the store for bridesmaid dresses. Plus, although they have great dresses, they are extremely expensive.

Julie McKillip of Your Perfect Day Events was an absolute steal. For half the price of many other day of coordinators, she can't be beat. Even thought I only paid for "day-of" coordination, she was working with me the month before the wedding to confirm vendors, help me plan, and answer any questions I had. She was constatntly in touch and really set my mind at ease. The day went off without a hitch, so I would definitely recommend Julie.

Baked and Wired has the best cupcakes in the DC area. I tasted all of the cupcake shops downtown and they had the mositest cake and best frosting. We had rave reviews at the wedding about the cupcakes and the store was so easy to deal with. Highly Recommend!

I would definitely recommend Renee. She is so easy going and put everyone at ease. She brought two assistants with her so we got so many great shots - she didn't miss anything. I barely noticed her or her assistants all day because they were very unobtrusive. The one drawback is that Renee does not pick the best shots and put them together in a slideshow, and she does not narrow down any of the photos that she takes, so you have a lot to look through at the end. I have yet to receive my albums from her but from what I have seen, they are very artistic.

I chose Barbara Von Elm from Growing Wild because two friends recommended her. They liked her because she was reasonably priced and, obviously, her flowers were beautiful. I found the first to be true - her prices were the best of any other company I talked to and she even came in under budget. My flowers did not live up to expectations, however. My bouquet and those for my briedesmaids, along with the groom's boutonniere, were a little tired looking. Although I really liked my centerpieces, some of the other arrangements at the reception were not what I had asked for. I found that Barbara could be disorganized and did not always record what I wanted after our various meetings. The thing that frustrated me the most was that she committed to deliver the boutonnieres to the church on the day of the wedding and then told me, the day of the wedding when she was dropping of my bouquets, that she was too busy. Luckily, my photographer took care of it for me, but that was disappointing.

I cannot say enough great things about Daryle (DJ D-Mac). He knew exactly what to play and went strong all night, from bossa nova and jazz at our cocktail hour, to standards during dinner, and then hip hop, funk, and rock for the rest of the night. He has an incredibly extesive collection of music and he spins only portions of songs, so the dance floor was packed all night. We met with him well in advance because I had a specific idea of the music I wanted, and he helped us plan out all the right tunes. Daryle is not a "wedding" DJ in that he spins at bars, etc. around DC, so there is nothing cheesy about him. Our guests (of all ages) raved about how incredible the music was. I would hire Daryle again in a heartbeat.

Rodney is the absolute best in the business. He did my hair and makeup and I loved it. It was exactly what I had asked for, and he did an even more impressive job on the day of than at the trial. He did airbrush makeup for me and my mom and our makeup looked flawless all night - I would highly recommend it. Three stylists from Chreky came to my house, which was great, but they charged $100 each for the convenience. Azi is terrific for eyebrows - I have received so many complements on her work. Finally, their bridal/event coordinator (Meghan) is so organized that she made life really easy for me. The steep price tag is the only thing that kept them from being a five star vendor.

Overall, I was very happy with Kleinfeld's. Their selection is unparalelled - I tried on many dresses at different boutiques and found them all here, so I could try them all on together and compare. My purchase was also hassle-free: I had a discount that I had forgotten to mention when I bought the dress and I called later and they took $500 off my bill without me even having to show them the coupon, no questions asked. The drawbacks: the sales associates can be pushy and the wait for fitting appointments are lengthy. But my dress was delivered early and I was very happy with the result, so I would definitely recommend purchasing a dress here.