We used the Skeffington's on the west side of town. Rick is the manager and he added a personal touch to our experience. First of all he had remembered my fiance from when my fiance was in a year earlier to get fitted for a tux that he was renting for his sister's wedding. He also called to update us on who had and hadn't ordered their tuxes yet so that we could keep on top of our groomsmen! It was great. They sent a thank you note for the business which was another personal touch that was very thoughful. They also were doing a deal at the time that we purchased ours, and I'm not sure if it's all the time or not, but either the groom can get his tux for free or they can get a free suit. This is great if someone doesn't have a suit and what a perfect way to purchase one than from someone who is going to measure you and make sure that you get the correct size. Such a good idea.

We had our ceremony and reception at Receptions Eastgate. The staff there were so helpful. We went to the tasting about a month before the wedding (they have tastings at different times so you could go to an earlier one if you wanted, we chose to do one closer to our date). We were able to view the room multiple times to make sure all of our needs would be met, and they offered the dance floor for our practice of our dance lessons if need be. The bar tenders were great and the captain of our room took care of everyone! My mother walks with a cane and the captain was always right there if she needed anything...which goes to show the level of thought that they put into their service. The food was fantastic and the hand carved meat station was a hit. That was the 2nd wedding we had there that year (my sister got married in May) and we had never heard so many compliments on the food at weddings as we did for the two that were held at the Receptions Eastgate.

We had the best experience with Trio restaurant in Kenwood. My mother in law has had many company Christmas parties there and they have always been accomodating. We decided on Trio after we saw the banquet menu. There were an array of choices in each category (appetizer, salad, entree, dessert). We had about 30 people at our rehearsal dinner and we fit very nicely in their back room that is sectioned off for parties. The staff was very accommodating because we had to also have the actual rehearsal there as well since we were unable to use the wedding location for the rehearsal. We had a specific person we could contact if we had questions before the dinner and everything went off without a hitch. Another cool thing is that they have two TV's on each end of the room and they were able to hook up a lap top and run a slideshow of our lives that we had made throughout the entire dinner. It made the night!

We were on a budget and one thing that helped us cut costs was doing our own invitations. Michael's craft store has a great selection of "do it yourself" invitations. We got so many compliments! They also typically have matching programs to go with it if you want to have them match. Another trick is to clip the 40% coupons from the newspaper (they usually print them every other week) and then buy when you have a coupon. We were able to buy all of our programs and invitations for a total of $100 by using the coupons and printing them ourselves. We had a friend who did the same thing and had them printed at Kinko's and she said that even having Kinko's print them it was still much, much cheaper than buying invitations from a vendor. If you are looking for a cost cutter Michael's Crafts for your invitations is a huge money saver!

Bud Walters...what can I say about Bud Walters other than he was fantastic! My fiance and I had never once taken dance lessons and nobody would have ever suspected it so we wanted it to be great. Bud and his assistant made us feel comfortable to go out in front of our friends and family and show off our dance lessons. We took 3 lessons at $85 an hour and you get the full hour! He also gave us options if we thought we needed more than 3 lessons. He was very flexible and very honest with our progress. I definitely recommend him!

The photographer we had from Beach Photography was great at the wedding. He made sure that we had every shot that we wanted and suggested shots that other brides and grooms had used. My only reason for not giving them higher than 3 stars is because of the service before and after the wedding. They were difficult to get a hold of, and before the wedding we didn't have a meeting with them to go over times and places, it was all done over the phone. The website for viewing your pictures after the wedding is a 3rd party website and is a bit difficult to use. A few people had to call me to ask me directions on how to get to the slide show. I will say that the website has been greatly improved since we originally signed the contract with them giving pictures of the albums and better descriptions.

Bella Luna is one of the best Italian restaurants around in Cincinnati. They have authentic Italian food with a unique and fun atmosphere. Their prices are reasonable for food and for bar drinks. We were treated like family and our party of 15 never went without anythging that we needed or wanted. The owners were right there to make sure everything was great....and it was. I highly recommend the restaurant for a bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, or an evening out. I would probably suggest, as with any restaurant, to make a reservation for a larger party.