shellan's reviews

We went for 3 weeks and traveled around Scotland then stopped over for 2 days in Iceland on the way back. We planned our own itinerary but it was the perfect first adventure as a married couple. We used frequent flyer miles to get as far as NY then flew Iceland air from JFK to Glasgow via Reykjavik. Our time in Reykjavik was too short but we did get to ride Icelandic ponies and visit the blue lagoon. The most outstanding and definitely worth noting, was our hotel in Reykjavik. It was called Room with a View and the price, location, and hospitality were exceptional. Almost made us wish we could have stayed longer than the 2 nights we were there.

We planned our own itinerary but it was the perfect first adventure as a married couple. We used frequent flyer miles to get as far as NY then flew Iceland air from JFK to Glasgow via Reykjavik. We went to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival (since my masters research was on Fringe Festivals and I was dying to see where it all started), then rented a car and headed North to St. Andrews (because my husband is an avid golfer and couldn’t have a trip to Scotland with out a chance to walk on the old course and play a links course), up to the highlands and Inverness then down through the Lake district back to Glasgow.

We stayed primarily at Bed and Breakfasts along the way. In the cities we made advanced reservations (especially during festival season!) and then in the smaller towns we would just drive around looking for vacant B&B signs then knock on the door. Overall it worked out well and we often got better rates this way than if we’d booked in advance. The only downfall was that one evening we drove through about 4 different towns looking for lodging, not realizing it was a Scottish National Holiday. We did have an excellent B&B in St. Andrews. It was an excellent location to be able to walk everywhere plus the food was pretty good. This was the Anlaw House.

I had something very specific in mind and wanted to steer clear of the generic invites as well as the expensive custom invites. It was a lot of work but I was very pleased with the outcome. Paper was from Central Print in Eugene, Oregon. It wasn’t what I had originally intended but after working with the printer we both decided that the ink would take better to the paper they had selected. I really wanted a nice water color image of lavender sprigs and asked a family friend who is an artist, Helen Brown of Sunriver, Oregon, if she minded providing me with a couple samples of her work. It ended up being perfect and she was nice enough to let me use her work at no charge. I printed the text and a small bumblebee image on an opaque overlay and tied it together with a small purple ribbon.

We hosted a pizza party for our rehearsal dinner. It was very casual and nothing fancy. The space was nice although I didn’t see much of the staff.

The hotel would hold a block of 10 rooms for us but were very unclear as to how our guests should reserve them. We ended up having to call and place reservations for our guests, put our credit card down and then hope our guests insisted on paying for their own rooms upon check in. It seemed the hotel staff rarely knew what was going on and we spent a ridiculous amount of time on hold. It was often easier to check their online reservation system periodically to see if any rooms had opened up rather than call their reservation desk. It all worked out in the end and it was great to have 2 days on the property with our out of town guests.

We stayed here for our wedding night. Our room was great and they were very accommodating.

We knew we would have many out of town guests so we wanted to bundle the ceremony and reception site onto one property. We also wanted something uniquely Northwest since I’m a native Oregonian and my husband is an Oregon transplant (from Fresno but moved here right after high school as he always knew he wanted to be in the NW.) Our site search was relatively short as the Grand Lodge offered us everything we wanted, plus a hotel for our guest, full service w/ catering, bar and table/chair rentals and it was a great price. We wanted a wedding with about 100 people and the grove on the backside of the property was the perfect size to meet this capacity while keeping an intimate gathering. The downfall was that you had to walk through the reception site to get to the ceremony ruining any element of surprise. There were huge hedges protecting the grove however making it easy to make a spectacular entrance. And the hydrangeas were blooming and it was beautiful! The colors were perfect.

Hillary at the Grand Lodge helped me brainstorm the ideal set up. I was a little hesitant at first because the windows from the restaurant look directly out onto our reception site but that didn’t seem to be a problem. I also had access to the Compass Room although we didn’t utilize it. Only downfall was that if it had rained… our reception would have been cut short by 1-2 hours due to them closing the Compass room at 9 to turn it into a movie theatre. Luckily it didn’t rain! Other problem was that we didn’t have access to a cooler/fridge at the venue, which was a bit problematic since our bakery didn’t follow our contract… I’ll explain that in my review for them. The staff at the Grand Lodge was very organized and whipped our set up together exactly as we’d discussed.

We came here for my bridal shower. They were extremely accommodating to reserve us a table on a busy day (although an off time.) And the food is always amazing, not to mention the mimosas! My wedding had a Provincial theme so this restaurant was the perfect fit. It was an off weekend for most of my friends so my shower consisted primarily of my best friend, my mom, grandma and a few other relatives.

I knew I wanted a cupcake tower because I liked the idea of having multiple flavors for guests and I also loathed the thought of taking time out for traditional wedding tasks of cake cutting and bouquet tossing. I researched several cupcake places in Portland and was very pleased with the Bakery Bars product and options. I also loved her concept and wanted to support a new up and coming local business. The cupcakes were excellent and exactly what I wanted. We had chocolate, lemon and carrot cake cupcakes and our mini cake on top was a poppy seed w/ raspberry filling. The colors and fondant decorations she used were exactly what I wanted even down to the two little bumblebees she’s artistically crafted. Although… I was upset that our initial contract wasn’t followed and the cupcakes were delivered 4 hours earlier than agreed upon. This left my bridesmaids scrambling to set up the cupcake tower during the reception or else they would have melted away in the sun if set up earlier.

I knew the general flow of how I wanted my wedding to unfold and I as a performing artist myself I knew how music can guide those transitions and make things appear seamless. I was so baffled by the idea that I might have to balance multiple groups for ceremony and reception and really wanted to condense resources and utilize the best of one company. I was thrilled and honored to stumble upon Wendy Goodwin’s website with Effesenden. I was immediately drawn to her approach to business, music and customer service. I knew that I wanted 2 people for the ceremony, 3 for cocktail hour and then transition into a 5 piece band for the reception and I was amazed that I could provide her with my perfect play list and she could pull it together with no questions asked. We even provided her with songs she wasn’t familiar with and she learned them just for us! She laid out the timeline for our wedding, we discussed what instruments we wanted for ceremony, cocktail hour, reception, then she put together a band, confirmed my play list and provided some awesome music that kept my guests at the reception till the very end of the night! I would recommend her without a doubt to anyone. She is so sweet and personable and also extremely talented and dedicated.

I LOVE Katie! We were referred to her by another photographer and were thrilled by her personable touch and outstanding final products. She’s very good at what she does and even my husband (who has a background in photography and film) was comfortable enough to let her direct what images she felt would best portray our personalities and event. I’ve always really loved the sort of photojournalism approach to photo sessions that not only catch the mood of events but also tell the story. I looked at several photographer portfolios and every book Katie provided, as examples were stunning. Post event she really takes the time to select the best photos and include an online slide show, which was great to share with guests after event. My final photo album might be the coolest book I’ve ever seen. I can’t imagine money better spent.