Here's how we found each of our vendors and how to contact them, as well as MHO of what we paid for.
Location & Food
Web resource: Here Comes The Guide
Location: The Depot Hotel Restaurant
Review: FANTASTIC. The location manager was amazing, knew exactly what she was doing and made us all feel comfortable and confident. The restaurant itself is very beautiful, very little need for extra decor. The food was delicious and they had something for everyone, even vegetarians and kosher-style eaters.
Photographer
Web: The Knot
Photo: A Wedding Portfolio
Review: FANTASTIC. He is a friendly and talented photographer. Gave us a discount because our wedding was on a Sunday. Great photos, great album options, all around a great experience. We chose him because he was a photojournalist for many years and his website had easily twice or three times as many good quality candid photographs as other wedding photographers.
Gown
Web: The Knot & Wedding Channel for design ideas
Tailor: Recommendation of friend/family for dressmaker
Review: GREAT. She is just one woman in Walnut Creek, feel free to ask me for her contact information.
Hair/Make-Up
Recommendation of location manager
Salon: JAC Hair Gallery
Review: GREAT. Friendly, knowledgeable, did exactly what I asked. David is the best!
Centerpieces
Potted petunias, an idea my mom had
Nursery: Orinda Nursery
Review: FANTASTIC, very knowledgeable.
Florist
Recommendation of location manager
Florist: Sonoma Florist
Review: Would not recommend. The bouquet was not 'sealed' at the bottom, which was promised. The flower for my hair was supposed to be simple - a flower and 2 leaves. It was also supposed to be attached to a specific hair clip that I gave to them to use. It was a flower, 5 leaves, 2 fern fronds, and a bow on a different clip. My stylist had to snip off several components so that it didn't appear that I had a houseplant on my head. The flower girl baskets were fine and reasonably priced. I had requested that they were dropped off at the ceremony location: they insisted on leaving the baskets with me several times. I had to convince them to drop them off at the location, as we had PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED THREE TIMES.
Sound Equipment
Google
Sound: Event Rental Services, (707) 758-1094
Review: Pretty good. They delivered the equipment and picked it up for the set price. The set-up was easy and the sound worked great, no fuzz or problems. He told us he would bring a microphone, despite the fact that I said we wouldn't need it. We realized it would be useful for announcements, but the day of there was no microphone. It was okay, though, ultimately we didn't need it (like we had originally thought).
Rings
Shopping around NYC's Diamond District
Jeweler: Ralph PJ Diamonds
Review: Very good. Made a mistake on the engraving, but fixed it free of charge and in plenty of time, were apologetic about it.
Favors
Small silver bells
Store: The Wedding Channel
Review: Great, but had to clip a silly poem off of each one... no accounting for personal taste though, maybe some people think the poem is beautiful.
Hotel Rooms
Recommendation of location manager
Review: Best bang for your buck in the area, one of the only hotels that doesn't require more than one night stay (does charge extra for a single night, however). The hotel staff were not very friendly and sort of suspicious and made some mistakes, but overall I would recommend.
Honeymoon Suite
Trip Advisor/Recommendation of location manager
The Cooperage Inn (B&B)
Beautiful! Friendly staff, good food, well-stocked kitchen area. I took my morning-of-wedding pictures here and it was really lovely.
Wedding Website
Googling around
Site: Momentville
Host: Joker
DJ
None: asked friend to operate my Ipod and choose playlists at certain times
Review: Great Job!
Officiant
Friend/Family
Videographer
Friend/Family
Invitations
Friend/Family
SITES DEDICATED TO THE WHOLE PROCESS
-design my timeline and my budget.
-search for my gown, as well as for the bridesmaids and for the flower girls.
-design my timeline and my budget.
-search for attire
-peruse and purchase wedding favors
-link all of my registries to one site.
Used to find location in the bay area, also useful for some surrounding regions/states.
-great pictures of locations
-estimations of cost at particular locations
-requesting a quote online doesn't work, but just call
-registry (duh)
-registry star rewards are great if you have a macy's credit card. Sign up as soon as you start your registry, and all of your personal Macys purchases as well as all of your gifts from your registry earn you $$$ after your wedding. Personally, I earned about $100 to use at Macys anytime in the next few months (not furniture, not fragrances, but most other things).
-thank you card manager keeps track of names, items given, and date
-registry completion is 10% off, but I actually got 20% off for a specific time period for most items (again, a few restrictions)
-registry, good for asking for things that aren't china or bedding. We also were able to get some specialty items that aren't sold at either of our other stores.
-nonconventional tips for speeches, rehearsal dinner, etc
-thank you list keeps track of names, address, items purchased, and date
-registry (duh)
-does not keep track of givers, but does maintain whether items have been fulfilled
-registry completion is 10% off
-did not use this feature, but has several tools: seat planner, budget planner, very comprehensive wedding planning tools. Never tried them so can't attest to how user-friendly they are
