Wedding Vendors

Just because I want to record who all we used, with some ‘horror’ stories sprinkled in…

Engagement and Reception pics: Mackenzie Reeves Photography (formerly Pink Rose Photography)

https://maccoplin.wixsite.com/mreevesphoto

Wedding Ceremony: Three Trees Chapel in Littleton, CO

Elopement package — covered chapel decorations, cake (like the top tier that you’re supposed to eat on your first anniversary), ceremony, my bouquet, Corey’s boutonniere, first dance, and a super pro photographer all in one price. We also had them do my MOH’s bouquet and Corey’s best man’s boutonnière — it was a smidge extra, but in case y’all don’t know me very well, the less I had to worry about, the better! I didn’t get my music selections in until the night before, as Corey and I were on our way to the airport to pick up my MOH (yay procrastination), but Sherri made it happen all the same!

Reception venue: White House Mansion

Looked at a couple others, and while they were really pretty, WHM felt like walking in to a beloved grandparents house, not a wedding venue. It fit. Plus they decorated for Christmas. Julia cracks me up too — and she makes a point of hiring veterans! The Christmas decorations were absolutely gorgeous, so I just had to do table centerpieces and a guest book. Easy!

Cake: Ludgers Bavarian Cakery

Chocolate cake with chocolate chip filling for wedding cake
Red velvet cake with chocolate/vanilla swirl filling for groom’s cake
We also did a raspberry sauce
Their customer service was wonderful! Each time we went in, I got complimentary coffee, which was amazing. The cherry on top for me came after the reception. We had rented a cake stand and put down a deposit that we would get back upon return of said cake stand. This is one of those things I never would have thought about beforehand — I had booked everything far enough in advance that they had my maiden name on file. They sent me the check to return my deposit, and it was made out to my maiden name. However, Corey and I had already set up a joint bank account using my married name, so the check deposit failed. Oops!! I called Ludgers, and they sent me a new check made out to my married name — all they asked was that I tear up the old one, which was no problem. Excellent customer service.

Caterer: Goodies Catering

These guys took my super vague ideas and turned them into an actual menu, which is exactly the kind of relationship I want with a vendor. They also got really excited about the coffee/hot chocolate bar that we wanted! Not to mention they used to employ one of my co-op students before he came to work for us, which I find hilarious.

Here’s where the ‘horror’ story comes in. We had talked to Catering by Orr first, who came highly recommended. However, the meeting didn’t go well. The person who had taken my call booked our consultation on a day that they didn’t hold appointments normally, and the person who took the meeting forgot about it until one of their kitchen staff called. This shows a level of disorganization that I didn’t want to deal with. Additionally, when I mentioned my (very rough) budget, the person with whom we were chatting got very condescending, like I was woefully under-budgeting and didn’t know the market at all. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not part of the wedding industry, and I am inexperienced in wedding planning. However, I had done enough research and gotten recommended budgets from people that do know the industry, so I was pretty confident with my numbers. I didn’t appreciate the condescension, or the fact that she was 30 min late to meet with us. I understand that people forget things. And that life happens — she is in a friend’s wedding and had something going on that ran late. I get that. I even respect the fact that she did prioritize something for her friend over work. However, that wasn’t the kind of meeting I want to start off a vendor relationship with. So we decided to look elsewhere, which is when we found Goodies.

Dress: David’s Bridal

Finding my dress was more or less an accident. Mom and I made the appointment with DB ‘just to go look.’ I should have known better, ha! I have always been one of those girls that dreams of her marriage, not necessarily her wedding, so when Hannah — my consultant — asked what my dream dress looked like, I didn’t have an answer! I knew I couldn’t pull off a ballgown silhouette (Daddy said I’d look like a cake topper 😛 ), and I knew I didn’t want strapless since I’d fidget with it all night. We quickly ruled out lace, since apparently my face just didn’t light up when I had lacey gowns on. My dress was lucky number 7! Corey, you’ll have to wait till the wedding to see it 😉

Wedding party: Alexis Pascoe and Tyler Hadley (maid of honor & best man)

Alexis got her dress on clearance at the mall in Houston, and we bought Tyler’s suit at Men’s Wearhouse with Corey’s.

DJ: DJ Connection

Their on-hold music is fantastic, and they agreed to give us game day updates if OkState is playing in the Big 12 championship! Day of, I was a bit underwhelmed with them. Our guy was okay, but he seemed a tad inexperienced. Or nervous. Maybe a bit of both? Setup and everything went fine, but he flubbed a couple things during the reception itself, like forgetting to turn it over to Daddy to ask the blessing before we opened up the buffet. I reminded him, and all was well, it just wasn’t as seamless as I expected. I’d use them again for their customer service upfront.

Paper products: basicinvite.com

Custom designed save-the dates, invitation cards, and reception cards. We provided the addresses, and they print them on the envelope. We stamp, stuff, and send out. It all worked well! Our announcement cards, which are going to people we wanted to include but didn’t invite to the wedding for various reasons, are the same design as the save-the-dates but with text changed. I didn’t end up using them for thank-you notes, since I wanted to knock those out ASAP, but I’ll use the site again.

Jeweler: J. David Jewelry of Tulsa

My band is a straight sided band with an antique pattern and milgrain around the sides, size 3.25. Corey’s is a black band with a distressed copper inlay, size 7. Since purchasing our bands from them, I’ve had both my engagement ring and my class ring resized through them also. I’m particularly pleased with my class ring. I bought it in white gold, but it’s always had a yellow tint to it. I chalked it up to different vendors (my engagement ring is a bright silver — you’d never know it was white gold instead of a silver or platinum). When I got my class ring back, I noticed that they’d “replated” it with the zinc(?) they use on all their other white gold. All my rings match now! Yay!