I'm sure there are ways we benefitted from the day of coordination services that I'm not aware of, which is why I give Your Special Day 3 stars. I was not overly thrilled with the services, which is really the only part of the wedding that didn't work out perfectly. The company came highly recommended from a fried who I love dearly and had a beautiful wedding. I had planned everything, but 3 months out and feeling overwhelmed we decided on a day of coordinator - which I actually think is important, I just wish we had used Rachel at "Bliss by Sam" - who I spoke with but didn't choose because of my friend's recommendation. I think in general my personality didn't jive with our coordinators -she sort of got on my nerves and irritated most of my family. Because I had planned most everything, she only gave me some suggestions on filing some holes in the planning - all of which I'm thankful I did not follow. One example is that she recommended a lights guy who wanted to hang 24 paper lanterns for $1200. My fiance and his his best man went out the day before and hung 45 for around less than $300 in supplies.
30 minutes before the ceremony she dropped both of our wedding rings on the outside deck, and 4 of my cousins had to spend 15 minutes under the deck in the 90 degree weather searching for them. Thankfully, one of my cousins found it between the planks of the deck - but for some reason minutes before the wedding the coordinator decided to tell my fiance the story, which did no good except to stress him out. We hired her to do the opposite.
She seemed to do a pretty good job coordinating the buses we had running to and from the wedding.
Generally speaking I think she tried hard, I just don't think we were a good fit.
Drew Hansel is truly awesome. At a time when I was pulling my hair out trying to plan this wedding, the one thing I did not have to worry about was the rehearsal dinner. Drew took care of everything and made this evening so easy. He planned a great menu that he paired with awesome wines and set up a private room that was gorgeous. The food was fantastic, as was the service. It was perfect.
Lori came to play acoustic guitar during our ceremony and on the porch of our venue during cocktail hour. She exceeded all of our expectations. Lori was incredibly accomodating - though she knows a great variety of songs and can play various styles (jazz, classical, contemporary music), she was willing to learn new songs that we specifically wanted as part of our ceremony. She is talented, professional, and extremely affordable. She also sings and can bring additional musicians if you are looking for something a little more robust. I would use her again and recommend her to anyone!
Very easy to work with. We actually didn't taste our cake before the wedding, but heard great things. We were very happy with the lemon flavor, but not as crazy about the chocolate cake. It was a personal preference, and something we would have noticed if we had actually tasted the cakes before hand. I would definitely recommend trying them out - good prices and service, tasty cake and easy to work with.
I love, love, love Cathy and Mike at Perrywinkle Farm. They are a local farm, and I met Cathy at the Farmer's Market in Carrboro to discuss flowers. She was very down to earth, and definitely understood the need for beautiful arrangements without breaking the bank. Because she wasn't certain what flowers would be in bloom at the time of my wedding (with farmers it depends on rain, heat, etc), I had to wait until the week before to pick out the types of flowers that would be in my arrangements. That might be a little scary for some brides, but I totally trusted Cathy and loved the idea of having local and in season flowers - just made the wedding seem more natural. She blew me away - the bouquets and coursages were perfect and the centerpieces could not have been more gorgeous. Not to mention, we got a ton of flowers for a fraction of the cost a florist would have charged. Using Cathy was probably the best wedding decision we made.
Matthew's Chocolates
107 N Churton St
Hillsborough, NC 27278
(919) 732-0900
On a fairly regular basis, I find myself day dreaming about Matthews Chocolates, drooling on my desk. Amazing, totally unique candy that you really can't get anywhere else. Not only does he make awesome candy, but Matthew, the chocolate maker himself, will talk to you about what you want, what your budget it and how to make those two things come together. He has creams, truffles, bark - all of which can be tailored to your specific tastes. We had a Chinese Five Spice/Pickled Ginger candy, and 2 types of bark - Coconut Curry and Spicy Thai. So good, so unique, worth every penny.
Sarah was not available the day of our wedding, so we went with a couple of her associate photographers - and we could not have been happier. Not only were Lauren Carrol and Kate Monroe super cool, but their pictures were beyond amazing. I don't consider myself particularly photogenic, in fact I usually look rather uncomfortable around a camera. Somehow they got amazing shots - and I barely knew they were there. It was really important to us not to spend a lot of time on posed shots - we tend to prefer candid pictures and didn't want to miss half our wedding. They totally listened and respected our wishes, and the photos are fantastic. They really captured moments on film - which is important since the night went by so quickly and these are the memories I have to look back on. They get my highest recommendation.
We are sort of food snobs, so having good food at our wedding was super important. Tom designed a ridiculously unique and delicious menu within our budget, and executed it amazingly. Having a wedding at a venue where we had to bring in everything while living 1500 miles away might have been a challenge if it weren't for Tom's expert knowledge and his staff's hard work and talent. In addition to the amazing food, they coordinated party rentals for us - helping us decide on everything we needed. It was truly a pleasure to work with them, and everyone raved about the food.