Mary is an absolutely AMAZING caterer. Her food was out of this world good - especially given the fact it's a sizeable number of people she cooked for (about 115). Wedding/event food can sometimes be so so but Mary's food was a big hit. She also did a tasting for us before, so just ask her to arrange it. I highly recommend the tomato/mozzarella/balsamic salad and her rice with fresh thyme and parmesan is amazing.
Whitney is an amazingly talented, flexible, laid back photographer. She traveled to Dallas for our engagement pics and then to Menard with an assistant for the wedding. All around Whitney is just top-notch and you can't go wrong. She is out of Austin.
While Austin's World of Rentals did come out to the wedding site in Menard twice before the wedding to see the property, they somehow contracted amnesia the day before the wedding. They were 3 hours late delivering all the tables and chairs so the set up for the rehearsal dinner was very rushed. Moreover, they didn't come out to pick up the rentals until very late on Monday - a day later than they were scheduled to pick up. There were a host of excuses like "we didn't have a delivery time, so we were just hanging out in Menard."
Kathie Millen with Elite Events was pretty good. She came out to Menard a couple of times before, with Austin's World of Rentals, to make sure everything was going according to plan. However, Kathie just didn't really get our personal tastes. Nothing went wrong, per say, but I just felt like I (and my mom) ended up doing almost all of the work. We coordinated the portable toilets, we put up all the lighting (which turned out fantastic because it was exactly what I wanted), we arranged the caterer, my husband did all the music on his own ipod, we bought a portable speaker for the ceremony. Having them there the day of is very helpful though. I'd recommend an "a la carte" package wherein they help organize day of, save some money. Shelly, who works with Kathie, honestly did most of the work - she was phenomenal the day of and also helped Kathie "see" our Anthropologie-in-the-woods theme we were going for.
Star House on etsy.com did our cake toppers and they were AMAZING! Highly highly recommend her!
Charles is out of Brady, Tx and has some really nice portable toilets. We even got them last minute. They were cheap (about $150 each including delivery and set up/tear down) relative to renting one of those massive trailers that requires a generator. Charles delivered them, set them all up and came back to retrieve them. These toilets are what I would call upgraded porta potties. They have lights that automatically come on at night and the women's had mirrors. They also came equipped with all the toilet paper, paper towels and hand sanitizer. They really felt brand new, no smells at all.