Lisa Miller did my wedding day makeup. She reminds me of a makeup artist you would find in a big city; not Petoskey:) She has a very energetic personality which made the experience great. Her prices are very reasonable and she came to me on the wedding day which was a huge bonus. My makeup lasted throughout the entire day and the products she uses don't feel heavy and 'cake like'. I just felt beautiful!
The Friday morning before the wedding the bridesmaids, moms, grandma's and myself went to Sun Kissed Salon and Spa for manicures and pedicures. The place was recommended to me by a local resident who has her nails done here. The reason I choose this vendor was they were able to fit 8 of us in at the same time and they block off the entire back room for your party only and they dedicate the entire staff for your party. They allow you to bring in food and drinks so we made mimosa's. There is a store within walking distance and a bakery right next store so this is very convenient. The reason I'm giving this vendor three stars is the time it took to complete mani and pedi's for all us ladies. We were suppose to have 4 people working with our group but only had three so there were times many of us were just waiting around. This isn't that big of a deal if you have the time but if we were constrained for time this would have been an issue.
Marsha is the owner of Vogue hair salon and she is a doll! When I was planning my wedding, I went to visit Petoskey and had several hair trials done with multiple salons. I will say that all of them did a good job. However, Marsha will make your wedding day. She is fun. She is bubbly. She is energetic. This is the type of experience I wanted when I was getting my hair done on my wedding day. I didn't want to sit in a chair in silence as someone was doing my hair. Marsha was recommended to me by Sara Faircloth who is the sales manager at the Inn at Bay Harbor Resort. I can't thank her enough. My hair was one of the most important things for me on my wedding day so I knew it had to be just right and Marsha was able to get it right. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND Marsha for your wedding day hair!
We rented our reception chairs from Taylor's Rental. It is misleading when you first see the facility so don't be alarmed! After all Petoskey is a small town so I guess it's not uncommon to rent wedding supplies and tractors from the same location:) We ended up renting gold chivary (spelling?) chairs with ivory cushions. The only reason I gave them three stars is they are a little overpriced but I guess when you monopolize the wedding rental business in the area you can do that. Also, they didn't have a website which was a little inconvenient but it looks like they do have one now.
Julie and Tom are incredibly down to earth people and are so so so nice. I can't say that enough. We opted to have a 'cupcake cake' rather than a traditional wedding cake. We also had petite pastries in addition to the cupcakes so we had more of a dessert table at the reception. All of the pastries and goodies from Julienne's Tomato's are so tasty. We also ordered sandwiches from them for the trolley (after the ceremony and a few hours before the reception) and ordered delicious breakfast quiche from them for our after wedding brunch event we held Sunday morning. You won't be disappointed with Julie and Tom!
We rented a traditional trolley for our transportation between the hotel, church, reception. The size of the trolley allowed us to invite significant others of our wedding party as well as the photographer. I would highly recommend having your photography ride along with the party to capture those highly energetic moments when the stress of the ceremony is behind you and everyone let's loose a little. Some of our favorite photos involve the trolley and it fit the setting of our day so much better than a limo. The trolley company was nice to work with, the trolley was very clean, they arrived on time. No complaints from this bride or groom:)
Tom Kachadurian is known for his photography of northern Michigan more so than a traditional wedding photographer but you wouldn't know it based on the photos of our wedding. We wanted to make sure we had a photographer that captured the beauty of the Petoskey area and he did just that. Prior to signing up with Tom I has asked him if he could send me a few photos of prior wedding's he'd shot so I could see what his style was like. Within two days I received a cd in the mail with over 1800 photos of prior weddings. He's a really funny guy and is a joy to work with.
Mary from Nature's Garden was so fun to work with. Her flowers are beautiful and so healthy looking. She does a great job listening to your vision and recreating exactly what you have envisioned for your day.
During the planning process I was very pleased with DJ's North. They were very professional and always responded to questions or concerns I had in a timely manner. The day of the wedding, however, was not as I would have hoped. Actually, when I read the home page of their website, everything they comment on went wrong for me during my reception. They announced my wedding party and my husband and I without music which I had chosen and provided to them weeks in advance. We even went over the music list when I arrived at the Reception so I still don't understand why it was not played. They failed to play the music for our cake cutting ceremony; which I had sent to them. Weeks in advance, I had requested a favorite song to be played during the dancing portion of the night and during the reception when I had asked for it to be played I was told they didn't have it. They did a poor job on working out the logistics with the reception venue. The music played during dinner ended up coming from the reception venue CD player because DJ's North failed to hook into the central speaker system. This was very disappointing since I was paying them for that time and they weren't even playing music. I will say that I talked with several other brides that used DJ's North and were VERY happy with their experience. I must have caught them on a bad night but based on my experience, I would not recommend DJ's North for your reception entertainment.