I loved the idea of having a flower in my hair, but my sister convinced me not to do a real one for fear I would be the one bride to have the luck of a bee being attracted to it! So, I found this beautiful fake vintage gardenia hair clip on this website. It worked beautifully and I still wear it occasionally.
We found our photographer on Craig's List. She actually lives in Senegal, Africa, but she's from Chicago. She has a background in photojournalism, so our pictures had this great natural, candid quality to them, which was exactly what we were looking for. I'm not sure if she is still doing weddings, but if she is I would definitely recommend her. She is a one-woman operation, but for the size of our wedding, she was able to capture all the moments we wanted. We get so many compliments from people about our wedding pictures.
We rented chairs and tables from this vendor, and they were good. Costly, but good. They were really the only rental company in the area, so we didn't have much choice, but the people there were nice and got everything to our venue on time.
Cindy at the Spa coordinates all the wedding day appointments and she was very helpful. There were a few schedule issues early on, but we were able to work them out. The Spa is super expensive, but I was okay with spending the money on that for my wedding day. We did hair and makeup there and the day before we did manicures and pedicures. If you get anything done at the Spa you can hang out there that day in bathrobes or bathingsuits. There is a great pool to lounge around. It was the perfect way to spend the day before my wedding.
Our DJs were awesome! We gave them a list of songs that we wanted played, and they played many of them but also added songs that we wouldn't have necessarily chosen but really got people dancing. They were also able to do the music for our ceremony since we had the ceremony and reception at the same place, which was very convenient. Having 2 of them was great too because they worked well together and were able to get things done quickly. The price was also very good! They were willing to work with us since we didn't have a huge budget for our wedding.
Gillian is an amazing cake artist. She did my older sister's wedding cake, my mom's 60th birthday cake, and of course my wedding cake. She really listens to what you have in mind, but contributes her expertise as well. I recommend the mocha cream filling for those of you that don't like traditional wedding cake! It was a big hit! I included this vendor's phone number because she does not use email.
This vendor does not have a website, so I included their phone number instead. Irena at Sliders arranges all the catering and she is very knowledgeable. If you are looking for low key food, this is the restaurant to go to. Plus you can easily go sample the food by going to the restaurant in Neptune Beach and trying various things on the menu. They are very willing to work with you on items that you want. They were also very helpful in providing tables and all linens, plates, and silverware since our venue did not provide those items.
Jane at Kuhn Flowers is awesome! She knows so much about flowers and since I do not, I could show her pictures I liked from magazines and she could tell me what might work with my budget.
This vendor is actually a friend of mine and she is great at what she does. The wedding invitations that she has on her website are great, but she can also sometimes get you other invitations that she may not necessarily have on her website through her many vendors. We did a non-traditional invitation since our wedding was near the beach and a little more relaxed. She was very helpful with figuring out the wording.
I got an antique-looking brooch from this vendor. My wedding dress vendor actually introduced me to them and she ordered the jewelry for me. I was able to pick a brooch I liked that would go with my sash and then Haute Bride made me earrings to match my brooch, which was great.