Lynette did the hair and makeup for me, my mother, and my four bridesmaids at an unbelievably low rate. She came to our hotel and did an excellent job not only with the hair and makeup, but with pleasing some very picky ladies and keeping everyone calm. She has the most amazing calmness about her and a very soothing voice that was like heaven on my wedding day. I truly credit her for putting me in the right mindset so that nothing got to me on that day.
I will say that there was one bridesmaid whose hair I didn't like but I think that was mainly due to the fact that she wanted her hair in a style that her hair was way too short for. In the end Lynette made it work but it wasn't perfect. Other than that, she was the best. She didn't even charge for the trials! Awesome!
Jason Williams of JThomas Photography was by far my favorite vendor of my wedding. I searched long and hard for a photographer with a good idea at a decent rate, and Jason really came through. He takes photos with ease and kept me and my husband calm through the hecticity of the wedding. He went with the flow, and by the end of the night everyone was in love with his calm demeanor, which was a big difference from pushy photographers that insist on 100 family shots (which is what happened to a friend of mine at her wedding). Strangers have even commented that they think our photos are magazine worthy!
Bottom line, JThomas is worth twice what he charges for weddings. Book him now before he realizes this and his rates go up!
Flowers by Chris was spot on when it came to design. Their head florist Ron is super knowledgeable about every type of flower and was able to replicate photos that I brought in to a tee. I am very picky about flowers (I think a lot of bouquets look cheesy), and they created a sophisticated look that went with my colors but wasn't super matchy-matchy.
I'm not sure about how Flowers by Chris rates price-wise as I didn't do much research on that aspect of them - they fit within my budget so I went with them. My only complaint with them is that they just dropped off the reception flowers at our location, rather than setting them up or taking them out of the box AT ALL! Luckily we didn't have too many reception flowers, and our location vendors were gracious enough to do it for us or we would've been screwed. I wish they would've mentioned this aspect before just dropping them off on the day of. I was under the impression that they were going to assist in the set up.
I can't say enough about Creative DeeJays. They are young, energetic, easy to work with, and very reasonably priced. Not only did they haul the DJ equipment up two flights of stairs (which normal DJs charge extra for), they turned an oddly-shaped dance floor into hotspot of my reception. They brought two DJs at no extra charge and kept EVERYONE dancing all night long... which was my main goal for the reception!
Seriously, this vendor is awesome. The DJs looked good, were young and hip, wore nice outfits, and didn't do any of the cheesy in-between-song chatter that annoys me at other people's weddings. They rock (literally).
I worked with Mike at ABC Rental on Hanover Street in South Baltimore, and he exceeded my expectations at making a sticky situation work. My wedding was outside in a public park on a Saturday, and I had major concerns about the chair and table rentals being stolen if one of their people didn't pick them up immediately after the ceremony. Not a problem with ABC Rental. They did a beautiful job with set up and arrived just as the ceremony was ending to take everything down, while patiently waiting for the guests to leave before doing so. All this with great prices - WAYYYY less than other places I priced out, I think it was $1.35 per chair - and I never even had to go there to fill anything out! They did everything via email which was SUPER convenient to me while wedding planning. I love them.
This vendor was ok - I used them as a shuttle to get the bridal party around during pre-ceremony pictures and also to get guests staying at the hotel to the ceremony location. We got a 20-person shuttle rather than a "limo bus," and I was surprised at how nice it was. It was very clean and smelled fine. I also liked that Z Best lets you make as many pick-ups and drop-offs as you want for no charge.
I was unimpressed, however, with the driver that was sent to us that day. He didn't know his way around the city, so I had to sit up front and give him directions the entire time, which was annoying because I wanted to relax and celebrate with the bridal party. He also didn't know how to work the shuttle and ended up having some mechanical issues that, thankfully, were fixed quickly. He also hung around, lurking for a tip when we were finished, but I had been assured by Z Best that the tip was included in the price and that I should not tip the driver, so that was kind of weird. The driver was overall pretty nice though.
My wedding package was also supposed to include wedding signs, etc. on the shuttle but it did not. Thankfully we brought our own drinks too.
This place is expensive and the sales people are pushy. I felt pushed into the dress I bought, and though I loved it, I would've liked to have gotten the opportunity to try on more than two dresses before they started ripping off the tags and writing it up. It also creeped me out that they put you in a room and ask you to strip before you try on their dresses - trust me, no modesty in this place. They saw all I had to offer! They also charge a lot for alterations - I think I paid $210 despite the fact that pretty much all she had to do was a bustle and a bit at the top. She also insisted on hemming the dress all of 1/2 an inch, which I thought was ridiculous - I would've preferred to just get higher heels. Also the dress puckered a bit around my stomach, which they told me at first they could fix during tailoring but later told me they could not.
I do believe that Gamberdella's offers the best selection of quality dresses in the Northern Baltimore area, but if I could do it again I would've tried out a few places closer to DC.