I can't say enough about these guys! Gina & Tony are great -- they were wonderful to work with (since they're in their 20s, they are very close in age to us, and they were almost like old friends), and were pretty much invisible during the ceremony & reception (in other words, unobtrusive). Gina is always wonderful with getting back to me; we must have exchanged well over 100 emails. They were wonderful to work with, their prices are extremely reasonable, considering the quality of their work (quality is essential since it's really the only thing we'll have left of the day, besides memories). I can't say enough how great it is to work with them. They're so funny, and just great to be around. They work well as a team, too. Definitely check them out! They live in Chicago, but they frequently travel to Delaware because family lives here, and they are very willing to travel to wherever you are going to get married :D
Sandi made our cake. Not only was it beautiful, it was delicious! We were so impressed with her. Plus, because we were on a tight budget, her fee matched up very well to what we were willing to pay. She doesn't have a website or email, but I have her phone number -- contact me if interested. She has been making cakes for many years, and I think she does an amazing job without taking a huge cut for herself!
I think I'd do 3 1/2 stars if I had the option. Ron was OK... he did his job. He was very friendly & professional most of the time. However, when he'd answer emails, he usually didn't answer all of my questions. He was also going to be our officiant, and he emailed me asking why we wanted a civil ceremony, and after I told him that we aren't particularly religious, and my fiance (now husband) isn't Christian, he became very distant (even though he ended up only being our DJ). But he provided both ceremony & reception music, which was what we were looking for, and he did a decent job of DJing. I wasn't there for half of the reception, (between bustling my dress several times -- it came undone -- and doing some extra photos outside with my new husband, and of course the reception pretty much ending an hour and a half early thanks to Maple Dale), it felt like he played more oldies music than the newer stuff, which surprised me. Very few people danced to the fast songs, but were willing to dance to slow songs, but he continued to play lots of fast songs too, leaving the dance floor empty except for one young girl.
Stef at Wedideas was great. They are a fake flower site and you can either choose from their bouquets/bouts/corsages/etc listed on the site, or completely customize your own. You have the choice between regular fake flowers (which are still of a much higher quality than what you'd find at a craft store) or the Real Feel varieties. They were great, our bouquets, bouts, & corsages were lovely. They were wonderful (most of the time) at getting back to me. I had only a few issues with them, the first being that they didn't follow order instructions correctly. For example, I asked that all of the leaves in our collection be ivy so they'd match our bouquets, and that the bouts and corsages have curly tails on them. Neither happened. not a huge deal though! The big deal was that two of the corsages weren't shipped, one was wrong, and the rose petals also weren't included. However, Stef got right on it and sent the replacement items free of charge. Summer is their busy season, and I was asking for my flowers by July 1st, so I am sure they were just swamped. Order early, if you'll be getting married during the summer months! :) But they were great to work with otherwise and everything looked amazing! Very happy with the quality, and the price, too!
I had no problems at all with this site. We ordered free samples from them and a few other sites and picked their Purple Cascading Roses design, which was cheap, yet beautiful and elegant. I usually use Photoshop to DIY, but I wanted the raised ink on the invites :) I thought shipping was a bit high priced, but it seemed to be the same for most of the invitation sites. We ordered more than we needed (needed maybe 40, ordered 100) because you only go up a dollar or so per extra 25, and it's cheaper to do that than order extra envelopes (which I am glad I did -- I messed up a batch). I recommend them.
Littman Jewelers... they are OK. Haven't had any real problems with them, prior to the wedding (we got both of our wedding rings and my engagement ring from them). The biggest problem is they have left the Dover Mall site, and we have to either travel to Christiana or Salisbury to get our rings inspected every six months. My engagement ring is holding up extremely well, no problems whatsoever. His wedding ring, however, has a diamond that has gone MIA since sometime in the middle of our wedding day (our photographers photoshopped the middle diamond back into his ring in the photos). We are going to take care of that soon -- it should be covered under warranty. Littman seemed to have better prices than most of the other jewelry stores in the Dover Mall, which is why we chose them (besides that we liked their selection).
Rev. Rozanski did a good job as our officiant. She was very willing to listen to our budget and worked with us on a price. She does charge extra for a rehearsal, so we actually didn't even meet her until 10 minutes before the ceremony began. She was very pleasant and very professional. She did not judge our ceremony choice at all; she is completely fine doing civil ceremonies (as opposed to religious ones). We could customize our ceremony with the vows and words we wanted. I think other ceremonies (sand, unity candle, readings, etc) are extra; we had one (the sand ceremony) which I think was included; it was all we wanted and it went very well :) But if you are having your wedding on any day but Sunday and you aren't picky about who marries you -- talk to the clerk of the peace. She's WAY cheaper. (Officiants charge a LOT, more than I expected.)