Engagement ring & bride's wedding band: Marks & Morgan Jewelers
B FI and I went ring shopping together so he could get some ideas for what I liked, but ultimately the decision was left up to him. He did a great job and my perfect rings ended up being at Marks & Morgan. I have no negative remarks against Marks & Morgan as far as customer service and selection. My only "beef" with them is that you have to get your rings inspected every 6 months for as long as you have them and if you forget to do it even one time the insurance you paid for is voided. It's not a huge deal, but it is slightly annoying considering many places we visited did not require routine inspections and if I still lived in my small hometown the nearest Marks & Morgan I would have to visit every 6 months would be almost 2 hours away.
Groom's wedding band: Titaniumkay.com
A Let me first say I was very hesitant to order a ring online, but FI did not find anything he liked in any stores we visited and when he stumbled across the Titanium Kay site he found one he had to have. The fine people at Titanium Kay put me at ease with their 30 day no-questions-asked return policy and reviews from real people who had ordered the product already. The ring was delivered promptly and it's more durable and better quality than a lot of rings we looked at in jewelry stores. It was also half the price!
Monogram Key Fobs for Bridesmaids Gifts: Mylittlecuddlebugs.com
A- Shipping was a bit slow through this site, but they have a wonderful selection of products and lots of different colors and fabrics to choose from so I was able to make each gift unique to the girl I'm giving it to. The key fobs I received were of such great quality that I had to order me one as well!
Cufflinks for Groomsmen Gifts: Cuff-daddy.com
A This website has a great variety of cufflinks from the classic to just plain fun if you are searching for some for the men in the wedding party. Their pricing is some of the cheapest we found and they offer bulk discounts if you are ordering more than 5 pairs of cufflinks. Overall I highly recommend Cuff-Daddy.
Silk Rose Petals: Petalgarden.com
A This site has great deals on bulk rose petals and even though we ordered the silk ones they are pretty realistic looking thanks to the material they use. If you're not into silk they sell freeze dried rose petals as well and offer free color samples of each to take the guesswork out of picking the right color based on the images on your computer monitor.
Wedding Cake: The City Bakery
A+ Sarah is the pastry chef at The City Bakery who will be making our cake. She is so sweet and absolutely loves her job, which is obvious when looking at her work. We are getting 3 cakes with her-a 3 tiered wedding cake, a groom's cake, and a mini version of our wedding cake made for our first anniversary-all for $400. The bakery will also be providing fresh artisan bread for our reception dinner.
DJ: Mr. C's Mobile Disk Jockey
A FI and I are getting married in a town that's over an hour from where we live and it's hard to make appointments with vendors and get away together with both of our schedules being so different. When we made the trip to Asheville to meet with our DJ for the first time there had been a bad storm and power was out all over town. Our DJ knew we had taken time off work and driven to meet him so instead of canceling he lit some candles and went on with the consultation as planned! How's that for customer service?
Bride and Bridesmaid Attire: David's Bridal
C I have mixed emotions about my experience at David's. On the one hand I found my wedding dress there with the help of one of the consultants who was super friendly. I never would have given a second glance at the dress I ended up buying if it weren't for her convincing me to give it a try since it is nothing like what I thought I would get. Getting the bridesmaids dresses at such a big discount was a plus too. The alterations department, however, was a pain to work with. They were very short with me when I asked questions and at times just blatantly rude. On one occasion they scheduled my fitting for the wrong day and then proceeded to make comments about me showing up "late" the entire time. Their horrible service really left a bad taste in my mouth, therefore David's gets a C.
Silk Rose Petals: Petalgarden.com
A This site has great deals on bulk rose petals and even though we ordered the silk ones they are pretty realistic looking thanks to the material they use. If you're not into silk they sell freeze dried rose petals as well and offer free color samples of each to take the guesswork out of picking the right color based on the images on your computer monitor.
Wedding Cake: The City Bakery
A+ Sarah is the pastry chef at The City Bakery who will be making our cake. She is so sweet and absolutely loves her job, which is obvious when looking at her work. We are getting 3 cakes with her-a 3 tiered wedding cake, a groom's cake, and a mini version of our wedding cake made for our first anniversary-all for $400. The bakery will also be providing fresh artisan bread for our reception dinner.
DJ: Mr. C's Mobile Disk Jockey
A FI and I are getting married in a town that's over an hour from where we live and it's hard to make appointments with vendors and get away together with both of our schedules being so different. When we made the trip to Asheville to meet with our DJ for the first time there had been a bad storm and power was out all over town. Our DJ knew we had taken time off work and driven to meet him so instead of canceling he lit some candles and went on with the consultation as planned! How's that for customer service?
Bride and Bridesmaid Attire: David's Bridal
C I have mixed emotions about my experience at David's. On the one hand I found my wedding dress there with the help of one of the consultants who was super friendly. I never would have given a second glance at the dress I ended up buying if it weren't for her convincing me to give it a try since it is nothing like what I thought I would get. Getting the bridesmaids dresses at such a big discount was a plus too. The alterations department, however, was a pain to work with. They were very short with me when I asked questions and at times just blatantly rude. On one occasion they scheduled my fitting for the wrong day and then proceeded to make comments about me showing up "late" the entire time. Their horrible service really left a bad taste in my mouth, therefore David's gets a C.
Bridal Shoes: Onlinebridalstore.com
A I only ordered my shoes from onlinebridalstore.com, but they have alot of other bridal accessories for sale as well. They offered free shipping, I got my order super fast, and I found the heels I had been wanting for less than I found at other websites I'd scoped out.
Groom and Groomsmen Attire: Mitchell's Tuxedos
A Mitchell's is a family-owned business and we can really tell a difference between the attention we get there and the attention we got at other places we browsed. I originally urged FI to get the tuxes from Men's Warehouse (the male equivalent to David's Bridal) to be sure the vests would match the girl's dresses, but when we went there they had one option in the watermelon color; a paisley vest with striped tie. We were not digging it at all so we took a color swatch to Mitchell's and since they have such a wide selection they found some other options that match just fine. And FI still scored a free tux.
Flowers: The Enchanted Florist
A Janet from The Enchanted Florist is taking care of all things floral for the wedding and it has been a pleasure to work with her. She has been in the business for over 30 years so we're very confident in her skills, and she has been so helpful at keeping us within our budget since we went into this planning process having no clue that flowers were so expensive!
Ceremony and Reception Venue: Homewood Castle
B+ Our venue is absolutely gorgeous. I had actually passed by Homewood a few times and made comments on how pretty it was without knowing it was an event center. Through a series of occurences that left us without a venue, we checked with Homewood about pricing thinking it would be way out of our range. The staff helped us find ways to afford the dream wedding we had envisioned without spending a fortune. My only issue has been that as a bride who lives out of town from where my wedding is located I rely solely on email for correspondence, and sometimes the fine folks at Homewood are pretty slow to respond.
Caterer: Artisan Catering
A+ The staff at Artisan has been so great. My emails are always answered promptly and they practically trip over themselves to make sure me and FI's wedding day goes the way we want it to. The chef there even agreed to replicate a favorite recipe I had that was not even close to anything he had on his menu at my request, and might I add he did an amazing job. I would recommend them to everyone in the Asheville area looking for a caterer.
Caterer: Artisan Catering
A+ The staff at Artisan has been so great. My emails are always answered promptly and they practically trip over themselves to make sure me and FI's wedding day goes the way we want it to. The chef there even agreed to replicate a favorite recipe I had that was not even close to anything he had on his menu at my request, and might I add he did an amazing job. I would recommend them to everyone in the Asheville area looking for a caterer.
Photographer: Alisha Silver
A Alisha has some of the most affordable prices in the Asheville area, but when I looked at her pictures online I thought the pricing was a mistake. She has a background in graphic design and takes a really photojournalistic approach to photography and her shots are so good. She has agreed to do a complimentary TTD session after our wedding too so she definitely deserves a high grade!
Officiant: Jeff King
A+ I guess he is not really considered a "vendor" since he isn't the kind of minister you hire through the yellow pages, but either way I feel like I need to list him here just so I can give him an A+. My aunt actually referred us to Jeff. She knew him from her church and since we aren't members at any certain church and were looking for someone to perform our ceremony, we were very grateful when he agreed to drive all the way to our wedding site to marry us. We had never met prior to the first consultation we had but by the end of that meeting FI and I felt so comfortable with Jeff. He gave us complete freedom with the ceremony as well and we really appreciated that since it was important to us that the ceremony be personal.
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