Wedding Blog

Part 1

Jewelry

Vendor: Tiffany & Co.

Price: $1550ish for his and $1950ish for hers

Review: Great service and quality as always - nothing but great things to say about them. Engraving was pricey, at $20-40 per hand-engraved letter (has to be by hand if it’s on the inside of the ring apparently). A+

Photography

Vendor: Vanessa Gavalya Photography

Price: $3500 + tax not including extra prints, framing, or albums - it did come with one free 8×10 bridal portrait though. This price included an assistant (who did not shoot), 8 hours of coverage, around 700-800 photos (probably more!), a proof album of around 200 of the best shots, and 4 dvds of all our images at full resolutions (yay for getting the negatives!).

Review: This was a crazy good deal when we initially booked her around 9-10 months before our wedding, so we jumped right on it - she also has a great eye and takes what I like to call “magazine-style” photographs - not too much post-processing and looks great right out of the camera. My bridal portrait session took about an hour and I got TONS of pictures, but am waiting to purchase that dvd later. She is super friendly, really sweet, and definitely knows what she’s doing - I’ve recommended her to at least 3 other couples getting married and they absolutely love her too!

Videography

Vendor: Hakim Sons Studio

Price: around $3500 - but I got a discount for having a Friday wedding, so it was a bit lower.

Review: Same as the photographer pretty much - 8 hours of coverage, 3 man team. I can’t wait to see the results! Should be any week now….. Shezad, one of the managing partners, was extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and experienced. They shoot in HD and their sample films looked great.

Makeup Artist

Vendor: Beauty by Laurie - Laurie Schakosky

Price: $350 for the bridal session (stayed for touch-ups during the shoot) and $275 for the day of

Review: Great job - fun personality, easy to get along with and really knows what she’s doing. She has done a lot of tv/movie/actor makeup, so she’s really experienced as well. Totally worth every penny.

Hairstylist

Vendor: Susan Lam / ProImage Salon

Price: I don’t know - I know the total for hair for the bridal party, my mom, my aunt, and I came out to be around $500. I got my hair done on both Friday and Saturday, as did my mom, sister, and aunt. The rest of the bridesmaids only did their hair for Friday.

Review: Fantastic job as always - she’s my normal hairstylist, super nice, and really talented. She really works with you until she gets it perfect and it’s exactly what you want! She even spent 2 whole hours teasing my hair the first time for my bridal shoot (asian hair is super fine, so it’s harder to tease!)

Flowers

room during set-up

(you can see the ’sparse’ centerpieces above)

Vendor: Blooms Dallas / Christine (my aunt)

Price: I can’t really say since it was my own business and I ordered the flowers wholesale and got labor for free, but I will say that I spent around $2k on flowers and $1750 on the wrought iron trees we used for the centerpieces. Hanging pomanders from the trees outside was especially laborious, considering the humidity and the heat (it had been raining non-stop the week before the wedding and the morning of…), so I’m definitely glad I didn’t have to pay for that part!

Review: As I mentioned before, my aunt failed to adhere to my very detailed list of arrangements (down to the number of flowers, arrangement formation, and color palette complete with illustrations, drawings, and pictures). It turned out ok. The centerpieces only had half the flowers I allotted for them on the trees (she saved a lot of them for the next night’s reception - man, I was sooo PO’ed when I found out). The ceremony site configuration was messy and the colors were all mixed up, my bouquet was too long, and my MOH’s bouquet was too different, but whatever…. On the day of, I just kind of let my OCD wedding bridezilla-ness melt away and enjoyed the day. Everything turned out beautifully, although I have to admit, I do get a little pissed when I think about the way it was supposed to be - I had a vision, man! A vision!!!

Event Lighting

Vendor: Switch Dallas

Price: approximately $1500

Review: Fantastic service - quick replies, great pricing, and very knowledgeable and experienced. They were not the cheapest vendor I found, but I hired them solely on their reputation - they have worked many years with one of the best event design firms in Dallas. Our coordinator, Lisa, also recommended them. We ordered 20-something paper round lanterns of various size from the downcans on the patio, pinspot lighting on 10-12 tables, cake table highlighting, and a monogram gobo that turned out fantastic! Would definitely recommend and use them again in a heartbeat!

Ceremony Musicians

Vendor: Gyros String Quartet

Price: $650

Review: Great, great, great. Very professional, fantastic sound and large repertoire. They came dressed in tuxes and professional dress, performed for the entire ceremony outdoors, and were right on cue.

Reception Band

Vendor: Third Party Live

Price: $1750

Review: They were so much fun! When we were searching for a band/dj, we quickly discovered that most bands in the DFW area run around $4-5k on average and DJs start around $3500. Boy, were we pleasantly surprised when Hubby found this band on the internet for such a cheap price! We saw that they have played quite a few corporate gigs and a Troy Aikman party, so it helped ease our fears of hiring a relatively unknown band. We listened to a few samples on their website and decided to book them without ever meeting them - definitely the best decision we made! They were so energetic and lively all night long - the lead guitarist even started dancing around with the guests while playing his guitar! A+

Cake

Vendor: Frosted Art Bakery

Price: $1200

Review: YUM - to put it in one word. Bronwen and Heather over at Frosted Art are everything and more that you would think they would be. They are both very sweet, personable people and I never had any fear that my cake would be anything less than fantastic - worth every penny. A+++

Ceremony and Reception Site

Vendor: Marie Gabrielle Restaurant and Gardens

Price: approximately $13,500 for around 99 adults and 20 kids

Review: FAN-freakin-tastic. I can’t rave enough about this place and the lady who makes it as special as it is, Lisa, our coordinator. She is SO cool, nice, and put up with all of my annoying questions,requests, and went way above and beyond what was expected. She coordinated the wedding from beginning to end, met with us a number of times to taste the menu, choose the menu, give advice, coordinate the other vendors, and the list goes on. The food was SO good - the best food at a wedding I’ve ever had and I got to eat everything, which I was really happy about! The creme brulee served the night of the wedding was a MONSTER size - as big as my face - it was delicious and everyone was talking about how stuffed they were (something you typically don’t hear at weddings!).

Everyone loved the unique look of the european style garden and raved about the service - anytime anyone needed anything, there was a waiter right there to take care of it. Immediately following the ceremony, waiters came through the double doors with trays of pomegranate martinis and our cocktail napkins for the guests and the bar was opened. I think our guests really enjoyed this part the most, although surprisingly, only a few guests got super drunk!

Linens

Vendor(s): Mosaic Linens and Blooms Dallas

Price: $97 each for the rental of chocolate brown dupioni silk tablecloths (they’re so expensive to rent because they are considered custom one-use items). I made my own custom cake table tulle skirt, silk beaded table belly band, and used my own inventory for the robins egg blue lamour satin tableclothes. I also rented an aisle runner from Mosaic Linens for $75ish.

Review: Mosaic is fantastic - easy to work with, friendly, and quick. The only snag was the fact that the linens did not arrive until the day before the wedding rather than the Wednesday before, as promised, but no matter - everything fell into place and looked fantastic. I wouldn’t expect any less from them. They’re always in one of my favorite wedding magazines, Grace Ormonde Weddings! A+++ for Mosaic! and A+++ for me of course. 

Although I will say, providing my own linens SUCKED. We spent the days before the wedding preparing them, packing them, and then of course set up and delivery when everyone was essentially a guest as well. A+ nevertheless.