Weddingbee

I’m absolutely dying to share our professional photos with everyone. Dying. We met with our amazing photographer, Chris Richards, at his (naturally) super cool home a few nights ago. We had some drinks and went through our photos one by one in full-sized, high-definition glory on his flat screen. We picked out some favorites and talked about albums, proofs, prints, etc.

Mr. LB and I always knew we wanted to buy the files of our photos - we want to be able to print any one, in any size, in any style, at any time in our lives. So now we’re just waiting to receive them, at which point the posting blitz shall begin!

In the meantime, though, I want to bust out a quick review of the rest of our vendors for my Tucson homegirlz.

Venue - Arizona Inn: A There’s no way around it: getting married at The Arizona Inn isn’t cheap. There are separate charges for the ceremony and reception sites, high minimum food costs (depending on weekday vs. weekend weddings), and lots of service fees (we had to pay $250 to use their projector, in spite of the thousands we were already giving them). On the other hand, the Inn doesn’t advertise itself as a provider of budget weddings, either. And there’s a reason it’s rated so highly by Conde Nast and Travel and Leisure. It’s beautiful, historic, and totally unique. Catering manager Kathleen Sedberry was very easy to work with; she was prompt, professional, and enthusiastic about our wedding. She even followed along on Weddingbee, which was not only flattering - it was a huge relief, knowing she knew how I visualized our wedding. On the day of, she was there helping me with last-minute details and putting out fires (gluing wayward typewriter keys! fluffing my train!). Really, between her and the catering captain, I had a de facto DOC. The waitstaff was incredibly attentive to Mr. LB and I throughout the day and night, and they even packed up all of our centerpieces, candy jars, photos, placecard holders, etc. so we could make a late-night escape to the bars with our friends.

Flowers by Elaine Taylor: A+ If you’ve driven down Camp Lowell, you’ve probably seen The Grey House - an adorable antiques shop overflowing with furniture, china, and other delightful odds and ends. For several years, this has been the base of operations for Elaine and her shopmates. Unfortunately, The Grey House is closing (to reopen in another location later this year), and Elaine has moved on, as well. Her contact information can be found here, but I’m not sure that she’s going to be doing weddings anymore. Which is a shame, because she did a superb job. She put together beautiful arrangements and displays, a gorgeous bouquet, and everything was delivered and set up quickly and perfectly. Oh yeah, and she came in $1000 under budget, even using peonies!

Cake by Ambrosia of Tucson: A+ When Mr. Lovebug and I originally went cake hunting, we had plans to go to this bakery, two hours north of where we live. Logic prevailed, and we decided to get our cake locally. So we went to this popular bakery, where disaster ensued. In fact, we’ve filed a Better Business Bureau complaint against them (which you can see on the BBB website); it’s probably better that I leave it at that. However, our problem with them led us to the wonderful, talented Jaynie of Ambrosia of Tucson. I can’t say enough good things about our experience with her. Her cakes are delicious, she’s incredibly warm and enthusiastic - and she’s so, so talented. (Hello? She published a book on cake decorating.) Day of, the delivery and set up of the cake just basically happened, without me or Mr. LB having to be there to supervise. And it was a PERFECT replica of the photo I’d given her for inspiration. We were absolutely just delighted with it.

DJ and lighting by Luke Bishop of Satyr Entertainment: A+ Again, another vendor I couldn’t have been happier with. Luke’s turnaround time on (my zillion or so) emails is about half a second. When I was confused and overwhelmed by our lighting options, he went out of his way to explain every single one in detail with examples. He handled communication with our venue about some technical issues, and completely took the problem off my shoulders. He followed my control-freak playlist to a T, and the sound and music for our ceremony was perfect. At the reception, he and his assistant and set everything up without a hitch - he even brought three different shades of pink lighting gels for me to choose from, in case at the last minute I didn’t like the one I’d chosen. Throughout the ceremony, his MC’ing was fun, funny, upbeat, and basically perfect. Everything went so smoothly, from the introduction to the cake cutting to playing any random song that popped into our heads.

String Quartet - The Camus Quartet: A+ If you’re shopping for a quartet in Tucson, check ’em out. Especially if you like your stringed music to be a little different. Such as, oh, Radiohead, the Beatles, the Plain White T’s…

Invitations - Ephemera Custom Letterpress: A+ If you’ve seen our save the dates, our invitations, or our programs and charity cards, then you already know how I feel about Tara’s work. She’s the perfect vendor: down to earth and funny, and totally talented and professional. A dream to work with, period.

The one last “vendor” I want to review is our officiant, Melissa Mantha, who deserves an entire post of her own. (But you can check out her website here!)

In addition to these, I also met/interviewed a number of other local wedding vendors. I’m happy to share my experiences with any Tucson brides - just shoot me an email if you have a specific question!