Vendor review: the big stuff

Now that my recaps are pretty much done, I decided to review each of our vendors and give my personal recommendations about their service. Please note that this is based solely on our experiences, and I will provide some extra commentary for each one.

My ratings:

Highly recommend
Recommend
Do not recommend

Venue, ceremony chairs, and linens: Cape Fear Botanical Garden
Rating: Highly recommend with reservations

Overall, we loved the Cape Fear Botanical Garden. We held our ceremony on the Main Lawn at the Gazebo and hosted our cocktail hour and reception in the Orangery. I personally think that this is the best (hands-down) wedding venue in Fayetteville, NC. I will caveat this because of the cost. We spent over $4000 at the Botanical Garden alone between the two spaces and linens. If you are considering the Botanical Garden, be aware that they have exclusive contracts with two caterers and with several rental companies (you have to use one of these providers). The chairs, tables, and linens were set up just like we asked even though the Events Coordinator quit the day before our wedding.

Caterer: The Invisible Chef
Rating: Highly recommend

I really enjoyed our menu and the quality of the food from the Invisible Chef. We wound up with too much food because we had around ten no-shows the day of the wedding, so we froze some of the leftovers and took the rest on our honeymoon. We picked the Invisible Chef because it was the cheaper of the two caterers and were very happy with our choice. I will note that Keith (The Invisible Chef) is very easy to work with but not so easy to get a hold of. He doesn’t respond to emails in the timeliest fashion, so don’t leave any decisions to the last minute.

Wedding planner / Day of Coordinator: Designs by Lady Vye (Vivian Baldwin)
Rating: Highly recommend

Vivian and her assistant were a delight to work with. We chose her “day of coordination” package because we just needed someone to oversee the vendors and keep us sane the day of. They set up all the decor just as we asked and made everything go smoothly.

Photographer: Carolina MediaStar
Rating: Highly recommend

I booked Sarah and Terry of Carolina MediaStar before meeting them in person. In the end, we made the perfect choice. They arrived on time and were ready to go (even why I wasn’t). As I mentioned, we planned to do portraits ahead of time, but we ran out of time. They stayed over the five hours of their contract and really captured our wedding. Note: because we got married in the middle of “wedding season,” our photos took longer in editing. They edit each photo, and we had over 500.

Cake: Sweet Boutique Bakery
Rating: Highly recommend

We found Sweet Boutique through the Botanical Garden’s wedding show. While our tasting was rather hectic and crowded, we loved their cake choices. The colors they chose were perfect, and they made great use of our leftover flowers. Again, we wound up with a lot of leftover cupcakes (we ordered before we had a definite RSVP count), but they froze beautifully. Our cutting cake was beautiful and delicious. I’ve seen some negative reviews for Sweet Boutique, but we had a fantastic experience with them.

DJ / Lighting: Five Star Entertainment
Rating: Recommend

Five Star Entertainment is the premier DJ in Fayetteville, and they are consistently ranked by The Knot as a best pick here in town. We used them for DJ-ing and for lighting. Just a few small issues: first, we requested a stand microphone for the ceremony for Mac and me. They provided a lavaliere microphone (the kind that clips to a shirt or jacket) for just Mac. Secondly, they played the wrong music during cocktail hour and dinner. We opted for late-90s alternative rock (like Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox 20, etc), and Mark played easy listening music. Finally, Mark was a bit too literal with our song list. Generally, DJs work off of what the bride and groom request and fill in music. Mark didn’t play any music if we hadn’t written a particular song, so we wound up with some awkward lulls without music. But a perk: we selected white lighting (I was concerned about matching colors), and they set up color bars that alternated colors. It was nice ambiance.

Like red here

And blue here

Car services: Cowboy Limo
Rating: Recommend

We rented a party bus from Cowboy Limo but opted not to have a traditional limo or hired car for ourselves. Our guests were surprised and pleased that our bus was, in fact, a bus and not a 15 passenger van. Russell, our driver, was on time and courteous. Only one run with guests was late (impressive, considering the traffic on the route from the hotel), and none of our guests got DUIs. Yippee. My one comment is that Russell called the day before the wedding while we were stuck in traffic (and ultimately late to our rehearsal) to discuss the timeline. He proceeded to tell me how much he expected us to tip and that we should be glad he didn’t require his tip up front like some drivers. Ummmm. A tip is based on the quality of service provided, not you showing up and providing the service we paid for as written in the contract. I’m glad that the only time I saw him on wedding day was after his last run when I gave him his bloody tip. Otherwise, I might’ve gone Bridezilla and decked him.

All photos courtesy of Carolina MediaStar.