I reviewed our first set of vendors here. Now, here’s everything else.
Jewelry: Helzberg Diamonds (at Cross Creek Mall)
Rating: Highly recommend
We bought my ring set in December, 2010 before Mac deployed and his wedding band in December, 2011 before we married. Both came from Helzberg Diamonds at our local mall, and we used a military discount on them. Holla. I had my rings soldered together and dipped in rhodium to protect the white gold. We both love our rings. The sales staff are extremely helpful and knowledgeable.
Flowers: Fifty Flowers
Rating: Highly recommend
I decided to do our own flowers after meeting with a florist in town. Several Bees used Fifty Flowers and had good experiences. Ours was just as good. Two comments: 1. I over-ordered flowers by several dozen. 2. If you can, practice your arrangments and bouquets ahead of time or take a floral design class. It’ll save your sanity so you don’t realize that you have no idea what you’re doing.
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| The flowers look good even when the men are holding them, |
Rehearsal dinner: Luigi’s
Rating: Highly recommend
We held our rehearsal dinner at our favorite restaurant here in town. We didn’t do anything special like pick a menu; we made a reservation for twenty, and everyone ordered off the normal menu. We had two servers, and we all had a delightful time.
Save the dates: Snapfish
Rating: Highly recommend
I picked our maroon and orange save the dates and bought them with a 50% off coupon code. They arrived quickly and looked great. We wound up needing more, Snapfish saved the design, and reordering was a breeze.
Invitations: Invitation Consultants
Rating: Highly recommend
I customized a stock invitation design with maroon and orange. I also specified in the comments section that we were trying to match Virginia Tech’s colors. Again, we had to reorder more and had no problems. We loved our invitation suite.
Hair and make-up: Sara Simmons at RAS Salon
Rating: Highly recommend
Sara is my usual stylist, so I used her for my wedding hair and make-up. Overall, I loved what she did. In retrospect, I should’ve chosen a more simple hairstyle to keep myself on schedule.
Favors: Totally Wedding Koozies
Rating: Highly recommend
My mother ordered our koozies and had them shipped to our house. They arrived in a few days and in great condition. The colors matched our color scheme, and we used a phrase from our reception cards. We bought the Hershey Kisses at Sam’s. We had lots of leftovers because not all of our guests remembered to take them.
