I know y'all are probably all wedding photo-ed out, but I can't end this little mini-series without giving a shout out to my vendors that made it all possible. Plus, I have several friends (and my mother!) planning weddings right now, so if you want *my opinion*, here it is.
The Venue: The Callahan House
I can't believe that I lived in Longmont for well over half my life without knowing about this gorgeous little historic garden. As you've seen, it is so breath-taking and there are about a billion perfect photo backdrops. There's also history here. The original owners, back in 1896, the house was purchased by a very well-to-do couple in Longmont. Among other things they were known for, my favorite piece of history was that the husband, T.M. Callahan, owned a series of general merchandise stores in the Rocky Mountain regions. One of his employees was none other than Mr. J. C. Penney himself! It was meant to be.
The house was presented to the City of Longmont as a meeting and social gathering place for women. This is still true and the income that they get from big events, such as weddings, helps to maintain this goal. So using this place as our venue was really helping our community, history and women--we were happy to oblige.
Kathy was who we worked with to put our wedding together. Her planning services were included in the cost of renting the venue. And you know what? It was worth every single penny. Kathy helped us with the planning, made sure we had all of our ducks in a row ("your brother is playing your precession song? he'll need a wireless mike, where is his guitar going to be?"), contacted all of our vendors to make sure they were on top of it and keep everything on schedule the day of. Her support staff was there at the rehearsal as well as the day of making sure things got set up the way I wanted, make sure that I had a glass of wine if I wanted and generally make sure things ran smoothly and that Patrick and I were comfortable. In the end, their services alone made the entire event stress-free and perfect. The gorgeous scenery, the amazing history and the location didn't hurt either.
Bride's Dress and Headpiece: The Altar
I could not believe that I found my perfect dress at a consignment shop off of Colfax. If you live in Colorado, or are familiar with Colorado, you can understand why. But location aside, I was very pleased. The staff is genuinely helpful, the atmosphere is fun and modern and the selection was fantastic. I went down there twice before I found my dress. This should be able to attest to the fact that I enjoyed my experience enough to keep trying back.
Men's Attire: Men's Wearhouse
Or, more specifically, the Men's Wearhouse in Boulder and their manager, Danny. I'm not going to just advocate for all of the attire from the wedding party (all my bridesmaids got their dresses from different retailers), but the service and value we received from Men's Wearhouse was so superior that I just had to talk about it. Even though we went in about an hour or so before close on a Sunday, we were given spectacular customer service. Danny helped us to shape all of the attire for our groomsmen and Patrick. Not only that, but he helped us to maximize our spending by offering several discounts and BOGOs. He shipped all of our suits to the groomsmen themselves, saving us much time, headache and money. Further, at one point (that point being about three weeks before the wedding), we realized that my brother had no shirt. When we realized it, Danny was on vacation. The store offered for me to call him on vacation, which I declined (I did not want to be "that bride"), but the moment he got back, he got everything squared away immediately. I really cannot say enough good things about my experience with them.
The Alterations: The Altar
Not only did I get my dress and my sister's dress at the Altar, but the seamstress that they use for alterations was amazing. She altered my dress, my sister's dress, my cousin's dress and my mom's dress in no time. And she did a great job. She reserved the scalloped hem of my sister's dress and turned my cousin's dress from prom formal to perfect cocktail bridesmaid dress.
Bride's Hair and Make-up: The Spot Salon
When I went in and showed Vanessa what I wanted in my hair and make-up, she knew just what to do. She did a lovely job and got it spot on. I was so pleased with my trial that I scheduled a cut and color with her as well. I had never been to her salon before, but all times I went in since discovering it back in my first stages of planning, you could tell that the clients and the stylists had known each other a while. There was a lot of "how's the back?", "did Sarah graduate?" and even "how's that baby mama situation?" going on. This was a good sign to me. That means, they like it there so much that they keep coming back over and over. During my trial, there was a woman that had moved to a town several miles away that still came all the way to Longmont (Vanessa specifically) to get her hair done. When I was getting my hair colored, there was a woman getting her hair done and her husband actually sat in a chair next to her so they could both talk with the stylist. That says a lot about this place, I think.
Bridesmaids and Flower Girls Hair: Hair Dynamics
I wasn't there when my girls were getting their hair done, so I can't talk about the service itself, but what I do know is this: all their hair looked amazing, the price was very reasonable and these people did four bridesmaids and two flower girls' hair in just a few hours. I think they did a great job.
The Rings: The Shane Company and Adiamor
Obviously, I love my ring and I think that Patrick did a great job picking it out. He had looked several places and said that he was most impressed with the service from The Shane Company and that is what sold him on it. I didn't get to experience this until I went to get my wedding band soldered to my engagement ring. I was so stressed out and freaked out right before the wedding, that my fingers swelled up. I took the rings in and the woman behind the counter asked how she could help me. Without realizing it, my eyes started welling up and some kind of high pitched chirping noise came out of my mouth to the effect of "Itriedonmyringslastnightandit'stoosmallandmyfingersaretoobigandmyweddingisineightdaysandIdon'tknow
whatI'mgoingtodo!!!". She was so kind and helpful and I left feeling so much better. When I picked my ring up, it was even more gorgeous than I remember. And half a size bigger. Patrick and I agreed that since he got to pick out my ring, I would pick out his ring. He didn't get to see it until I slid it on his finger at the ceremony. After much collaboration with his best man, Grant, I decided on this one. Patrick races dwarf cars. He also has, loves and cherishes a big ole Jeep which is all lifted and stuff for four wheeling. Although I thought this ring was perfect for him, I was worried that it might be too lame to get him a tire ring, but Grant assured me it was perfect. Luckily, Patrick ended up loving the ring. I was really nervous ordering his ring from an online store, but as you can probably guess, no other in store jewelers offered such a unique ring. However, Adiamor has a complete money back guarantee if you don't like it. Plus, the ring was shipped about 8 days after I ordered it.
The Flowers: Longmont Florist
I was sooooo nervous to see my flowers. I don't know anything about flowers (I'm a bonefide accidental plant killer). I went in to see Lynda several months before the wedding, told her basically what I needed and my wedding colors and didn't see the flowers until they were delivered to the wedding. They took my breath away. I could not believe how vibrant and beautiful they were. The petals for the flower girls were perfect, the bridesmaids bouquets were just the right size (I loved those orange Gerber Daisies) and my bouquet? The fabulous smell of the Lillys were still perfect when I got back from the honeymoon.
The Officiant: Lin Cressey
Lin was a lifesaver. Our officiant had backed out a month or so before the wedding. I researched Lin on the internet and got a hunch that she was the one when I saw that she also did a variety of different ceremonies including blended families and same sex celebrations. Unfortunately, the night before we were to meet with Lin, we got an email. She had to cancel. Her husband had passed away unexpectedly. We were disappointed, but we understood. Luckily, two weeks or so later, after several other failed attempts at finding someone else and cutting it very close to our wedding, Lin contacted us again. We met with her and we were in love. She was very organized, very loving and relaxed. I was so impressed with her ability to work under such personal stress and loss under a very limited timeframe. She did an amazing job.
The D.J.: A.C.E.S.
You can see Rob's blue shirt in the background of this photo. When I first contacted Rob before the wedding, he was so helpful and professional. He asked me what I liked, what I didn't. He sent us a list of music we should think about and he had a great selection. Basically, I was able to chose allllllll of the music for the wedding with no problem, but I knew I had Rob to fall back on should I need his input. I emailed him several times coming up to the wedding with different tweaks and edits. I was so happy when he sent me back an email saying "no problem, now I need you to do me a favor: relax, take a bath, go shopping. Enjoy yourself. Everything will be fine." He did a great job with the music, the announcements and the timeline. He came to the rehearsal, free of charge, to make sure he could set up properly and where and be prepared. I was really glad he was there.
The Rentals: Colorado Party Rentals
Everyone kept giving me referrals to different rental places in town. I called around everywhere, but was not impressed at all with the selection or the customer service. A big issue we were facing was renting the dance floor. A lot of places had them, but didn't want to do it and/or they were really expensive. So I ventured out to Denver. It was worth paying the trip charge for these people. They had everything that you could ever think of (including the wooden arch that Patrick and I stood under!), at a great price and I talked to the same two people about 50 times while we tweaked all of the numbers and additions to the order. They were delivered and picked up on time and everything was perfect.
The Food: Green Points Catering
It's too bad you all can't taste this food from the pictures, but it was so good. The presentation was perfect, the food was amazing and best of all, the waitstaff kept my wine glass full and made sure they made Patrick and I plates of food to eat so we actually did get to have some food, even though our time was limited to do so by all the mingling and activities. Melissa was our planner and she was so efficient. She did a great job with all of her recommendations. For example, she suggested a kid's buffet because we had so many in attendance of chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese. This kept the kids happy and fed. The bartender was very experienced. He made sure that we got to return a lot of our liquor after the fact, which saved us some money as well. Melissa was there for our final walk through and also helped us to think of things we hadn't otherwise--we would have been quite a few napkins short had it not been for her. Even though she was getting married out of state the week after we were, she was focused, on task and on point.
The Cake: Marcia Cox
We were very fortunate in that Patrick's best man's mother makes cakes professionally. I have to say, she did an outstanding job with our wedding cake. I requested that the topper cake (the one we cut), be fashioned like a piece of wood to go with our motif. She did it and did it well. She made all 250 cupcakes and got the wrappers to match our colors. Best of all, it was delicious. We had four kinds of cupcakes: lemon poppyseed, strawberry, white with raspberry filling and chocolate. All of them had filling and all of them were amazing.
The Liquor: 9th Avenue Liquor Wharehouse
When I talked to Heather, I knew that we wanted to go with their family owned liquor wharehouse. Not only were they familiar with our venue and caterer (actually, they were recommended by our caterer), but they were very professional. After answering a few questions, they knew what we wanted, how to make it cost effective and were very involved. She even gave me her personal cell number to call her with any questions. The company buys back any unused liquor, which was a nice bonus as well. We had plenty to go around and the selection was great. I'm not much of a liquor person, but I will say this--the wine was goooooood.
The Photographer: Krista Watzel Photography
For five posts now, you guys have been blessed in seeing the talents of this young woman. I could not be happier with the job that she did. You think you've seen a lot of gorgeous pictures? We ended up with more than 1,400! And all of them are gorgeous. From the photo booth, the extra photographer on hand and Krista herself, we had candid shots, planned shots, detail shots and much, much more. She was in touch with us through the whole process making sure that we got all the shots we wanted and we ended up with tons that we didn't mention but loved. She could shoot in the daylight, in the evening, inside and out. I am so grateful for all the hard work of her and her staff. A-mazing.
Love the mix. So beautiful!
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