Florist
Terri Jackson with Fiori del Sole (www.fioridelsole.com)
Rating: A+
Cost: $750
Review: Highly Recommended
Terri was one of my favorite vendors to work with. We used all calla lilies and tulips for our flowers and she did way more than I ever imagined with our flowers! She's such a sweetheart to work with and was constantly checking in to make sure everything was going okay and to see if she could do anything. On the day of, she totally surprised me - I wanted to have flowers for centerpieces at the reception, but I couldn't afford to do all tulips. So we settled beforehand on doing whatever pink flowers were cheapest the day of. She called me while I was getting into my dress to say that she had managed to do all my centerpieces in pink tulips...I almost cried! They looked so beautiful and I had so many comments on how gorgeous the flowers were.

D.J.
Kevin Smith with Embrace Entertainment (www.embraceentertainment.com)
Rating: A+
Cost: $595
Review: Highly Recommended
Kevin was fantastic both throughout the planning process and during the wedding. We met with him about 3 times before the wedding and he always had new, creative ideas for us! His "DJ-ing" skills are fabulous - I had SO many comments after the wedding on how great the music was and how there was the perfect mix of country, rap, pop, etc. He kept everyone from my grandparents to my college friends on the dance floor all night! We ended up leaving early from sheer exhaustion and he said something to DH about how he hoped we weren't leaving because of him...Oh my gosh, NO! He was so wonderful and so reasonably priced. I couldn't have been happier with his services!

Ceremony Location
Texas Baptist Children's Home (www.tbch.org)
Rating: A+
Cost: $350
Review: Highly Recommended
I can't tell you how many compliments I got on the church and am still getting on it. It is a beautiful, intimate church. The stained glass on all sides of it is gorgeous and it's so, so timeless. Someone told me that it's "the" chapel you see in movies and stuff, and I agree. Our ceremony was picture perfect and I couldn't have been more happy with TBCH. We did very, very little decorating - we rented iron candelabras and tied white tulle bows on the pews and it was perfect to me. It's small - our 180 people were a bit crammed (it seats about 210), but it felt so full with our family and friends that I wouldn't have changed the size at all. I would use this place again in a heartbeat!

Iron Rentals
Mancino Iron Works (www.mancinoiron.com)
Rating: A+
Cost: $90
Review: Highly Recommended
These things were gorgeous and affordable! They added so much to the church without being overpowering. Alan was SO, SO great to work with! When we were picking up the candleabras, there was a bad wreck on I-35...We were about 30 minutes late and he was so understanding about everything. We picked them up on Thursday and then my parents returned them for us on Monday. I was so thankful he didn't make us pick up the day of the wedding and return the day after like many places do. He runs this opperation out of his home, but he has a ton of stuff. His garage is completly full of it! If you want a unique candleabra or anything "iron" contact him!

Wedding Dress
David's Bridal (www.davidsbridal.com)
Rating: A+
Cost: $699 in store, $900 total (with accessories)
Review: Highly Recommended
David's Bridal was great for me...In the beginning I had a dress that I bought right after we got engaged. Six months later, I wasn't so crazy about it ;) They let me exchange it, as long as the dress I bought was more expensive than the one I originally had. I am SO thankful for this! Looking at pictures, I just fall in love with my dress over and over again. It is the dress for me. I didn't have the budget to be a two-dress bride, so if they wouldn't have let me exchange, I'd have been stuck with my first dress and would have been unhappy about it. Yes, they won't wine and dine you...but if you're a budget bride, they have some fantastic dresses. And seriously...who looks at the label of your dress to see who designed it on your wedding day? I know some people are hung up on the designer, but I'm really all about the price!

Bridesmaid's Dresses
White House Black Market (www.whiteandblack.com)
Rating: A+
Cost: $128 a piece
Review: Highly Recommended
My entire goal in picking bridemaid's dresses was to get something the girls were comfortable in and could wear again. Every single one of them LOVED this dress and it flattered all of their body types. I thought it looked great with their pink tulips contrasting it and all of the uniqueshoes that I let them pick (gasp!) I love WHBM to begin with, but when one of my BM's didn't get her dress ordered on time and they had discontinued the style, they jumped through hoops to get the dress on her doorstep the next morning! And I know of one of my girls who has already worn her dress again :) I'm so glad they loved them!

Alterations
Carol Redman with Bridal Arena (www.bridalarena.com)
Rating: A+
Cost: $70
Review: Highly Recommended
My dress really fit great, but I needed a bustle. I didn't really want to go through David's Bridal and Sherrie Clubb was all booked up. So I contacted Carol. She is an older woman, but she is so sweet! My bustle was fantastic! It stayed put all night and I loved the style of it. She even added a metal closeure to the back of my dress and gave me my something blue (a little crocheted angel that I sewed in the back of my dress) all for free. I really loved her!

Rehearsal Dinner
Buca di Beppo (www.bucadibeppo.com)
Rating: A+
Cost: $1500
Review: Highly Recommended
This is the food that everyone was talking about, and is still talking about! The atmosphere, the service, the food...everything here was fantastic. We had the Wine Room all to ourselves and we got to pick two appetizers, two entrays, a side dish and a dessert. The staff kept bringing huge platefuls of the family-style dishes out and everyone was stuffed! We had so much food that our guests boxed up to take home and eat the next day :) They even sang "Going to the Chapel" to Greg and I before the night was over. This place was one of the best parts of the weekend!

Invitations
DIY from Garden Ridge Pottery
Rating: A+
Cost: $185 for 150 invitations
Review: Highly Recommended
My advice: If you can DIY, do it! I got a ton of compliments on our invitations and they were an arm and a leg cheaper than what I would've paid to have them done. We bought the sets at Garden Ridge and printed them on our home computer. I got exactly what I wanted and had quite a few leftovers so I didn't have to worry about keepsake ones for my family. Even though it took some time, I'd definitely do it again.

Outer Envelopes
California Paper Goods(www.papergoods.com)
Rating: A+
Cost: $50 for 100
Review: Highly Recommended
I needed Giant 6x9 outer envelopes to send with my invitations and this was really the only place that had them. But even if they weren't, I'd use them again. They are fantastic quality and they arrived on my doorstep a few days after I ordered them. I was really pleased with this purchase.

Manicure
Halina's European Day Spa(www.halinaeuroskin.com/rr)
Rating: A+
Cost: $60 for two (including tips)
Review: Highly Recommended
The day before the wedding, I treated my mom to a manicure. We went together and had so much fun! I hate ruining my nails when I get fake ones, so I opted for just french polish on my own nails. It lasted forever! After swimming in the ocean in Mexico and opening presents a week later, it was still on there looking almost exactly like it did the day they put it on. My mom ruined hers a few days later cleaning, but the experience and the atmosphere was so great and relaxing and it was so fun to hang out with my mom for a couple hours.

Wedding Night Hotel
Lakeway Resort and Spa(lakeway.dolce.com)
Rating: A+
Cost: ~$350
Review: Highly Recommended
Can we say gorgeous? I loved this place so much and I didn't want to leave the next morning. We got the "romance package," so there were chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne waiting in our room for us when we got there and we got breakfast in bed the next morning. The beds were soooo comfy, the room was huge, the view was great and the food was phenomenal. We're already planning when we want to go stay there again!

Garters
By BlueSapphire07
Rating: A+
Cost: $30
Review: Highly Recommended
What can I say? We all know and love blue! My garters were made fantastically and I'm so glad to have a keepsake one to remember the day by. I only ended up wearing the keepsake one because two was a little uncomfortable to me (I'm weird like that!), but we put the toss one on right before the garter toss and it worked well! Use blue, hands down. Don't even think about anyone else! She's phenomenal.

Catering
Eat-Out-In Catering (Worked with Amy Komurek) (www.eatoutin.com/)
Food: Chili's Guiltless Grilled Chicken, Rice Pilaf, Mixed Vegetables, and Corn on the Cob
Eat-Out-In Rating: A
Food Rating: B
Cost: $1900 to feed 190 people
Review: Highly Recommended
Eat-Out-In was a great company to work with. Amy was a great coordinator to work with and I always felt like she was focusing only on my wedding (which is far from the truth!). The price was fantastic and we definitely couldn't have gotten what we did for the price anywhere else. That being said, I was disappointed with Chili's the night of - I've had their guiltless grill platters in the restaurant before and I've always liked them. I found the chicken to be somewhat dry and the veggies unflavorful. Overall I was incredibly happy with the service though. Eat-Out-In provided everything - we didn't have fancy china like I dreamed of, but plastic worked just as well and I never heard any complaining about it ;)

Reception Location
Jean Cochran Community Center (www.fernbluffmud.org/center.htm)
Rating: A
Cost: $1500 (+$1000 refundable Security Deposit)
Review: Highly Recommended
I loved the Jean Cochran Center. They were so easy to work with, they provided all the "hardware" for centerpieces (vases, votive holders, etc.), and it definitely doesn't look like most community centers! They've changed the leadership up a bit around there and I'm not as fond of the new people as I was the old...but they definitely were still great! I gave them a detailed time-line of stuff the needed to do (light candles, take punch out of the freezer, etc.) and they did it all the day of. There was a coordinator there all day, from 10am to 12am(the same guy...I felt so bad for him!) and they were really flexible with us.

Tuxedo Rentals
Men's Warehouse (www.menswearhouse.com)
Rating: B
Cost: $60/tux, groom's free
Review: Recommended
The reason we went with Men's Warehouse is because we'd gotten a good deal at one of the Bridal Expo's. Let me start off by saying that everything ended up alright, the tuxes looked great, and after Friday, we had no problems with them. Now that that is out of the way...On Friday, right before the rehearsal, my dad calls me saying that Men's Warehouse doesn't have record of Brayden (one of the ring bearer's) ever getting fitted for a tux, and that he can't get a tux now, 24 hrs. before the wedding. I do what most brides would do and freak out because (a) He's my ring bearer and I love him! and (b) I had called them the Tuesday after the deadline to get fitted for a tux and they said everyone had been fitted...how the heck can they not have record of it now? After about an hours worth of hassle they let Brayden go get measured and then overnight the tux to the store...so it all worked out okay in the end. I'd probably use them again, but they still pissed me off.

Cake
The Sweet Stuff (www.thesweetstuff.com)
Cake Taste: A+
Service Rating: C-
Cost: $560 ($1.85/serving + free anniversary layer)
Review: Cautiously Recommended
This review is hard for me to write. I gave them two ratings because I was nearing a panic attack a month before the wedding when I had tried for two weeks to get ahold of Michelle and couldn't get ahold of her in any way I tried. When I finally did contact her, she blamed it on the fact that I was calling her cell phone (a number she gave me) and that her cell phone doesn't work in her bakery...My question - did you not check the 5,000 messages I left when you got home? It was not until I threatened to find another baker that she called me back and told me that she had a different email now (one that is not advertised on her web site), so I was using all the wrong information to contact her. After I finally did get in touch with her, she was better, but definitely not what I would call professional. The cakes were her only saving grace - they were delicious and exactly what I wanted them to look like. We had so many comments on how moist the cakes were and the grooms cake was completely gone at the end of the night and there were only a few pieces of mine left. It's hard to say whether I'd use them again...I was so, so disappointed in the service I got, but in the end it all worked out okay...and Michelle's prices are lower than you'd find anywhere else in Central Texas.

**Our officiant, videographer, and my hair-stylist are all close family friends. Contact me at libbyann at gmail dot com if you are interested in their services.**