Wow! It looks like I'm the first to post a vendor review in this section.
Our wedding day was beautiful even though we had a few crisises (is that a word?) to deal with before the big day including our Best Man being too sick to fly and our MOH's dress not fitting until days before the wedding. Even though the skies were grey and it was raining all morning, it cleared up in time for pictures.
We had a great day and enjoyed working with all of our vendors.
Here are my vendor reviews. I thought I had better post this before I forgot everything. I wish I had more pictures to go along with the reviews. I hope it helps those of you in the planning stages.
Ceremony and Reception Venue:
Hotel le Soleil
A+
We had our ceremony in the “Le Soleil” penthouse suite and our reception dinner in the hotel restaurant “Copper Chimney”. If you’re planning a small wedding check this place out! The hotel is a gorgeous “boutique” hotel with amazing furnishings. It’s an independent hotel with service that is hard to beat. They made us look GOOD!
First of all I have to say that the hotel was FANTASTIC! We dealt with Ellen Leung who is the sales manager for the hotel and she bent over backwards to make sure we were happy. We held the ceremony in the penthouse suite and the hotel staff removed all the furniture from the living room area and created an aisle and altar for us. They provided all the chairs and the table for our unity candle and flowers and for signing the registry.
After the ceremony we had a cocktail hour where one of the hotel staff set up a table and served drinks to our guests. This was also held in the penthouse suite.
After the cocktail hour we went downstairs to the second floor of the hotel where we had the mezzanine level of the restaurant all to ourselves. Our guest list was 25 people and the mezzanine was perfect for this number. The hotel provided all the table linens and also provided a podium with a microphone for our speeches. Although you can see into the rest of the restaurant from the mezzanine if you look over the railing, we felt like our reception was totally private. Now, with all the fantastic service and gorgeous décor, we would have been completely satisfied if the food was only mediocre but not only were we satisfied, we were BLOWN AWAY!!!! The food was incredible. They allowed us to choose 4 entrees from their regular menu and they made special menu cards just for us. We chose 1 soup (chicken Portobello… to die for) 2 salads and 4 entrees which included stuffed chicken breasts, rack of lamb, black Angus steak and halibut filet. Our guests raved that it was the best food they had ever had at a wedding!
I cannot say enough about this venue. The hotel staff was very friendly and extremely accommodating. The prices were very good and the hotel is so gorgeous it requires very little décor. I would highly recommend them for a wedding of up 35 people.
Flowers and Décor:
Bridal Beginnings
A
Larissa at Bridal Beginnings is great to work with. We met with her quite early on in our planning and told her what we were looking for. She provided pictures and paid close attention to detail. She had a lot of great ideas and when we changed our colour scheme just months before the wedding she was encouraging and worked with us to create the floral décor of our dreams. Our bouquets were stunning! She was able to find gorgeous wine coloured calla lilies to match my bridesmaid dresses and she added some Swarovski crystal bouquet stems that I made to our bouquets. The colours were so gorgeous and just “popped” in the photos. She has an open door policy and you can even go and see her work in progress if you want. Although I didn’t have time I would have loved to see her at work on our bouquets. She also created gorgeous ceremony and table arrangements that really turned the penthouse from a living space into a place of celebration!
Musicians:
Violin and Guitar
B-
First, I have to say that this duo performed beautifully during our ceremony and cocktail hour but they were somewhat difficult to deal with during the planning process. They seemed disorganized and not particularly helpful when it came to planning our song selection. I asked them several times for song suggestions and they didn’t respond. When I finally chose our songs they responded to my email that my selections would be fine. Just days before the wedding they had forgotten that I had sent them my selections and assumed they would be playing what ever they wanted! I had to show them emails that I had sent them earlier (that they had responded to) with our song selections. I wasn’t very confident that they would pull through for us but that being said, they played all the songs we requested, in the order requested and did a beautiful job. If you like to keep things very organized and like your vendors to be very helpful then they might not be for you but if you don’t mind dealing with a bit of artistic flakiness they are fantastic musicians. I think that weddings probably aren’t their full time gig so they don’t give them their full attention.
Cake/Cupcakes:
Diva Designs
C+
We were quite disappointed with our wedding cake/cupcakes. Sabrina was so nice to deal with and really worked with us to create a look that worked with our colour scheme. The cupcakes and cake were beautiful and for that I would giver her an “A” BUT unfortunately the taste was not good at all. The cake and cupcakes tasted stale and we ended up throwing most of them away. We allowed for 3 mini cupcakes per person but no-one ate more than one. It’s unfortunate because they were quite pretty.
Photography:
Hamid Attie
A
Hamid was so much fun to work with! Although we haven’t actually seen the pictures yet I have complete confidence in him and his work. We hired him for a half day and he arrived early to take pictures of the girls getting ready. Once we were ready we drove to Coal Harbour for our formals. He really made us feel relaxed and we had a lot of fun! We just love his style and can’t wait to see the pictures!
Videography:
2 IN LOVE (Paul Leung)
A
We weren’t originally planning on having a videographer but we decided to book with Paul and we’re so glad we did! We met with him about a month before the wedding to film our “Love Story”. We drove to Deep Cove and Paul filmed us walking, talking, snuggling and kissing and then we went back to our apartment to film the interview part. He edited it together beautifully with “our song” and we showed the Love Story at our reception. Everyone loved it! It was such a nice touch.
See our love story
here.
On the day of the wedding Paul arrived early to film us getting ready and came along with us for our formal photos. Most of the day he was like a fly on the wall. We barely noticed him at all. He was just off in a corner capturing every smile, hug and tear. We can’t wait to see the video.
For those of you who have decided not to have a video, I would strongly recommend reconsidering. Our day went so fast and I felt like I missed so much. I can’t wait to see the video so I can see the parts of the ceremony that I missed and re-live the parts I was there for. Also, the speeches were so touching; I can’t wait to see them again. Without the video I would have to rely on my memory and there was so much going on during the day that it’s all a blur to me now. Watching the video will give me a chance to re-live my big day.
Hair and Make up:
Pamper me Pretty
B
Before:
After:
Ok, I’ll start by saying I am VERY PICKY when it comes to my hair and make up. Pamper me Pretty came to my house and gave me a free consultation to ease my mind about 6 weeks before the wedding. Jinesa (make up) and Laurin (hair) really worked with me to create a look that I was happy with.
However, on the day of the wedding my make up was quite different from the consultation. I had chosen shades of pink for my eyes for the consultation and on the wedding day she did my eyes with frosty white and silver. Although it looked very pretty in the dimly lit hotel I wasn’t crazy about how it looked in the outdoor photos. I think I look a bit washed out. The girls make up looked good though and they were all quite happy with both the hair and make up. I was pleased with my hair.
They allowed 3 hours for hair and make up for myself, three bridesmaids and my mom but it wasn’t enough. We ended up being 45 minutes late for our photos (which were taken before the ceremony) and because they did mine last, I didn’t really have a chance to make any changes that I might have made if I had more of a chance to look at my make up in different lighting.
All in all, I would recommend them because I know I’m more picky than most but you might want to allow an extra hour to make sure there is time to do everything.
Officiant:
Brent Sheppard
A+
Brent was great and really created the perfect ceremony for us. My husband is Jewish but neither of us is very religious. We wanted a ceremony that would be romantic and non-religious but still honour Mike’s Jewish heritage and he did a wonderful job. He is articulate and very funny and managed to create a very personal ceremony for us having only met us once. He had some great suggestions for us and we ended up having a unity candle and did the traditional Jewish “glass breaking” at the end of our ceremony. He included a reading that we requested that had many of our guests in tears (of joy of course). He really wanted to make our ceremony personal and had no problem with our unique situation. He has done 1000’s of weddings including theme weddings and seems to be a really good sport. He’s up for just about any idea you throw at him. If you’re looking for a fun officiant he’s your man!
Limousine:
Classic Limousine Service
A
They were great to deal with on the phone and included a red carpet for us to walk on and napkins and decor to match our colours. We only used them for when we went for photos and he followed us along on our walk in Coal Harbour so we wouldn't have to walk far to get back to him. The prices were good and they were quick to return all of our calls. Highly recommended.
That's all I can think of for now. I hope these reviews will help some of you in the planning stages.
I love your wedding gown - simple yet elegant - fit you perfectly! Great photos and video. Any more photos and videos to share later?
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