VENDOR REVIEW: Ryan Holloway Photography

One of the biggest things on a bride's 'To Do List' is finding a photographer. For some this is an easy process. For others, this process can be a long and grueling one. Unfortunately, it was long and grueling for us. :( It seemed like everyone we found was either way out the budget, were already booked, or were unprofessional. For awhile, we were close to just handing one of our friends a digital camera and getting them to do our wedding pics!! (Well not really, but you get the point of how frustrated we were..lol)

Anywho, finally we came across Ryan Holloway Photography. Ryan is based out of Northern Virginia so we made an appointment with him immediately. When we arrived we were greeted with a super friendly and professional guy. He talked us through our options and listened to what we wanted. We also got him to do one of our engagement photo sessions as well. Ryan and his wife (she works with him too) were great to work with! They really captured all aspects of our wedding day! We loved his work! If you are in the VA,DC, MD area, I would highly recommend checking out Ryan Holloway Photography (and he's reasonably priced too)

http://ryanholloway.smugmug.com/

Here are a few of my fav pics! Stay tuned for a few more when I do our Real Wedding feature soon!

MY WEDDING DRESS - Vendor Review: JuliusBridal.com

I cant say enough great things about the place I got my wedding dress from. Julius Bridal is run by Julius and his wife and they were sooo nice to work with. I initially found out about them from my BF, Jackie. She had a friend who ordered her wedding dress online from them. When I went on the website, I noticed they had tons of dresses that were really reasonably priced but I had already put a deposit down on a dress I "thought" I liked alot. Once I looked further on the site, I realized they had a physical location in Long Island, NY. They are located inside of a full service bridal center and their showroom is beautiful! There was one dress I saw online that I was particularly in love with so that was the first one I tried on... and there was no need to try on anything else after that! I LOVED LOVED LOVED it!
And that is definitely the feeling a bride should have when choosing a gown. The first dress I put a deposit on... I liked but definitely didnt really love it. Sooo needless to say, I was so happy that I found my dream dress!

At the time I purchased it, it was only $799 !!!!!!!!!
Not to mention, the price even included alterations!
Here is a pic of the front and back of my dress from the website.


FYI: This dress is now $1399 (so I guess it went up shortly after I purchased mine) Julius did tell me this is a very popular dress.

Also, if you want to design your own dress, you can send them the sketches and they will make it for you! I would definitely recommend Julius Bridal if you are looking for a wedding gown. Im telling you, they are super great to work with. And dont be thrown off by the website. Its pretty basic, nothing over the top. But they have a large variety and very reasonable prices.

If you are in the NY area, you can check them out at:
Elegant Affairs & Bridal Center
Address: 221 Atlantic Avenue
Oceanside, NY 11572
Phone: 516-208-7620 (ask for Julius Bridal)

Monday – Tuesday – Wednesday – Fri. 11:00 A.M. till 8:00 P.M.
Thursday and Saturday -- 12:00 P.M. till 9:00 P.M.
Sunday 12:00 P.M till 6:00 P.M.

info@juliusbridal.com

If you are not in the NY area, check out the website ww.juliusbridal.com

I still haven't gotten our professional pictures back yet, but here are a few pics of me wearing the actual dress! I truly loved it and got sooooo many compliments on it (even from guys) LOL

VENDOR REVIEW: His & Her Catering Service

Originally, we were going to do something really small for the rehearsal dinner...but we changed our minds and decided to hire a caterer for it. I contacted His & Her Catering Service because I had been to a few events they catered and thought the food was great. Shaletha, one of the owners, was absolutely great! She worked with me to pick a menu. We decided to go with a Pasta Bar so our guests had the option of spagetti and penne pasta, alfredo & marinara sauce, meatballs, sauteed shrimp, and grilled chicken. We also had toss salad, garlic bread and rolls, lemon pound cake and strawberries, and Ice Tea.

We had about 75 people at the rehearsal dinner and everyone loved the food. It was so good, we ran out! And when we ran out, they even brought more food in for us! They were there to set up on time, the staff on hand was very friendly, and they are reasonably priced. If you are in the Richmond, Va area and looking for a caterer for any event, I would definitely recommend His & Her Catering!

www.hisandhercatering.com

P.S. Sorry I dont have any pictures of the rehearsal dinner...I was SUPER exhausted the day before my wedding. Being a DIY bride has a price....lack of rest!! lol

VENDOR REVIEW: Holiday Inn, Colonial Heights, VA

One of the most important steps in wedding planning is finding a venue. Needless to say, this is not a fun process at all. Depending on where you live, it may be harder for you than others. Major metropolitan areas usually have alot of venues but they may be booked far out in advance.

I contacted about 7 or 8 places and ended up going with the new Holiday Inn in Colonial Heights, Va. When I went to the Holiday Inn to check it out initially, I didn't know what to expect. I think I associated Holiday Inn to the old school, run down Holiday Inns I remember seeing around years ago. But let me tell you, the Holiday Inn has really stepped their game up! I'm not sure if this is the case for all of them but this one really surprised me. It was very nice and I loved the decor! It was especially nice to do it at this particular hotel too because the area where the ballroom is located is like a separate wing of the hotel. So hotel guests don't have to walk through your event to get to their rooms.

I worked with the event coordinator there, Vibha, who did a great job helping me get everything together! When we went to do the tasting, the chef came out and introduced himself and offered suggestions on what we should go with for our food options. And the food was great! During the weekend of the wedding, the general manager helped out alot with setting up the reception and was a pleasure to work with as well. The whole staff was friendly from the front desk clerks to the servers and bartenders at reception! We are extremely glad we chose to have our reception there and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a reception/event venue. We invited about 220 people so it was a little tight in the ballroom with the amount of tables we needed but we made it work.

Check out some of the pics of the hotel in general. They probably don't give the hotel its full justice but you get a general idea:

Wing where ballroom is located


If you have a bar, this is the area where they set it up


Lobby


Cafe


Hallway

VENDOR REVIEW: EmpireSupplies.com

As I blog about everything I did for my wedding, I will review some of the vendors or companies I used. Todays Vendor Review is on www.empiresupplies.com! DONT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY!!! I repeat DONT SUPPORT THIS COMPANY!!

I placed an order for wedding sparklers on Oct 8, 2009. The website says they ship out of Northvale, NJ....which isnt far from the Philly area so you would think it should not take long to receive it. I JUST received the package on Oct 26...over a week AFTER my wedding! Not to mention, their website told me it shipped a long time ago but I see on the package that the shipping label wasnt even created until 10/22!!! I tried to reach out to the company numerous times via phone and email and to this day have yet to hear back from them. The site says they have great customer service but thats definitely not the case!!

So if you do decide to buy something from them, keep your fingers crossed that you actually get it in a timely manner! I will NEVER shop buy from them again! And will be sure to tell everyone not to buy anything from that site either!!

P.S. This is the only bad vendor review I have :)