Need some ideas of good vendors in the Cleveland area? I loved (most of) mine!
Church:
Saint Patrick's Catholic Church on Bridge Avenue in Ohio City, Cleveland. The church has so much history, and is unbelievably beautiful. And the Priest? He is the most adorable old man, EVER! He gives me high-fives every Sunday at mass, and that makes me very happy. I'm easy to impress.
Venue/Catering:
The West Side Irish American Club in Olmsted Township. They have their own catering, on site, PT O'Malley Catering. Our families have been members of the club forever, and know the O'Malley's. They are easy to work with, and the food was SO good!
It even worked as a gorgeous place for pictures. We used the gazebo, the bridge over the lake, and the Irish Cottage on grounds for some awesome snaps.
Photographer: people thought I'd use Tamarie Photography, but I didn't (sometimes I wish I had). I didn't want Tami working the wedding, I wanted her joining me in the fun, so I invited her as a guest instead.
I used
Jerry Clay, we found him at the Bridal Show at the IX Center. My mom liked him, his business card was on a poker chip, and he wasn't some in your face, obnoxious dude trying to upsell us on nonsense. He's been around for a long time, and doesn't mess around with unnecessary frills. On our wedding day, my bridesmaid Julie told me that Jerry was her Senior Portrait Photographer, and our Groomsmen Ryan said they had Jerry for their wedding. Later, I found out that 2 weeks prior, my friend Soledad had used him for her Wedding, too!
However, I am still waiting to hear from him about my 400 free prints I was supposed to receive for singing up at the Bridal Show, and for really any information on how to purchase the rights to my pictures.
Photobooth: I was going to go through Photobooth Cleveland, and that fell through, after getting uber weird vibes from the owner I had spoken with. He had also been pretty rude to me. I don't know that he is always like that and don't want to post bad things, but I decided to walk away. And I'm glad I did.
I found a way better deal with
First Choice Photobooths. The owner Stefan always got back to me immediately, he sent me a ton of proofs of how the strips would be designed, and made adjustments to work with my pickiness with no problems. His staff member, Mike, who worked the wedding was friendly, the price was right, and we got a souvenir photo book with copies of all of the pictures.
Cake: As I mentioned before, Joe and I are not cake eaters. Or desserts in general. However, I'm a sucker for tradition and wanted to have a cake and do the cutting. I went to a Bridal Show and met Sue Becker, from
Becker's Donuts. She had some mock cakes with her and books full of pictures. While browsing one of the books, I saw exactly what I had been picturing in my mind. I didn't do a tasting, I picked a simple cake, and had some sheet cakes in the back to serve.
Flowers: Flowers. We went back and forth on flowers for months. I mentioned to my mom how Costco has nice flowers for cheap, and how a friend of mine made her own bouquets for her maids. My mom decided that would be a great idea and would save some money. However, when we got down to the wire, there's so much you need to do, and we decided it was time to find a florist. However, we did still order Costco flowers and my mom put together the centerpieces the day of the wedding (which is one reason putting together bouquets would be just too much). So, with only 4 weeks until the wedding, we try to find somebody who will make 7 bouquets. We had a few people tell us no way, some becuase it was just too short notice, and one major shop said no because they had one other wedding that day. One other wedding?
We went to
Silver Fox Florist in Westlake and they were more than accomodating. They had 6 weddings going on the day we stopped in to talk to them, and had no problems helping us out. The day of my wedding, they had 7 other weddings, they delivered on time, and the flowers were beautiful.
DJ: Before we were even engaged, Joe and I had decided we would have Gus, owner of
Kidd Productions, DJ our wedding. Joe knows Gus socially from being around Westpark, and I have known him since 2004 when we were both servers at Alfonso's Tuscan Grille in Westpark. Gus has an energy like none other, he knows what to play to get people on the dance floor, and gets involved in order to keep people out there. Best of all, he kept reminding me that it was all about what Joe and Maura wanted, not anybody else. Some of you may remember me worrying that he wouldn't show because he didn't give us a contract, but trust me, he's legit and professional. I did get my contract and he did everything that was asked of him.
(picture from my DJ's birthday party January 2014)
Live Music: My nephew (who was 12 at the time) and a few of his friends he plays Traditional Irish Music with, decided to start a band. Let me tell you, they rock! Just yesterday, they were invited to be on a radio program, not too shabby for some teenagers loving their irish roots! The band is named
The Roundabouts and they are available for booking, check out the facebook page I have linked. Joining the band for a few songs, were Joe's 2 brothers, and Mr Al O'Leary on accordian. They played cocktail hour, and my nephew played the voilin before the wedding ceremony.
Chair Covers: we used
The Cover Girlz located out of Avon. They are familiar with my venue, they are easy to work with, and they had a lot of options.
Hair and Makeup: The day I got engaged, I facebook messaged my friend from all the way back in Junior High, Jessica Miller, and told her I'd be in need of her makeup services sometime in September. She was actually the first vendor booked! Jessica works for Bobbi Brown, and is a wedding makeup artist with
Kajal by Kimberly.
All of the hair girls I know, work at salons, and wouldn't have a Saturday off to come do hair for 6 people, so I asked Jessica if she had any recommendations. She did! She suggested her friend and neighbor, Brittany Wise, who not long ago, started her wedding hair career.
This was awesome, because we didn't have to worry about making it to appointments and rushing around all morning. The bridesmaids came to my parents house, as well as Jessica and Brittany, and we all hung out, had mimosas, and got pampered!
Have any questions about my vendors? Ask away!
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