A big THANKS to all our amazing vendors.

WARNING - this will be a LONG post that may not be very interesting to all our readers, but it's important to us!

As Travis and I discovered through all our wedding planning, vendors can literally make or break the process and the day. Choosing the right vendors for your wedding is crucial- they're there to help bring all your visions to life and to make things a little easier for you. While we initially started our vendor hunt in the dark, we quickly realized that the best way to find vendors near you is through word of mouth...and since literally EVERY SINGLE vendor we used was absolutely amazing, we wanted to do a little review here for any future brides and grooms that happen to stumble upon this blog. And friends, feel free to forward onto any engaged couples you know! You won't regret booking any of these folks, we promise.

I'm sure I'm forgetting someone...I'll update as I go! We'll also be sure to post photos when we get them!

Photo by my sweet middle school friend Audrey (of Audrey Leanna Photography)

Venue: The most important, by far. It sets the tone and feel for you entire day. We fell in love with Casa Real at Ruby Hill Winery the second we walked in there for our best friends' wedding 2 years before ours. Not only are the grounds breathtaking, the offer a lot of stress-reducing perks - the venue itself does ALL the catering and offers full open bar with your package, as well as provides all the linens, flatwear, tables, chairs, etc you will need. This is huge, because having to find caterers and rentals can be a lot of added stress. Additionally, they offer you a day of coordinator, who will make sure your wedding day runs perfectly. We worked with Zainab (or "Z") through the whole process, and she not only kept us on schedule for a year with everything we needed to turn in, she answered questions, met us with countless times and executed our day perfectly. We couldn't have been happier.

Photographer: It's been a dream of mine to use Ashley Maxwell Photography ever since I was a young girl and obsessed with her blog. Ashley truly has so much talent and creativity when it comes to photos - she makes everyone look like an angel. Her package comes with both an engagement session and the wedding photos, as well as an album of your favorites. Her husband and her tag-team the day, so you get photos of the people and the details. Yes, she's a little bit pricey - but to be honest, you really get what you pay for. I'd use her time and time again, no hesitation. She also happens to literally be the nicest person ever...which is super important, because taking pictures can sometimes be awkward. She makes it comfortable and fun, and we adore her.

Sneak peak by Ashley Maxwell Photography

We also were blessed to take some other photos (a Save the Date shoot, and my sister and I did a Bride/Maid of Honor shoot) with 1985Luke's Photography. Luke and BreAnne (a dream team husband and wife duo) are incredible - their photos are so gorgeous and creative, as people they are hilarious and so sweet (we just laugh the whole time) and they're reasonably priced. You can tell they have a true passion for weddings and people and want to give you a great time and a great deal - in our sister shoot, we got over 400 edited images! We are so excited to call them not only one of our favorite and highly recommended photographers, but our friends too. :)

Videographer: Here's where the recommendations come in - I was stressed having not booked a videographer a few months out from our wedding, and lovely Bre (of 1985Luke) recommended Major Diamond Productions to us. We were initially hesitant, but it took maybe 5 minutes on the phone with Jennifer Mae to know that I just had to book them. I truly believe that Jennifer Mae, her husband Chris and their teammate Christine are the best in the Bay - Jennifer Mae laid out everything we get in a package with them, and she could tell it was on the upper end of our budget...and she adjusted and accommodated to make us feel comfortable. The coolest thing about their package: their infamous Same Day Edit - at your wedding, they film from the second you start getting ready until the end, and then Jennifer Mae takes a chunk of the pre-wedding and ceremony festivities and edits them DURING your reception into a beautiful little video and then shows it to your guests at the end :) I can honestly say it was one of the highlights of our day! If you need a videographer, look no further. Side note: they also offer photography that is amazing as well!

Florist: This was also a random recommendation from a co-worker, and also one of our favorite vendors. Bobby at Flower Divas was nothing short of incredible. She was thorough, responsive, easy to work with, the proposal was extensive (full of photos and descriptions) so we felt confident that we were going to get what we were envisioning - she created florals like I've never seen before. She reduced the budget where we needed to, she offered countless discounts and credits to make us feel more comfortable, and provided a sample centerpiece (which isn't usually provided) for us to see in advance what they would look like. Booking her was a dream come true, and she truly transformed our wedding into a Fall wonderland. We can't recommend them enough - even Travis commented on how amazing the flowers were! My bouquet was MASSIVE! We were so happy.

Paper Products: Including our invites, menus, programs, seating chart and table names. I initially thought that I'd just order something off Wedding Paper Divas (for the record, they did our Save the Dates and our Thank You cards and we loved them), but for our invites I knew I wanted something more custom. I stumbled upon Sleepy Hedgehog Press through Yelp, and their rave reviews made me schedule an appointment with Cara. I'm SO HAPPY I did. She was by FAR one of the BEST vendors we worked with during the process - she was quick, creative, responsive, and SO nice...I tend to change my ideas a lot, and she rolled with the punches. She offered her professional opinion while still respecting my ideas and help create our paper products to be so much more than I envisioned. She was so fast and efficient that I never had to stress about things getting done on time. And, she is so reasonably priced! I will use her again and again for any type of invites I will ever need - she's the BEST!

Vintage Rentals: Yep, we set up a full vintage seating area in our entrance hall with a couch, chairs, and a trunk and lots of fun little details. Milk Glass Vintage Rentals blew us away. We met PJ at her warehouse one afternoon, and we just completely swooned over all the treasures she has - I could spend hours in there! She helped us create our seating area, and then styled it even more with extra decor she felt fit in with our wedding. She delivers, picks up and styles it all- talk about worry free! And it's guaranteed to look amazing every time. It really added something amazing to our wedding - PJ is the sweetest, and we can't thank her enough!

DJ/Photobooth: This is a biggie. We knew we needed a DJ that would really get our party started and keep it going - when we met Kevin at Sound in Motion, we knew we scored. He was spunky, hilarious, and a super experienced DJ. After just 1 meeting, we felt like we'd known him forever. We had a lot of random requests, and he nailed every single one of them, and was a fantastic MC. We loved that the company has an online tool where you can request the songs you want played, and the ones you don't - we knew that there wouldn't be any surprises on the day of! Kevin rocked it.

The photobooth was also a huge hit - we had some HILARIOUS photos, and we got all the photos on a USB. It was the perfect booth - it could hold 4 or 5 people at once, and the props were hilarious!

Lighting: We weren't quite sure what we wanted with our lighting, but Casa Real recommended that we check out Fantasy Sound Event Services since they constantly work at CR. Again, so glad we did. They have not just simple lighting, but we ended up getting a ton of their round candle chandeliers that hung in both the ceremony and the reception. They were stunning and added that little bit of extra ambiance we were looking for. They also reminded us that we needed spotlights in certain places, like on the cake, on the dance floor, and on us at the ceremony - things we never would have thought of! They were great to work with and we were so happy to have their products at our wedding! Side note: they also offer DJ and videographer services, so you could get 3 in 1!

Cake/Dessert Bar: SO. GOOD. We looked into booking Sweet Tooth Confections Bakery after our good friends Sharilyn and Nick booked them for their wedding in July. Man oh man, best decision ever. Rachael and her husband Kyle are TRULY talented - they make cakes unlike anything I've ever seen! We knew we didn't want an ordinary cake - we wanted five different cakes, and Rachael jumped right on it and helped us add a mini dessert bar as well with 7 different types of desserts. On top of it all, Rachael and I plotted to create a grooms cake for Trav that looked exactly like the Bellarmine mascot - it was the hit of the night! She nailed it, and he was so excited :) One of our favorite vendors for sure!!

Dress: I found my dress fairly quick at Gabrielle's Bridal Atelier - they were extremely helpful, had an amazing selection and didn't limit the number of dresses you could try on. I found my dress on their sample sale rack - it was in perfect condition and 40% off! Nothin' better than that, and I loved it! Sheryl offered a lot of suggestions I'd never though about, like how I maybe shouldn't wear a bright white dress because it would contrast too much with the dark red of my girls and the rest of our fall theme, so my dress was actually a light champagne color. It was perfect, she was so right! Would recommend their salon easily!

I also found a gorgeous gold Badgley Mischka dress from Rent The Runway online for my getaway dress - I rented it for 4 days, wore it at the wedding, and then returned it after! It was perfect!

Bridal Accessories: Ok, hands down by FAR one of my favorite vendors. Those of you that really know me know that I'm all about the statement necklaces, and I knew I needed something amazing for my wedding...and Haute Bride in Los Gatos DELIVERED. The owner Lindsie and her team (which also includes Mrs. Bre from 1985Luke, that girl is everywhere ;) ) helped me custom create a Swarovski statement necklace and hair piece, and I died and went to heaven. The salon also sells wedding dresses (not going to lie, I TOTALLY wish I got my dress there). I adore Lindsie and all the girls and will be going back time and time again to buy new pieces. :) I would recommend coming here before anywhere else in the Bay!

Hair and Makeup: I found Danielle Lederman of Danielle Ashlee Hair & Makeup through my cousin - and I'm SOOO glad I did. Danielle worked wonders on me during my trials, and then outdid herself on my wedding day! When she did my mom's makeup, my mom actually CRIED because it was so beautiful. :) She was flexible, so sweet, and truly talented. She came to my house the day of the wedding and completely relaxed me, since we have so much fun hanging out. I cannot recommend her enough and will definitely be using her time and time again for special events! She's a doll!

I also used Priscilla Francine Makeup for our engagement photos - cannot say enough good things about her! We chatted the whole time, I felt like I'd known her for years! She works some serious magic and I hope I get a chance to have her do my makeup again in the future!

Danielle Derksen (I forget her new, married name!) from Salon Mona Lisa also did my hair for our engagements, which I loved! She's a sweetheart!

Rings: I had my heart set on a particular style of ring, and we tracked it down to a little boutique in downtown Saratoga called Deja & Co. From the moment we walked in, it was magic. Working with Paul was a breeze - he helped Travis custom make my ring and my band, taught us all about diamonds, and gave us a KILLER, KILLER deal on my ring, band and Trav's ring. We loved every second working with them and we are screaming their name from the top of every rooftop because we want everyone go to and experience how awesome they are!! Cannot thank them enough!!

Bridesmaids Dresses: After finding the dress we wanted, we went to Elegant Lace Bridal to get measured and order them, and the process was a breeze! It was perfect - all the girls were able to try on the dress, they were ordered quickly and came in perfectly. We also managed to get a 10% discount on all the dresses. Their wedding dress selection is massive, too!

Groomsmen Suits: We got our groomsmen suits at our of our favorite places to regularly shop in Los Gatos - Jos A Bank. They have a wide variety of suits - we knew we wanted something that didn't look like prom, so we were able to find a classy, grey suit easily. Unfortunately, we struggled with the employees at the Los Gatos location, but we still would recommend Jos A Bank in general for suit rentals. They looked amazing!

Linen Rentals: Kind of an optional thing for us, but we decided we wanted to rent some specialty rentals for our tables, like colorful napkins and a gold sequined tablecloth for our sweetheart table. La Tavola Linens had such a wide selection, we knew we would find just what we were looking for. They deliver, pick up, send you swatches of the fabrics and are very helpful. We loved it and will use them again for parties!

Signage:  My dear friend, co-worker and owner of Little Love Press (the site will go live soon!) made all our paper signs for us at the wedding. She was so awesome to work with, and she created beautiful signs! We were so pleased with how everything came out - can't wait to see her other beautiful products when she launches!

We also has some wooden signs custom painted for us from Sweetly Spoken Signs - we found them on Facebook and after seeing her work, I knew I had to have some of it displayed at our wedding! She can paint pretty much anything onto wood, it's amazing!

Decor: I have to give a huge shoutout to my sister Megan, my aunt-in-laws Cyndie, Suzie, and Candy, my mothers Tina Yeager and Kathy Nolet and any other family members and friends for all their help with the decor. Cyndie painted our welcome sign and our photo collage sign (photos to follow!), while other family members helped put together decor items that took a lot of stress of me! I'm so thankful for their creativity and generosity - the day wouldn't have come together as smoothly as it did without them!

All in all, our vendors were spectacular and made our wedding so amazing. These folks right here are definitely the dream team - we were so blessed. It was a day we will never forget. :)

Until our next party,
C+T.