okay all you brides-to-be out there! here it is, what you’ve been dying to know. this post is a list of the best wedding vendors the city has to offer, with some inside scoop on each of them:
first, and arguably the most important – the photographer! jessica limeberry of lemongrass photography
i was pretty nervous at first about having someone follow us around all day and asking us to pose, etc. but jessica made us feel so at ease right away. she is so laid back and her style is mostly candid, so we felt really comfortable during our engagement session and our wedding photo shoot :) not only are her pictures amazing – i’ll let them speak for themselves! – but jessica is down to earth and very easy to talk to. she was, by far, the most professional of all our vendors and we got exactly what we asked for. we were just featured on her blog! so check us out: Lemongrass Photography Blog
baker – a slice of heaven cakery. insanely delish and gorgeous cakes.
the bakery is about 45 minutes north of indy and we almost didn’t go to our cake tasting appointment because of that. but please go and give these people a chance to wow you! we worked with amy, the owner/operator/decorator and she was great. we were hoping for a specific look on our cake, which amy didn’t know how to do. she got online and watched some tutorials then practiced a bunch. she perfected the look – just for us! it was incredible. here’s some proof:
so our cake was amazing looking, but of course the taste is the most important part. it does not disappoint :) the cake is moist, the icing is sweet (but not cavity-inducing) and the choice of flavors is superb.
an honest critique is that amy can be overbearing at times and is a very… exuberant. while i appreciated her energy and enthusiasm, it was a little much for me sometimes. that being said though, we’d hire her again in a minute.
ceremony venue – sacred heart.
not only is this one of the most stunning churches in indianapolis, it is also one of the oldest. the sense of holiness in this sanctuary is breathtaking and one of the main reasons why we chose to be married here.
but we were so happy with our choice because of how well everyone treated us. our wedding coordinator was very sweet and worked really hard. she definitely wanted things to go perfectly, and although this isn’t really our style, it was sweet that she was so concerned. we had a friend of ours marry us, so we didn’t really get to know the resident priest there, but he seems nice. the organist helped us choose our songs but could have been more accommodating… we had some issues with one of the choices which took hours (days!) to resolve. here’s the criticism i have for sacred heart: it was hard to get in touch with them. i realize that they are a serving a poor community and don’t have many resources, but it’s the truth that we had to call several times to get in touch with them. we’d leave messages and emails, but the best way was to keep calling until you got in touch with them. okay. i hate to be critical of such a wonderful, old church but it’s just the truth and that’s why i’m writing this blog – so that you aren’t blindsided! again, although it was a slight hassle throughout the year to get ahold of them, it was worth it. obviously.
oh! and we didn’t have to spend any money decorating this church because it is just that beautiful all the time.
reception venue – the rathskeller. i think the best thing about the rathskeller is how much we didn’t have to do. does that make sense? they’re definitely pros and have the whole wedding thing down. our event coordinator, susie, was really responsive and very professional. she promptly answered emails and phone calls and would go out of her way to get information for us. they were really flexible with pricing and we got some great deals here. if you’ve never been to the rathskeller, go because it’s gorgeous, warm and comfortable. the food is amazing and they have so many different kinds of beer – if you’re into that it’s great :) i can’t think of anything else to say because it was just so easy.
dj - gti sound.
we had dee for our dj. he was professional and was definitely looking to please. he talked with me for 30 minutes about our music preferences about a week before the wedding, then played everything we asked for and nothing we didn’t like. we weren’t really into a super pumped up emcee, so we asked him to be a little more low-key. he totally delivered. adam’s brother used gti sound for his wedding and adam said the music was great there too. just so you know, they have an online list of all the songs they have. you’re supposed to fill out a form online but it was messing up and we didn’t know if they’d gotten it or not. i suggest going through the list and seeing what they have/don’t have. make a cd with all the songs you want that they don’t have and bring it to the venue. but more importantly, i called about a week before the wedding and asked to talk to the dj doing our wedding. it put me at ease knowing he wouldn’t play disco and so we were on the same page with the night’s schedule. i’ve had friends use other dj companies and it did not go this smoothly. plus, their prices were really reasonable. here’s some people dancing, so… success!
gwyn and ger - totally HITTIN' hit! - and me, loving it
woooo hoooo!
florist - our backyard flowers.
okay, first let me say that our flowers were incredible! the centerpieces were all different (i brought in a zillion pieces of different milk glass) and i was looking for a varied look. OBY (they refer to themselves this way – it stands for our backyard) made the rathskeller look unbelievable. the flowers were fresh, smelled lovely and the bouquets & boutonnières were precious. i could not be happier with the outcome.
one of the centerpieces
now, the honesty. it was a lot of work on my part. oby was not good at answering emails – another place that you just had to call until you got someone. their prices were SO great – we could not have gotten the same look anywhere else – this is the dead truth. but just be prepared to work a little harder getting that. they sent frantic emails a month before the wedding about needing the first payment but it wasn’t due for two weeks… anyway, to me it was stressful but worth it (seeing a trend here) because of the high quality of the product for an incredible price. give them a chance, just be prepared to be a little frustrated. oh! and my best friend used them for her wedding and her flowers were remarkable. ps – *everyone* said how beautiful the flowers looked (for both mine and her wedding) and how unique the centerpieces were, so it’s not just me being biased – they really do great work :)
hair and makeup – Shear Essence. (no website, here’s their #317-882-1032)
although this salon was pricy, their service was exceptional. after some major issues with our first salon, the ladies at Shear Essence stepped up with just 3 days before the wedding and agreed to do EIGHT girls’ hair. they met us at the salon at 6am and let us take over the whole place for 5 hours. not only did our hair look amazing (see evidence below) but they matched the pictures we brought in exactly or did even better. everyone looked gorgeous, natural (not overdone) and at their very best. i can’t say enough about just how wonderful they were. the only critiques i have of this place is that the it’s expensive and we had to pay in cash. but i’d definitely book with them again and recommend this salon to other brides.
the back
the sisters
go-to website – The Best Wedding Blog Ever!
for full disclosure i must first say that the author of this blog is a dear friend of mine since freshman year of HIGH SCHOOL! now that we have that out of the way, this blog is a *great* resource. the articles are well-written, insightful, informative and best of all hilarious! mary has a talent and you are to benefit from this. mary updates monday, wednesday & friday every week, but i still check daily (okay, fine at LEAST twice a day) just in case she felt prolific and posted on a thursday… ANYhoots, i read it when it’s first updated and usually go back to the articles later to reread or just look at the photos. another disclosure statement. mary works for the company, marilyn keepsakes (this is no secret – it’s in the blog’s banner), but unlike other blogs she does not annoy you with a hundred items that you “need” for your wedding or unnecessarily promote lame things. what she does do, however, is give you discounts on things that you were planning on getting anyway and occasionally spotlights some of their more unique products. don’t think that this is ever in-your-face though. quite the opposite. her low key, real approach makes me actually want to click on the links – a rarity for me, seriously. so okay, i talked way too much about how her blog is semi-promotional and not enough about the awesome features. did i mention already that she covers celebrity style and weddings? well i should’ve by now because i love that about her blog. she also puts in photos from “real” weddings and does some fun photoshopping (my fave photoshopping is this post about 1950s style. it’s so creative and just… fun.) finally, mary recently got married and knows the ropes, so she has some great tips and advice about planning, dealing and enjoying the process. besides all of this, mary is a genuinely phenomenal woman and an even better friend. these are the kind of people you want to succeed. so check out her awesome blog and click around on some of the links for great wedding digs. plus, you’ll get a small peak into mary’s incredibly wonderful life – just icing on the cake.
