Excellent! We had struggled a bit on deciding where to hold our ceremony since we were not having a church service. Vancouver Yacht Charters ended up being the perfect choice. The yacht is completely covered, so we didn't have to worry about rain and since it was a sunny day, we didn't get broiled in the sun either. The staff were warm and welcoming and the food excellent. The False Creek Yacht Club gave us permission to board at their dock, so our guests did not have to worry about transportation from the ceremony to the reception. We had looked at a number of boat charter companies and Vancouver Yacht Charters had one of the better selection of appetizers and was all priced separately from the charter. Other charters only offered "pub food" of chicken wings, salsa, and potato skins for a huge per person price. Vancouver Yacht Charters pricing was per hour, not per guest with only a two hour minimum, which was perfect for our ceremony and a "mix & mingle" with our guests afterward. On the whole, I would recommend Vancouver Yacht Charters to anyone planning a special event. We had a large number of out of town guests, many who had never been to Vancouver, so it was an extra special treat to give them a boat tour of False Creek and English Bay.

We just can't say enough about the great food and neither could our guests! The venue was a perfect compliment to our ceremony aboard Vancouver Yacht Charters. Immediately following the ceremony our guests could walk up to FCYC and continue taking in Vancouver's great views of Granville Island and Burrard Street bridge with a fabulous sunset off in the distance. The view from their big windows was decoration enough. We chose a westcoast dinner buffet that was cooked to perfection: not a single dish was dry or looking wilted and everything was still steaming when we sat down to eat. When we had been planning the type of wedding we wanted, we had decided that we wanted the atmosphere of a fun house-party where everyone could relax, mingle, and chat. FCYC was the perfect venue for this. We definitely achieved our goal as many of our guests commented that it was just like a going to a fun summer bbq.

Evan's shop, Flowerz, caught my attention with his fresh interesting displays and well frankly, I really needed to get my wedding flowers ordered yesterday! I hadn't realized that I would encounter so many shop owners that would be on vacation on my wedding day and that I would end up scrambling for a florist or baker. When I hesitantly asked Evan at Flowerz about his availability, fearful that he'd be like the others and be on vacation or simply closed on my day, he said no problem and I'm so glad it wasn't! Evan was friendly and fun to work with. He had great ideas and suggestions and really knew his flowers. His prices are very reasonable and he didn't try to sell me big displays that I didn't want. In the end, our bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, and table arrangements were beautiful and I really enjoyed chatting with Evan while planning them too.

Our top criteria for our wedding cake is that it had to taste good. Looking good was secondary. We chose La Baguette on Granville Island after buying a few treats there one evening and deciding they were delicious! After a great debate on which cake to serve, we decided not to decide and ordered three flavours. Each flavour was wrapped in either dark, milk, or white chocolate and our programs included descriptions of each so the guests knew which it was that they got. We had a ton of compliments on the cake: even our photographer commented what an excellent cake it was and I have a feeling she tries a few cakes over a wedding season.

We had literally looked at dozens and dozens of on-line portfolios while looking for a photographer and Melia Sorenson had one of the best portfolios. We are so happy that we chose Melia. We had a ton of fun on our wedding day and from the moment she meet me at the hotel her camera came out and she did not stop taking photos for 10 hours; even my guests were commenting on how hard she was working. I sincerely appreciated her patience when we did our walk-about to check out photo locations as I was a very tired and cranky girl that day (nothing wedding related!) and was being a "challenging client". On our wedding day we encountered a lot of activity from the Vancouver Pride Parade and Melia quickly took advantage of the floats and people for some great photos and just had a lot of fun. No question at all: Melia is a terrific wedding photographer!

I was a little hesitant about ordering my dress from Tiffany Bridal because a woman I had meet had had some problems with them. In the end everything was fine with my dress. I particularly liked that I did not have to book an appointment to peruse their dresses -- there were many bridal shops I never visited because I would have had to make an appointment. The saleswomen at Tiffany were not at all stuffy and genuinely friendly and warm. The only complaint that I have is that the alterations were much more expensive than what I had been told to budget even though they do have a very specific price list on how much each type of alteration costs, which I only saw the day I paid for the alterations. Despite this, it wouldn't have affected the decision on which dress I chose, since I loved the dress I found at Tiffany Bridal and any train would have gotten chopped off anyway.

We chose Tip Top to rent the tuxedos from because they had a wide variety of choices and we thought it would be easy for the out-of-town best man to get his fitting at a location near him. Although the suit that arrived for him was way too short, Tip Top immediately corrected the problem without any trouble and a new suit arrived for him in less than a day. The staff were friendly and knowledgeable and had good recommendations on which colours to choose to best compliment the bride's and bridesmaid's dresses.

While our guests were staying at the hotel we did not hear of a single complaint. The hotel was nice, clean, and comfortable and was within walking distance to our wedding ceremony & reception. This meant that none of our out-of-town guests had to arrange additional transportation and one was even able to quickly pop back to the hotel to grab something he forgot. It is well worth calling ahead arranging group rates for both the Executive and Quality Inn because their regular rates for that time of year would have been at least $50 more a night. The only trouble we encountered was that reservations couldn't seem to find our group booking when some of our guests called, which required us to do many phone calls to the hotel to find out what was going on - a big hassle just a few weeks before the wedding.

The Quality Inn is right beside the Executive Hotels with a $20 / night cheaper rate on their group bookings. Similarly to the Executive, we did not hear of a single complaint and it was nice, clean, and comfortable. Our guests encountered no problems making their reservations.

We ended up doing our rehearsal dinner at the Kettle of Fish partly because they were right around the corner from the hotels and you always know that you're going to get a good meal served to you. They didn't even hesitate when we called for a reservation for 20 people two weeks in advance on the same night as the Celebration of Lights Fireworks. We also had the option of pre-arranging a group dinner menu (but chose not to). The only negative comment was that we weren't expecting to be seated at three separate tables and that each table arrangement consisted of small round tables pushed together. Although we didn't mind so much being broken up into groups, we found that we were so spaced apart at the table that talking with everyone even at your own table was challenging.