Essex, CT, USA < change city >

Response from the couple:
Hi Stephanie!

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Eolia is absolutely gorgeous! I hope your day goes as well as mine!!!!

Cloud Nine... There are a lot of great things about them. They are insanely nice and helpful, they did a great job setting up the place and dealing with some of the crazies that came by as we were trying to go to the ceremony (guests not random visitors so dont worry about that...) And no one had a problem getting drinks from the bar...Our cake was amazing!!!!! And delicious!

Things that I wish could have gone differently in regards to them... Most of the problems are small that no one else noticed really but we had refreshments down at the amphiteather (where we had our ceremony) and they asked if I wanted real glasses or plastic. There was a considerable cost difference so I chose the plastic and specifically told them that we wanted the clear plastic glasses....they put out by our ceremony wax paper cups that you would find at a picnic. The tasting was amazing...the food the day of didn't taste like the tasting. But I imagine its hard to bring in all that food (we chose buffet). One of the tables weren't set with enough place settings. Not everyone got served champagne for the toast. We were starving after the ceremony during pictures and no one came out with refreshments or appetizers. There were little things like that. I know that Sally, the woman that works for the park, her daughter got married there and they chose A Thyme to Cook. I couldn't justify the extra expense although they were really nice and trying so hard to get the cost down for us.

To be honest if I was to do it all over again I would still go with Cloud Nine. Over all they did do a good job. If you want to see anymore of our pictures go to http://storefront.binaryflips.com Under weddings we're Emily and Bryan and the password is "george" There are a few pictures of what the cake looked like and the table set ups and all that stuff. I hope I helped and if you have any more questions about anything in the area don't hesitate in asking! Its hard planning a wedding!!!! :o)

One piece of advice to you though: When things start getting really hectic and you start really worrying about small things and ridiculous details... No one will notice the small things AND it was worth all of the crap you go through to get to the wedding. It was by far the single best day of my life! :o)

Response:
Emily - Thank you SO MUCH for your response!! First, let me say that your wedding was beautiful!! Your photos are amazing. It's funny because we're actually going to use purple for our color as well so your pics gave me a good idea of what things will look like!

I've been trying to figure out the catering situation for a few months now (back and forth with quotes, phone calls, etc. - which I'm sure you can relate to!) and just am having trouble making a decision. Cloud Nine has been GREAT to work with so far, in terms of all the back and forth, but something just keeps nagging at me that they might not be the best choice. And it's just so much money to commit to spending! I do recall Sally saying that she used A Thyme to Cook for her daughter's wedding and I would love to use them but their quote was significantly more than Cloud Nine's.

Anyways, thanks so much for your honest feedback and your advice about not sweating the small stuff! Congrats on your marriage :)

Response from the couple:
Hi there! Glad I could help in regards to Cloud Nine. Our original guest list was just over 150 we ended up with about 130. (I've been told that they're really strict with their max capacity so keep that in mind...it had me stressed and I hated hoping that people would decline) I actually really liked having it spread out the way it was. We put our "party" guests in the back room (i think they called it the reception room) so they wouldn't disturb anyone and we put ourselves smack dab in the middle of the "living room" with just our best man and maid of honor and thier dates with us. The rest of our bridal party and immediate family and closest friends in that room with us. With everyone else that didn't fit into those 2 categories in the "music room". And yes everyone does end up in the tent anyways. Our DJ was wonderful and not too expensive and he speakers that he could pipe music down to the amphitheater. That was one of my biggest concerns was the music down there. I opted for a guitar and flute Matt Kearns is his name he's out of RI. They were awesome. He worked with our minister to have music intertwined into our ceremony. It was really nice. His website is www.mattkearns.com he costs somewhere around $300. We spent just around $3000 on flowers. Yes it was high but you really don't need as much as you think. We had peonies which are expensive but I wouldn't budge on that :o) There are 5 alcoves are something like that but you can get the height you need with greens which will cut costs. I don't know what your colors are but I love the way hydrangeas look in the fall...that vintage old school look they get. They aren't too expensive. I didn't do much with the amphitheater because the back drop does enough. I did put 2 big arrangements at the front and then we moved those to the tent (you save money that way too) I looked into doing candles instead of flowers but that gets even more expensive. Let me know if you have anymore questions. Good Luck!

Response from the couple:
I highly highly highly recommend Steve Klinger for the JP. Everyone still is commenting on how wonderful our ceremony was. We even did the parental honoring and we had no idea but he called our parents up to the front. Everyone was crying. Our parents were soooo touched. He's the best and he was like $500 for rehearsal and ceremony. His wife is there and makes sure everyone lines up right. They all work so well together! And I thi nk that would look beautiful and much more inexpensive than the way we went! Good luck! I'm sure it will be great!