Wedding Vendor ideas?

[LaurenKU]

This is kind of a strange place to ask, since most of you are men...but since everyone here is from KC, and I saw PumpkinStalker's thread on Wedding Bands, I thought I would go ahead and pose the question here...

Does anyone have any suggestions for wedding vendors that they used and loved?  I'm getting married on October 3rd, 2009.  The reception will be at the Intercontinental - so food & beverage are well taken care of, and I think we've found our photographer...but other than that, we've got nothing, and need to get everything else nailed down rather quickly, before all the good vendors are booked.

Any ideas for a good florist?  Cake?  Invitations? Other tips?

Thanks.

EDIT - Rehearsal dinner, as well.  We would prefer to do it on the Plaza, and know our options...but if anyone has any personal experiences, I would appreciate input.  Currently leaning towards one of the following: Starkers, Grand Street, Classic Cup Cellar...but are open to other ideas.

[LenexatoKCMO]

Tosspot Wedding Photography Inc.?

[beautyfromashes]

Blue Bouquet, best in the city- opening a new place in the Crossroads.

[PumpkinStalker]

Toss shot me down when I asked if he did weddings because a friend loved his pictures in my living room!  But maybe.....just maybe....you could persuade him to do engagement photos?  Eh?  Eh?

I got some good leads for bands.  I will update my thread when I narrow them down to a list of ones I'm seriously considering.  No offense, but a lot of the "wedding bands" that bill themselves as such have female only singers.  I am not sure I can handle only hearing Pat Benatar at my wedding.  I've found quite a few that play for anywhere from $600 to $1,500.  If you're on a budget, stay away from booking agencies like adamblueproductions.com.  We REALLY like The Brew, they play every Sunday night at 75th St. Brewery.  Since I live just houses away, I'm there almost every Sunday.  They are $1,500 and he (Mark Valentine) likes to add a sax for $200 so you broaden the range of songs that are appropriate for weddings.  Real nice guy, they are our front runner at this time.  We're also checking out 7 Mysteries - Heather was extremely nice over email - and very inexpensive although we haven't heard their stuff.  She's supposed to hopefully send me some stuff.  Also looking at Nervous Rex, and they have a gig coming up somewhere that we're going to see them perform live and get a feel.

We like Iced Art for cakes so far, have a tasting scheduled for it.  We're checking into Ranchview Florist because my dad used to work there.  Photographers we have no freaking clue.  I can't believe how expensive they are, and all their packages are so varied it's hard to compare what kind of deal you're getting. 

[Cheffreygo]

My wife is a great wedding photographer if you haven't already found one!  Her website is www.ericamay.com.  Most of her 2009 dates are already booked, but there's a calendar where you can check.  She also has a wealth of knowledge about local wedding vendors and would be glad to help even if you don't book her.  There is a contact form on her website where you can reach her.

[LaurenKU]

My wife is a great wedding photographer if you haven't already found one!  Her website is www.ericamay.com.  Most of her 2009 dates are already booked, but there's a calendar where you can check.  She also has a wealth of knowledge about local wedding vendors and would be glad to help even if you don't book her.  There is a contact form on her website where you can reach her.

Thanks!  I did look at her website when I started looking for photographers, but she is already booked for Oct. 3rd.

I'm getting a little stressed, because I know October has become a very popular wedding month, especially in KC...

[KCMax]

Bonterra Catering did our wedding and they were fantastic. They're located by the Downtown Airport. They had some great food and were pretty flexible about amending their menu. We almost chose Ted down at Room 39. The food sample were great, but he is pretty pricey.

We had our rehearsal dinner at Kemper Museum and quite frankly, the food sucked. I let my mom choose it. If I were you I'd just go somewhere you already really like.

[Cheffreygo]

I can definitely sympathize with you!  We got married in October of 2007 and definitely know how stressful that process can be.  I just talked with her and she said she would be glad to help you find a venue, etc (since she has shot weddings at so many of them!). Feel free to email her at me@ericamay.com.

[wetpaint]

This is kind of a strange place to ask, since most of you are men...

What makes you think that men don't know anything about weddings?


If you want to know who we went with for our wedding, I could ask my wife.

[shaffe]

I just got married in November and my wife and I really had great luck with almost all of our vendors.  Here's a list of who we used, minus the catering and reception location.

Rehearsal Dinner:  Benton's, kind of pricey though but really good
Photographer:  Cornerstone Photography (http://www.cornerstonephotography.com/) or Erica Price (http://www.ericapricephoto.com/mp_includes/body.asp)
Flowers:  Hibiscus Designer Florist
Cake:  Sugar and Spice, I wouldn't reccomend them.  The cake was good but their business practices weren't.
DJ:  Entertainment to Go, Mike Shortino
Invitations:  We used My Gatsby (http://www.mygatsby.com/)

All of those are on the "not so cheap" end of the vendor categories, so I'm not sure how they would fit into your budget.  But you get what you pay for and we had great success with all of our vendors, save for a little deal with the cake people.  Feel free to PM me if you want more info.

[PumpkinStalker]

Californo's was also in our front running for a reception place but we wanted somewhere historic and downtown, so chose the Muehlbach.  The lady at Californo's was really nice though.

[KCKev]

Pick up a bunch of disposable cameras and have the wedding party be you photog! You'll end up with a bunch of nice pictures from everyone's view of you wedding!

Something to talk about for years to come.

[kclofter]

Florist: Trapp's http://www.trappandcompany.com/

[RiverMarketDweller]

Florist: Michaels Heritage Florist in KCK
Cake: Baby Cakes
Rehearsal Dinner: Blue Nile, not on Plaza but great communal feel

[Sportster]

Photography - David Remley.
816/483-3166.
http://web.mac.com/dremley/Site/David_R ... _Home.html
Extremely reasonable, easy to work with, very good friend of mine.

Excellent place for pictures: Concourse, Gladstone & Benton Blvds.
Venue: Muehlebach or Scarritt Arcade.

Sportster
...have fun !

[splash]

Our cake was by Andrea at KC Classic Cakes.  I highly recommend her.  We wanted a slighly unusual cake and she created exactly what we wanted.  It tasted great, was reasonably priced, and the service was top notch.

Rehearsal dinner was at 810 on the Plaza.  We did it there for several reasons, one of which was because of the arcade in the back.  We gave everyone some tokens afterwards, so they could play around.  Probably not what you're looking for, but that's what we did.  We also looked at the Grand St. Cafe, Figilo's, and Californos.

We ordered our flowers online and did them ourselves, so I don't have a local vendor for that.  The place that we used is freshroses.com.  Yes, you have to put together the bouquets yourself, but that wasn't a huge deal for us because we were just doing hand-tied.  Service and price were excellent.

Another vote for mygatsby.com for invites.  I loved mine and they came shockingly fast.  Turnaround time was around a week, I think.

A friend of our did our photography and I don't think she does weddings anymore.  However, we did look at Marty Joseph Photography (http://www.martyjoseph.com/) and Josh Solar (http://www.joshsolarphoto.com/).

Also, I have no idea what you're doing for wedding bands, but if you're thinking about doing titanium, I'd check out boonerings.com.  I can't say enough great things about this guy.  He has a wide selection and his prices are reasonable.  The turnaround time is also crazy fast.  We ordered our rings on a Monday night and had then in our hands Wednesday afternoon.  Also, when I got mine, I wasn't crazy about the finish (no one's fault, it just didn't look right because the the width of my ring), so I contacted him to see how much it would cost to do a different finish.  The only charge was the cost of return shipping and I had my ring back by the end of that week.