If you want any more information about any of the vendors, feel free to email me - mandasue82 at gmail dot com.
All photos courtesy of PhotOle Photography.
The Ephrata Cloister
www.ephratacloister.com
A+
The Cloister was the absolute perfect setting for our wedding. It was the perfect blend of rustic (for me) and historic (for DH). The grounds are gorgeous, and make a beautiful backdrop for photos!! I had my heart set on using their outdoor amphitheater, but unfortunately it rained on our wedding day and we had to use the back up chapel. It was still beautiful, and we did hardly any decorating.
The wedding coordinator, Warren was great to work with, and was very accommodating any time we had any questions or needed any information. He was very helpful when we had to do a lot of last minute rearranging due to the weather.
A+
The Cloister was the absolute perfect setting for our wedding. It was the perfect blend of rustic (for me) and historic (for DH). The grounds are gorgeous, and make a beautiful backdrop for photos!! I had my heart set on using their outdoor amphitheater, but unfortunately it rained on our wedding day and we had to use the back up chapel. It was still beautiful, and we did hardly any decorating.
The wedding coordinator, Warren was great to work with, and was very accommodating any time we had any questions or needed any information. He was very helpful when we had to do a lot of last minute rearranging due to the weather.
Reception Location - The Eicher Arts Center
www.virtualephrata.org/community_links/eicherrental.html
A+++
I cannot say enough about the Eicher Center and Jimmy! Again, a perfect combination of rustic & historic for us. Beautiful setting in Grater Memorial Park in Ephrata. This venue is perfect for a DIY bride. Jimmy is in charge of the rentals, and is great about getting back to you and being available any time you want to see the property. He went above and beyond to help us out in any way in the months leading up to the wedding, and while we were setting everything up. the Eicher Center is his baby, and he takes a lot of pride in everything being just right for you. He knows everything there is to know about the building.
What is included: With the rental, you get full use of the building including the grounds (if you want to do an outdoor ceremony), covered deck with park benches, main room, balcony for extra seating, a room upstairs with a private bath that is available for the bride or groom to get ready, a fully stocked kitchen & pantry (including cooking items, 3 refrigerators, Pfaltzgraff dishes, silverware and serving dishes), folding chairs and banquet tables. With a full rental, you get the key at noon the day before your wedding, and have it through midnight the day of.
What we did: The plan was getting ready upstairs before the offsite ceremony, cocktail hour on the deck, dinner in the main room, and dancing on the deck to end the night. It ended up raining and was very cold the day of our wedding, but Jimmy was very helpful with suggestions on closing in the deck with plastic and renting space heaters. I was little worried, but everything worked out beautifully. We rented round tables for the main room and used banquet tables for extra seating on the balcony. We could seat up to 96 this way. If you use just banquet tables, or set up a tent outside, you can fit many more. We lined the deck with banquet tables, which served as our self-serve bar, and hors d'oeuvres stations. This worked out great!
A+++
I cannot say enough about the Eicher Center and Jimmy! Again, a perfect combination of rustic & historic for us. Beautiful setting in Grater Memorial Park in Ephrata. This venue is perfect for a DIY bride. Jimmy is in charge of the rentals, and is great about getting back to you and being available any time you want to see the property. He went above and beyond to help us out in any way in the months leading up to the wedding, and while we were setting everything up. the Eicher Center is his baby, and he takes a lot of pride in everything being just right for you. He knows everything there is to know about the building.
What is included: With the rental, you get full use of the building including the grounds (if you want to do an outdoor ceremony), covered deck with park benches, main room, balcony for extra seating, a room upstairs with a private bath that is available for the bride or groom to get ready, a fully stocked kitchen & pantry (including cooking items, 3 refrigerators, Pfaltzgraff dishes, silverware and serving dishes), folding chairs and banquet tables. With a full rental, you get the key at noon the day before your wedding, and have it through midnight the day of.
What we did: The plan was getting ready upstairs before the offsite ceremony, cocktail hour on the deck, dinner in the main room, and dancing on the deck to end the night. It ended up raining and was very cold the day of our wedding, but Jimmy was very helpful with suggestions on closing in the deck with plastic and renting space heaters. I was little worried, but everything worked out beautifully. We rented round tables for the main room and used banquet tables for extra seating on the balcony. We could seat up to 96 this way. If you use just banquet tables, or set up a tent outside, you can fit many more. We lined the deck with banquet tables, which served as our self-serve bar, and hors d'oeuvres stations. This worked out great!
Caterer - Rettew's Catering
www.rettewscatering.com
A+
Rettew's went above and beyond anything we expected from a caterer. Not only did they provide awesome food for a great price, but they also provided all of our rentals, and acted as coordinators the day of the wedding.
The food was great - were very pleased with the quality of the food for the price we were charged. We had a choice of two entreés for our served dinner, and four different stationed hors d'oeuvres. Everything was just as good as it was at our tasting.
The service was even better. We worked with Peggy leading up to the wedding, but she was not able to be there the day of due to a family emergency. The girls who took her place were great. They coordinated everything with the DJ and photographers, from our entrance, toasts, dances, cake cutting, etc. I can't tell you how helpful this was! They also lit ALL of my candles for me before cocktail hour started (and there were a TON - well over 100!) One of my other favorite touches was when we arrived and made our entrances, they had little plates of all of hors d'oeuvres on our sweetheart table for us. Since we went right into our first dance and then dinner, they also brought hors d'oeuvres and drinks to our bridal party. Afterwards, they took care of cleaning up all of our rentals, including glassware & linens and took out all of our trash, making our cleanup at the end of the SO much easier!
A+
Rettew's went above and beyond anything we expected from a caterer. Not only did they provide awesome food for a great price, but they also provided all of our rentals, and acted as coordinators the day of the wedding.
The food was great - were very pleased with the quality of the food for the price we were charged. We had a choice of two entreés for our served dinner, and four different stationed hors d'oeuvres. Everything was just as good as it was at our tasting.
The service was even better. We worked with Peggy leading up to the wedding, but she was not able to be there the day of due to a family emergency. The girls who took her place were great. They coordinated everything with the DJ and photographers, from our entrance, toasts, dances, cake cutting, etc. I can't tell you how helpful this was! They also lit ALL of my candles for me before cocktail hour started (and there were a TON - well over 100!) One of my other favorite touches was when we arrived and made our entrances, they had little plates of all of hors d'oeuvres on our sweetheart table for us. Since we went right into our first dance and then dinner, they also brought hors d'oeuvres and drinks to our bridal party. Afterwards, they took care of cleaning up all of our rentals, including glassware & linens and took out all of our trash, making our cleanup at the end of the SO much easier!
Cake - The Hamilton Club
www.hamiltonclub.org
A+
Brad Miller & his assistant Amanda from the Hamilton Club in Lancaster did an AMAZING job with our cake. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted the cake to look like, and they did an awesome job pulling it together!! I gave them samples of designs and color swatches, and they did a beautiful job. Not only did it look good, but it tasted fantastic!! We got so many compliments on it!! We had two layers of chocolate cake with peanut butter filling, and two layers of spice cake with Boston creme filling, all covered in butter cream. YUM!!
A+
Brad Miller & his assistant Amanda from the Hamilton Club in Lancaster did an AMAZING job with our cake. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted the cake to look like, and they did an awesome job pulling it together!! I gave them samples of designs and color swatches, and they did a beautiful job. Not only did it look good, but it tasted fantastic!! We got so many compliments on it!! We had two layers of chocolate cake with peanut butter filling, and two layers of spice cake with Boston creme filling, all covered in butter cream. YUM!!
Photography - PhotOle Photography & MiVille Photography
www.photolephotography.com
www.mivillephoto.com
A+++
We love Ole! He was my ONLY choice for my wedding photos. His work is amazing, we had teasers the next day, and all of our proofs online in under four weeks (I'd say 80% were up in under three weeks). Ole knows what he's doing behind the camera, and therefore everything moved very smoothly & quickly. We had a very tight timeline between the ceremony & reception, not to mention the sun was setting! Not only are the photos awesome, but he had us to the reception early!
Our second shooter was Mike from MiVille Photography. Mike & Ole are a great team. I LOVE LOVE LOVE both of their styles and could not be happier with my photos. I would recommend either one of them to anyone.
To see our pictures, go to Ole's blog from his website, our wedding is currently the first one on the page, with the user name and password to see all the photos.
www.mivillephoto.com
A+++
We love Ole! He was my ONLY choice for my wedding photos. His work is amazing, we had teasers the next day, and all of our proofs online in under four weeks (I'd say 80% were up in under three weeks). Ole knows what he's doing behind the camera, and therefore everything moved very smoothly & quickly. We had a very tight timeline between the ceremony & reception, not to mention the sun was setting! Not only are the photos awesome, but he had us to the reception early!
Our second shooter was Mike from MiVille Photography. Mike & Ole are a great team. I LOVE LOVE LOVE both of their styles and could not be happier with my photos. I would recommend either one of them to anyone.
To see our pictures, go to Ole's blog from his website, our wedding is currently the first one on the page, with the user name and password to see all the photos.
Flowers - The Flower Bouquet, Wilda Newswenger
(717) 859-1682
A+
Wilda did an awesome job with my flowers! I had a good idea of what flowers I wanted, and she worked with me to create something that matched my vision perfectly. We were combining things from a few different pictures, so I had her put together a sample bouquet for me, and after seeing the sample, I knew that everything would be perfect - which it was. And all for a VERY reasonable price - a great choice for budget brides!!
A+
Wilda did an awesome job with my flowers! I had a good idea of what flowers I wanted, and she worked with me to create something that matched my vision perfectly. We were combining things from a few different pictures, so I had her put together a sample bouquet for me, and after seeing the sample, I knew that everything would be perfect - which it was. And all for a VERY reasonable price - a great choice for budget brides!!
Gowns & Tuxes - Alfred Angelo, Classic Weddings, Country Threads by Gail
www.alfredangelo.com
Alfred Angelo - A
My gown came from Alfred Angelo. I pretty much knew the gown I wanted before I ever went looking. I would have preferred to purchase my gown from a smaller, local business, but AA was where I found the perfect dress. The gown was gorgeous, everyone at the store was very helpful, and the whole process went very smoothly.
(717) 665-3711
Country Threads by Gail - A+
Gail did the alterations on my gown, which included attaching my sash and adding a bustle. They were fairly simple alterations, but she did a great job!
www.classicwed.com
Classic Weddings - A+
We got the bridesmaid dresses here as well as the tuxes. They have a nice selection of bridesmaids gowns, plus do all of their alterations on site. The owner, Elizabeth, is a wonderful lady - I really enjoyed working with her and all of the other women that work at the shop. They were very helpful every time I was there, both trying on gowns and picking dresses out for the girls.
Elizabeth was also very helpful in picking out the tuxes. They are not a tux shop, meaning they don't have any there for you to see, but they do have catalogs and can order tuxes in for you. She called around to find exactly what I was looking for. We did have a few issues with things not fitting and stains when the tuxes came in, but everything was taken care of within 24 hours and in plenty of time for the wedding.
Alfred Angelo - A
My gown came from Alfred Angelo. I pretty much knew the gown I wanted before I ever went looking. I would have preferred to purchase my gown from a smaller, local business, but AA was where I found the perfect dress. The gown was gorgeous, everyone at the store was very helpful, and the whole process went very smoothly.
(717) 665-3711
Country Threads by Gail - A+
Gail did the alterations on my gown, which included attaching my sash and adding a bustle. They were fairly simple alterations, but she did a great job!
www.classicwed.com
Classic Weddings - A+
We got the bridesmaid dresses here as well as the tuxes. They have a nice selection of bridesmaids gowns, plus do all of their alterations on site. The owner, Elizabeth, is a wonderful lady - I really enjoyed working with her and all of the other women that work at the shop. They were very helpful every time I was there, both trying on gowns and picking dresses out for the girls.
Elizabeth was also very helpful in picking out the tuxes. They are not a tux shop, meaning they don't have any there for you to see, but they do have catalogs and can order tuxes in for you. She called around to find exactly what I was looking for. We did have a few issues with things not fitting and stains when the tuxes came in, but everything was taken care of within 24 hours and in plenty of time for the wedding.
Honeymoon in Ireland - CIE Tours
www.cietours.com
A+++
It was my dream to go to Ireland for our honeymoon. What an amazing experience!!!
We decided to book our trip through a reputable tour company, but being on a bus with 50 other people was NOT our idea of a romantic honeymoon. Then we found CIE Tours, who offered "Idependent" versions of their tours. They book your stays in all the same towns & hotels as their normal bus tours, but also include a rental car. We chose the Pub & Folk Tour, and I would recommend this to anyone looking to visit Ireland.
Our package included round trip airfare from Philly to Dublin, 7 nights in hotels, breakfast every morning, a few attractions in Dublin, and our rental car for 7 days - for a lot less than if we would have tried to put it together on our own. All of the hotels were phenomenal - and we were able to upgrade our rooms at check in.
We flew into Dublin and basically made a big loop around the country, hitting a lot of the towns & attractions along the way. It was a lot of driving, but not too bad considering from coast to coast across the country only took 4 hours. We saw some amazing countryside, mountains, beaches, you name it! It was such a beautiful country with so much history.
We didn't realize when we booked the tour that the bus tour was running on the same dates, which meant that the bus was at all the same hotels we were every night. This actually worked out great because a lot of the people on the bus were from the PA/MD/NJ area, and we met some really cool people. We would have breakfast with the group at the hotel in the morning, go off and do our own thing during the day, then meet back up a with few of the couples to hit the pubs at night after dinner. The tour guide/bus driver, Noel, was a very cool guy who was very helpful in giving us directions and suggestions on places to check out.
If you're thinking about going to Ireland, I HIGHLY recommend CIE Tours. We had a blast. If you want to know anything more, or want to see any pictures (I have hundreds!!) just email me!!
A+++
It was my dream to go to Ireland for our honeymoon. What an amazing experience!!!
We decided to book our trip through a reputable tour company, but being on a bus with 50 other people was NOT our idea of a romantic honeymoon. Then we found CIE Tours, who offered "Idependent" versions of their tours. They book your stays in all the same towns & hotels as their normal bus tours, but also include a rental car. We chose the Pub & Folk Tour, and I would recommend this to anyone looking to visit Ireland.
Our package included round trip airfare from Philly to Dublin, 7 nights in hotels, breakfast every morning, a few attractions in Dublin, and our rental car for 7 days - for a lot less than if we would have tried to put it together on our own. All of the hotels were phenomenal - and we were able to upgrade our rooms at check in.
We flew into Dublin and basically made a big loop around the country, hitting a lot of the towns & attractions along the way. It was a lot of driving, but not too bad considering from coast to coast across the country only took 4 hours. We saw some amazing countryside, mountains, beaches, you name it! It was such a beautiful country with so much history.
We didn't realize when we booked the tour that the bus tour was running on the same dates, which meant that the bus was at all the same hotels we were every night. This actually worked out great because a lot of the people on the bus were from the PA/MD/NJ area, and we met some really cool people. We would have breakfast with the group at the hotel in the morning, go off and do our own thing during the day, then meet back up a with few of the couples to hit the pubs at night after dinner. The tour guide/bus driver, Noel, was a very cool guy who was very helpful in giving us directions and suggestions on places to check out.
If you're thinking about going to Ireland, I HIGHLY recommend CIE Tours. We had a blast. If you want to know anything more, or want to see any pictures (I have hundreds!!) just email me!!
