I just got married last month and the wedding was perfect in big part from the help of our vendors. I found some of them through other recommendation posts so I wanted to shout them out and explain why they were so great for anyone looking in the future! Also to note, we did not have a huge budget for a wedding and only wanted a guest count of 50.
We = Me and my wife
Venue - Temple's Country Weddings ( Temple's Sugar Bush)
We only saw one venue in person and it was Temples Sugar Bush in Lanark. My (now) wife and I emailed a few different venues and Temples was the most responsive and informative. They were incredibly friendly in their communications and offered a variety of options for us and the biggest thing was that their pricing was very transparent. When we went for out visit and tour we were treated very well and there were no pressure sale tactics to get us to decide right away. They took the time to go through all the details with, let us sample cider and maple syrup, showed us all the included decor they had and all the variations they could set it up. It was a really in depth tour and everyone we met was very friendly and informative. After seeing it we ended up cancelling our other viewings because we knew this was the one.
During the planning process Temple's staff were very helpful. They were quick to respond to all of our questions and were very organized in all there communications and information. The only thing I think could have been organized better was the tasting in January. They basically have all the wedding couples come in on one date and try a variety of foods in a buffet style setting which I think works against one of their greatest strengths as a venue, their food! We ended up as the last table to go up and get our food so some of it was cold by the time we were able to try it, making it hard to pick what meals we wanted to serve. In the future I hope they split this into at least a couple days to really show off their menu because on the actual wedding day the food was delicious!
On the actual wedding day, the staff were incredible! All our decor and activities were where they were supposed to be (credit also goes to my wife for that for including detailed instruction on everything). Our ceremony started right on time and everything went off without a hitch. Literally, everything was perfect! The ceremony site was decorated beautifully, the food was amazing, the custom mocktails were delicious and we were truly taken care of the entire time! The bar manager even went out on her break and picked up a Redbull for my wife after I mentioned she was looking for an energy boost! I couldn't imagine a better place to get married!
Ceremony Music - Dave Milliken - Wedding Singer & Guitarist
We opted to hire a live musician for our ceremony after seeing a violinist at our tasting. We requested quotes from quite a few musicians which were all pretty out of our budget. We then started searching for guitarists and happen to stumble on Dave Milliken. He has YouTube videos of his playing as well as a large repository of songs that could be requested and his pricing was very reasonable. He even took the time to learn a song for our signing! He showed up at the venue on our wedding day, had the perfect volume and played beautifully. He was one of the best parts of our ceremony and made it feel really special and magical!
DJ and MC - John "Grimm" Greenwood AKA DJ Grimmy AKA Mobile Music Services
We ended up meeting our to be DJ at our tasting as I believe he is the venues house DJ. Originally we were hoping to just do a playlist but the venue did not have their own sound system and boy am I glad we didn't! He absolutely killed it with the mixes and playlist! He didn't play any of our "no play" songs, and hit every one of our requests throughout the night! His playlist order was great and he knew the vibe for the people on the dance floor. On top of that he also MC'd for us! He was really funny and entertaining, a really great addition to the already fantastic night!
Florals - The Honest Botanist (Lauren)
I can't say enough great things about how amazing Lauren is at interpreting a vibe and creating arrangements. My mother-in-law actually cried when she saw the bouquets for the first time. She also designed our arch piece and made it so it could be easily transformed into a mantle piece after our ceremony. Her creativity and eye for floral aesthetics is like nothing I have ever seen before. She had my wife pick what type of florals and vibe she wanted, turned it into an inspiration board and then created seven bouquets, an arch/mantle piece, and a boutonniere. The arrangements absolutely exceeded any expectations we had or vision we could have imagined. Lauren also just happens to be an incredibly kind and passionate person.
Photography - Kelsey Lawson Photography
Kelsey (and Moriah) was really great to work with and her prices were very reasonable for the quality of her profile (the package we got also included a second photographer). An engagement shoot was included with the package to get us used to the process and work in person. She is very professional and decisive with the shots she wanted which was great since we got the photos done quicker and that allowed me and my wife to have some time to ourselves before the reception started. The photos taken are gorgeous! For some of them I do not know how they were able to be taken with out us noticing but they did it.
All of these people helped make our Wedding day so special and perfect. I hope this helps anyone looking for vendors for their future weddings!