Weddingbee boards

Our (small, largely DIY) wedding was held 9/19/09 in Truro. I had a really difficult time finding reviews on Outer Cape sites/vendors when I was planning, so I thought I'd share some from our wedding. A few of our vendors traveled from the Boston area, but the majority were from the Cape.

Ceremony site: Head of the Meadow Beach (Truro) - A
Beautiful beach with plenty of parking, and for some reason, not much in the way of crowds. The slope down to the beach is not nearly as steep as other ocean-side beaches, making it a good choice for older family members. Wedding ceremonies require approval from the board of selectmen and police chief, which was easily obtained. On our wedding day it was freezing and windy, but that's not really the beach's fault, is it?

Reception site: Truro Vineyards - B+
The vineyard has a new tasting area and just recently started holding wedding receptions under a pavilion. The site is picturesque and the family and staff who run the vineyard are very nice. The site fee is reasonable. I'm pretty sure ours was one of the first few weddings held there, and while overall it was a good experience, there are a few kinks to be worked out. The vineyard's number one priority is their winemaking operation and they want to minimize any inconvenience for vineyard visitors, which made things a little more difficult for us, unfortunately (I'm not faulting the vineyard for this, obviously... just don't expect the same level of service a venue primarily focused on weddings might provide). Deliveries cannot be made until the day of the reception, and only at specific hours, meaning we had to pay an extra $300 delivery fee for our rental items. Vendors can only arrive and setup after the last wine tasting of the day, which in our case meant after 5 pm for our 6:30 pm reception. The last tasting ran long, meaning everyone had to scramble to set up and a lot of our planned decor had to be abandoned due to lack of setup time (major bummer). In case of cold weather, there are heat lamps available, but the three provided weren't nearly enough on what was admittedly an unseasonably cold night (we had guests leave early 'cause it was so cold! Another bummer). And finally, there are no kitchen facilities available, which means a lot of extra equipment has to be rented. Overall, though, a good experience.

Justice of the Peace: Claire Watts (Wellfleet) - A
Claire is great; she met with us in advance at her home for no additional charge, is genuinely interested in getting to know you, and has a very warm and serene vibe. She was very soft-spoken during the ceremony, which made it difficult to hear her over the waves and wind, but again, not her fault...

Day-of Coordinator: Connie Nye Clark, The Perfect Plan - A
We hired Connie to be our day-of coordinator but later ended up asking for her help in dealing with our caterer and rentals (see catering review below). Connie is knowledgeable, totally professional, and has tons of contacts, and while I think our wedding was a little out of the ordinary for her (small, lower budget, DIY) we didn't ever feel like our wedding wasn't worthy of her time. I would recommend Connie to anyone in a heartbeat.

DJ: Kristin Korpos (Lynn) - A
We read about Kristin on some of the more indie-focused wedding blogs and decided to give her a call. Really glad we did. She is a true professional, knows music (important to us, my husband used to DJ) and is not the slightest bit cheesy. She also was willing to travel out to the Cape, which I'm guessing many other Boston-area DJs might not be as eager to do. Highly recommended. We want to have parties just so we can hire her again.

Caterer: Terra Luna (Truro) - D (feeling generous)
Our one negative vendor experience. Truly unprofessional. It started off well enough at the initial meeting, but quickly went downhill. Our contact there was slow to respond, vague in answering questions, and failed to provide us a contract or complete menu, ever, despite us repeatedly asking for them. She was supposed to handle all of our rentals, but dropped the ball on that and made excuses for why it wasn't getting done (we ultimately turned it over to our day-of coordinator, Connie, which meant we had to pay extra for Connie's time... an unplanned expense).

In the days leading up to the wedding, hundreds of dollars of items were added to the rental order, for items the caterer suddenly realized she needed (when our coordinator asked!). At the reception, there was no silverware on the tables when the food started coming out, service was totally scattered with people getting the wrong meals, the food was cold, and one of the entrees served was not the one we had ordered! I didn't eat dinner at my own wedding because I was served a plate of my least favorite food! We were supposed to have a bartender in addition to waitstaff, but instead one of the servers ended up doubling as the bartender, meaning most of the time guests had to fix their own drinks, *and* the servers had the nerve to put out a tip jar, despite the fact that gratuity was included in our bill. Finally, the caterer *ran out* of entrees, despite having an accurate count, meaning one of our vendors did not eat. Embarrassing.

Given all of these problems, I have asked for a partial refund, equivalent to about 1/8 of the price we paid, but have received no response. If you love Terra Luna's food like I do (did), stick to having dinner at the restaurant, and absolutely avoid using them for catering. Your sanity, budget, and taste buds will thank you.

Cake: Cottage Street Bakery, Orleans - B+
The cake was yum (the bite I had of it... make sure you eat a piece of cake! I was too busy talking to people) and it was decorated well. The cake decorator was easy to deal with and patient when we changed our minds a couple of times. I found the cake price to be kind of high (our 2-tier buttercream cake for 40 was $340), which is why I didn't give them an A.

Flowers: Wildflower (Provincetown) and Provincetown farmer's market - A
We ordered last-minute boutonnieres at Wildflower. I found them to be a little pricey ($16 a piece for a button mum) but figured that's what happens when you decide to do something last minute. The owner there was great, totally patient with the frazzled bride who turned up in his shop the day before her wedding :)We picked up the rest of our flowers the morning of the wedding from the P-town farmer's market (prearranged the week before). Can't beat $1 a stem for beautiful dahlias!

Photographer: Margaret Singer (Somerville) - A
Margaret shot our e-pics and two of her associate shooters shot our wedding (due to our budget constraints). We've only seen teaser pics so far, but we're in love with what we've seen. Margaret makes you look like a rock star, even if in real life you don't :) And both Margaret herself and Ben and Justin, her associate shooters, were terrific all around. Highly recommended.

Rentals: Party Cape Cod - B
I've never worked with a rental company before, so I don't have anything to compare the experience to. We had no problems with our rentals... I gave PCC a B only because of their exorbitant weekend delivery charges. I mean, when do most parties take place? On the weekend, right? So why charge an additional $300 fee on top of the usual delivery fee for weekend deliveries?

Night-before catering: Farland Provisions (Provincetown) - A
We ordered a variety of party platters for a night-before party held at a rental house. The food was very good (desserts were outstanding), and there was plenty of it. The owner was helpful in making menu and quantity decisions. Prices seemed a little high, but ultimately worth it since the whole experience was so effortless.