Hi MN brides. I got married in Rochester MN this past October. I used several vendors from the Twin Cities area. Scott Bacon was a great photographer and produced high-quality photos for a lower price because he was just starting his business. I used Cafe Latte in St. Paul for some delicious chocolate turtle cakes at my reception. They also have beautiful cupcakes and other flavors of cakes. My guests loved it.
Louise Kegley is the best seamstress. Such a nice lady! And she has the lowest prices I have seen for bridal alterations. Plus, she is in St. Paul and is located conveniently for a lot of the MN brides. She wasn’t located conveniently for me but I was happy to drive the 1.5 hours there and back for my 3 appts with her. She was the best vendor I dealt with during the whole process.
I used a number of vendors from Rochester whom I would recommend:
Catering by Design (expensive but very able to accommodate your requests and fairly professional)
Hyvee Barlow Bakery (for our larger wedding cake)
Le Jardin Floral (the flowers were gorgeous but there were some problems with the construction of the items and the selection of the flowers)
Church of St. John the Evangelist (obviously I can’t knock down a church, but we did have some problems with the priest backing out on us and them not telling us about the music costs up front.)
Star Limo (great service, low cost if you book at the last minute – we booked a limo only 9 days before our wedding)
Jenny’s Bridal (got our tuxes and bridesmaid dresses here and the staff was so friendly and accomodating. A whole different world compared to Mestads, DB’s, or The Wedding Shoppe)
And some whom I would be more hesitant to recommend:
Rochester Art Center (extravagant fees and terrible management who thinks they can change signed contracts by threatening you)
J-Sun Entertainment (DJ – was cheap, but original DJ backed out on us at the last minute and we had a signed contract with him! What can I say, you get what you pay for with them)
Mestad’s (got my dress here and they sucked big time, I hated going into their store every time. PM me if you need more info. I have wrote extensive google reviews about their terrible service and mistakes.)
The Doubletree and the Hilton Garden Inn in Rochester – I definitely do not recommend them for a group block of hotel rooms. They did nothing but mess up our block multiple times. This lead to me getting many phone calls and emails from guests who weren’t able to book under our block. They also didn’t hand out the welcome bags that I had left for guests. I was with when my mom checked in and I had to remind the staff to hand the bags out – they didn’t even know they existed. And they had them thrown all over the floor – gross, I had food in those bags for the guests! They also made a lot of promises to us about the free shuttle service but when it came time to book it they changed their time limits of the shuttle a lot. What was supposed to be a 4 hour shuttle turned into only 1.5 hours of use in the end. They also didn’t provide any great deals for the bride/groom room. They would only give you a free standard room or a suite for $200/night. Not really a great deal for someone who just brought your business 50 plus guest rooms.
Hair Studio 52 – I would not recommend this place period for your hair, makeup or salon service. I had 3 hair trials here because the first two with the same stylist were so terrible and that stylist was a rude biatch. Then I had a makeup trial here that made me look like a geisha because the artist was trying to push her more expensive airbrushing service instead of listening to what I actually wanted. In the end I did my own makeup on my wedding day after doing a free trial at Sephora that turned out great and buying makeup from their store. I did do my hair at Hair Studio 52 on my wedding day, but with a different stylist. It wasn’t the best situation and I didn’t feel that great walking in there on my wedding day but I just had to blow it off and deal with it. I will never go back there again and I don’t recommend them for any bridal party or bride.
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