My Community Bio
	Knot Name:  kelleykins
	Wedding Date:  September 14, 2003
	Location:  West Bloomfield, Michigan
	What I do when I'm not on The Knot (occupation): Unemployment Analyst
	About our wedding:   Where you will find me: Detroit board   We had a Sunday wedding at Bay Pointe Golf Club in West Bloomfield on 9/14/03. Vendor review at bottom.   Thanks to all knotties for ideas and any pictures I may have borrowed during my planning process. Vendors Photographer - Robert Bruce Photography DJ and Videographer - JD Entertainment Officiant - Ann Jarema Cake - It''s A Matter Of Taste Ceremony and reception - Bay Pointe Golf Club Florist - Greenery at Brainers, Wixom Ceremony musicians - Terrence McKinney and daughters, traditional Irish music and bag pipes Here are 2 professional pic's by Robert Bruce Photography. Please note they are scanned and the quality is the fault of scanner not photographer. Will post more soon. Here are some non-professional pics from the wedding. Not very good will post some better ones later. On my shoulder you can see a light spot that is my tattoo cover up job from covermark.com Back of hair Front of hair Ceremony site, our first kiss Walking into reception Great shot of my bouquet Cutting cake, this picture dosen''t do the cake justice, I will scan a better one when I get the chance. Made by It''s A Matter of Taste. Our Rings Picture of my new SIL to show color of BM dress and flowers Our honeymoon in St. Lucia St. Lucia sunset A little sand art Marigot Bay, St. Lucia Vendor Review Rehearsal dinner – Mongolian BBQ I was pleased with our service and the food. I did however, have a problem. We had reserved the separate room and when we got there they had another group of young people sitting in there also. The group of people were throwing food at each other across the table and being pretty loud. I complained to the management that we were supposed to have a private room. He told me he couldn''t ask those people to move since they had already eaten. I told him I would call another restaurant and take my 20+ guests somewhere else because we were not going to order any food until they left. He asked us to hold on a minute and walked away. Next thing I knew the whole other table was following him across the restaurant. He told them if they wanted free desert to follow him and they did. After he got them out of the room he sat them elsewhere and explained to them that we had the room reserved. I was told they had just done a turnover in management because they were having a lot of problems like this and they were very apologetic. So I will give them a B. Ceremony and Reception – Bay Pointe Golf Club, West Bloomfield Over all very pleased. The food was great. Rachel was our hall coordinator and she was very helpful anytime I called with questions, etc. She was a great help at the rehearsal. The day of the wedding she did a good job but got a little huffy around the ceremony time. We had an outdoor ceremony and the club radar was showing rain coming and the sky was dark off in the distance. She came in about 40 minutes before the ceremony and told me she thought they should set up the chairs indoors because the radar showed rain. I asked her was it raining right now and she said no, I said set it up outside I have faith we will make it before the rain. She got kind of snotty and said well if it rains everyone will have to stand because we will only set up onetime. She made some comments to my MOH regarding the situation as well. We made it without rain, about 10 minutes after the ceremony was over it poured buckets! I will give them an A. Officiant – Ann Jarema http://www.inowpronounceyou.net Ann was great to work with and let us design our own ceremony with some guidance from her. She was very reasonably priced also. A Ceremony music - Terrence McKinney and his daughters – Traditional Irish music For the bridal party entrance and my walk down the aisle he played the whistle and his daughters played the harp and fiddle, they played traditional Irish music. They also played during our rose ceremony and then Terrence marched us up the aisle and out with the bagpipes. They played during our cocktail hour as well. He was such a nice person and the music was wonderful, we received so many compliments on how unique it was. A+ Florist – Greenery at Brainer''s, Wixom I saw this florist at the Novi Bridal Expo last January and thought they had some pretty different looking displays and made an appt. to talk to them. Kelly and Goudie were the greatest friendliest people to work with. I showed them colors of flowers that I liked and told them I did not want the typical wedding flowers. I gave them complete design control all I told them is colors and I wanted outdoorsy natural looking flowers. They had me come in the day before to see my flowers to make sure they were okay and to see if I wanted any changes. When I got there they had argued over which one was going to make my bouquet so they made 2 and told me to pick, which one I liked best. They were both so beautiful that I let my 4-year-old niece pick. They told me they are making a duplicate of my flowers for this January''s Expo. I loved my flowers so much and would highly recommend them. A++ Photographer – Robert Bruce Photography robertbrucephotography.com Robert was fantastic! He was great to work with and so much fun the day of the wedding. My BM''s just loved him and all the guys thought he was cool. His assistant came with him and was very nice also. The wedding was 9/14/03 and we got 406 proofs back from him in beautiful leather albums on 9/23/03. He told us 3 weeks and we got them in a little over 1 week. I am very pleased with all of the photos and anyone that has seen them so far comments on how my photographer did such a great job. A lot of the pictures in the album I didn''t even realize he was there taking the photos. I will try to get some scanned so I can post a few. I will have a real hard time picking the pictures for our album there are so many I like. He will be one of the best choices you make for a vendor. One more thing....Robert made me feel so comfortable that I let him in the dressing room to take pictures while I was in my bra and slip. I am a plus size and am usually a little self conscious but he made me feel so great and I didn''t mind that he came in and took pictures. A++ DJ, Videographer and Invitations – JD Entertainment What a pleasure to do business with! Kristin the office manger was so pleasant to work with, I walked away with a friend. I invited Kristin to the wedding because she is such a sweetie. John our DJ and owner of JD Entertainment was great!! He kept the dance floor pretty full for a Sunday evening. John did no cheese and we were told by many of our guests how great he was. Our vidoegrapher was really nice to work with and stayed pretty low key. I hardly remember seeing him half of the night. He never got in your face and did not have any bright light in your eyes. Some of my family said he was very nice and not pushy at all when he asked if they wanted to say anything to the camera. Can''t wait to get the video back! A++ so far! Cake – It''s A Matter of Taste, Commerce They did such a great job! I took the flowers to them the day before and they decorated it themselves. We received so many compliments on how good the cake was. Many said it was the best wedding cake they have ever had. There is a picture in my bio but it''s not a very good one, when I get a better one I scanned I will put it in. A+ Dress – Julie''s Bridal, Plymouth I was pleased with the service I received at Julie''s. I went else where for alterations. B+ Alterations – Pam Yockey, Canton Pam was so wonderful and very talented. She works out of her basement and does restoration on historical clothing, she had some dresses hung up that she was working on from the 1800''s. When I picked my dress up from Julie''s I was disappointed because it was a little tight in the chest, Pam worked miracles and made it fit just perfectly. She was so inexpensive compared to others I have used. If you are interested let me know and I will give you her info. I don''t want to post here on the knot only because she works from her home. A+ Veil – Laura Lynn''s Bridal, Waterford They custom made my veil for me and did a great job. I thought they were very reasonably priced as well. A Hair and Make-up - Devawn and Ruth from Styles to Go http://www.styles-to-go.com/ I was very happy with my make-up. I never wear make-up and she made me look really good but not overdone. She used an airbrush machine to apply my foundation and blush it never wiped off. Ruth did a good job on my hair. Tuxes - Mens Warehouse, Novi We had a great experience with them. We had 3 out of towners that were measured in their states and the tuxes were sent here for pick up. No problems with any sizes. Old BIO We did these for favors Save the date card Made on ofoto.com This is the cake we picked My card box for reception. Found at Franks Nursery, got for 50% off because the top was cracked. Nothing a little glue couldn''t fix. Here is the frame I am using for place seating. Frame found at Salvation Army for $5.00 Shower Thank You''s (found at http://starwedd.regency.ac/items.aspx?ProductID=257T&AID=126) Thanks for looking!! free counter from digits.com
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