Pittsburgh Wedding Vendor Reviews

so, you know. don't play these.

i'm a lyric-listener. i love the music, but i'm all about the lyrics when thinking about my favorite songs, the ones that really move me.

some folks aren't. some folks are all about the beat and the mood of the notes but don't really care much about the lyrics. or just assume that the lyrics go right along with the music.

you'd think!

when choosing the music for your wedding and reception, maybe have a gander at this list of songs that might not be about what you think they're about.

just started a twitter account for this--follow me at pghweddings if you're interested.

Sheraton Station Square

Nice location. Parking is an absolute nightmare on Friday and Saturday nights. Parking in their lot (if it is not already full, which it usually is) costs about $16 for the reception time. Please provide vouchers for your guests or work something out. The garage is often full up to the very top level. Anyway, we arrived there to find that the ballroom wasn’t set up just an hour before the reception (during the cocktail hour). They had another meeting in there during the day. The cocktail hour was upstairs and the room was not very attractive. They scrambled though and got everything set up minutes before letting people in to the ballroom. It ended up coming together beautifully. I would make sure there is enough time between the event ahead of yours and yours though.

I wanted to respond to the comment published below. I clicked "publish" on the comment, because I want people to have both sides of the story. However, I have been to three wedding receptions in Station Square in the last four years. One, we arrived to find that the bride and groom's little coupons they gave us for parking could not be redeemed. We went to drive past the Sheraton into the lot, not garage, and the parking attendant had it blocked off and said "it's full." So the bride and groom's little tag was useless (we tried to show it). Now, there were three or four events occurring in Station Square that night (in fact, I recall it being shortly before Halloween, as a lot of people were out and about in costume). We definitely were parked on the top level of the garage and the elevator is painfully slow. Also, I still have my receipt from the Sheraton lot (not the garage) that was $16.00. I paid inside the building at the side door. It definitely cost me that much, and it was reimbursed by my employer. I just wanted to give everyone something to think about when you plan a wedding in an area with limited parking. I'm sure the Sheraton does try to maintain spaces for guests, but it may not always be possible and I have found it is not always enforced.

Holiday Inn Moon Township

Every time I have been here for a wedding, parking has been a problem. People frequently park on the grass. (The Doubletree next door has the same problem). Anyway, the hotel is older but nicely remodeled inside. The ballroom smells like chlorine from the swimming pool next door, but it is not too bad and you forget about it five minutes after being inside. The food service is extremely quick and it tasted delicious. They walk around and ask you which dish you ordered (chicken or beef?) and it seemed some people couldn’t remember. I would use some sort of marking on my place cards to indicate, so they don’t run out of the dish your guest requested due to others substituting at the last minute. Very nice set up for the bar and h’ors d’oeuvres area, outside the ballroom.

Old Economy Village

Outdoor wedding site. They did not have enough chairs for everyone who came. Also, about an hour before the ceremony, a lady and her teenage son showed up. He listened to an Ipod while he set up chairs. I think they set up all the chairs they had, so if you are having your ceremony there, I would make sure they have enough chairs to accommodate you or you might have to rent some. I don’t know what their backup plan is if it rains.

Big Catering

We met with Big Catering and ended up picking them to be our caterer for our wedding because of their professionalism and willingness to work with us on a unique menu. Big is the company that owns Mad Mex, Casbah, Umi, Kaya, Eleven and other restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. We knew that based on the selection at the restaurants that their catering had to be good - and we were right. We asked them to help us with an all vegetarian menu and everything they made was perfect. Our tasting was also amazing! I had heard that they were a bit pricey - but they were comparable to other caterers we met with in terms of pricing - and were more professional. Everything turned out perfect on our wedding day and our guests raved about the food. Check them out at www.bigburrito.com

Yes We Cater

We met with Yes We Cater during our reception planning and we did not choose them - I was completely unimpressed by them and thought I should share my experience. Maybe we caught them at a busy time and our experience is not representative of how they normally are. We drove all the way out to their office in Monroeville and talked with one of the owners for about 2 hours about the type of food we wanted at the wedding (we wanted all vegetarian food) - I noticed that the owner was not taking any notes on what we would want and since it was such a long meeting I was wondering how he was committing everything to memory! He promised to talk with their chef and send us a full list of menu options with pricing by the following Friday. At the end of that Friday we did receive an email - but it was so disappointing. He sent us a small list of a few things without any pricing and it was clear that he had not remembered anything we talked about at the meeting. It was almost as if he hadn't met with us! We called him and left a voice mail that we were confused by his email and that we thought it would be easier to create a list of what we wanted and have him provide pricing for it. We never received a reply to our email or our voice mail. We had shared our budget limitations with him at the meeting and I wondered if between the meeting and when he sent his email if he had decided that we weren't 'worth it'. Overall I was very disappointed with our experience and surprised because I had heard good things about them.

CoCo's Cupcakes

We worked with Shea at CoCo's to do a variety of cupcakes for our wedding reception. We had a wonderful tasting at CoCo's and Shea was really great to work with. The cupcakes arrived at our reception on-time and looked beautiful. They tasted amazing (as we expected)! They give discounts on buying several dozen cupcakes (we ordered 10 dozen). We chose them because they make wonderful vegan cupcakes - we had them make about half of our cupcakes vegan and our guests couldn't tell. We decided on a disposable cardboard display and I thought it looked very nice.  I highly recommend Coco's - http://www.cocoscupcakes.com.

Signature Desserts

We wanted to have multiple desserts instead of a wedding cake at our reception. We were looking for a place that made fruit and custard tarts and that's how we found Signature Desserts in Castle Shannon. We worked with Linda from Signature Desserts and had a great tasting - she was very nice, funny, and professional. She really encouraged us to go with one of her very affordable wedding packages including a traditional wedding cake. We weren't interested in the wedding cake but she was still willing to give us a great deal on the number of fruit tarts we wanted. They were delivered on-time, and our guests really loved them.  www.signaturedesserts.com

J.Crew

My two bridesmaids decided on a dress from J.Crew - www.jcrew.com. The dress was a simple strapless black dress that they ordered online for $68. They looked beautiful, they can wear the dress again, and they didn't have to spend much. J.Crew now has an entire line of wedding gowns and formal dresses for bridesmaids - definitely worth checking out.