- The Village Goldsmith
- A Stitch in Time
Sacramento Area Wedding Vendors:
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
|
The Bad and the Ugly |
The Good
23 Bentley
Sacramento, CA 95823
Lue Hosang
(916) 421-6127
Lue Hosang custom designed a 14 foot wedding veil for me, a flower girl basket and a ring pillow for only $118 total! She was a wonderful elderly lady who designs veils, silk floral arrangements and other wedding silks for a very reasonable fee. The fee is especially reasonable when you consider that everything is custom-made by hand.
S. Curtis Fine Jewelry
Sacramento, CA 95864
Syd Curtis
(916) 973-1699
Sid Curtis did a wonderful job designing a custom wedding band for Brian. Brian wanted to have two Medieval Lions encircling his wedding band with a diamond in the middle. Sid Curtis created a wonderful piece that he estimated would be between $1100-1500. When it was done I was told it would be $1500 and that there had been a lot of extra custom work that wasn't originally anticipated. I was willing to pay the amount, but let Sid know that we were a wedding couple who had a number of high bills and could he give us a discount? He lowered the price to $1100 for us and we were quite pleased!
Edwards Jewelry and Imports
888 Brannan Street, #160
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 626-9333
If you are in the market to buy a loose gem or a ring that has already been created, Edwards Jewelry is the place to go. The prices for their high quality diamonds are well below the street value. However, in order to buy anything there you need to have a Reseller's Permit. Since Brian has his own business and a Reseller's Permit, so we were able to buy two gems there at exceeding inexpensive prices. Brian bought my 1 caret diamond there (but he refuses to tell me the exact price). I bought his .15 point diamond there for only $120.
Gunne Sax Outlet (Jessica McClintock Outlet)
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 495-3326 (Recording)
(415) 495-3327 (Voice)
The Gunne Sax outlet is the place to go to buy high quality and inexpensive wedding and bridesmaid dresses. I bought my lovely wedding dress there for only $180! (Seamstress work and dry cleaning actually cost more than the dress!). I bought my bridesmaid dresses off of the prom dress racks and they were only $50 each. You can go to http://www.mother.com/~osherry/wedding/bridesmaids.html to see how the bridesmaid dresses look. I also bought a matching Flower Girl dress there for only $60!
Zachary Jacques Restaurant (French Cuisine)
Placerville, CA 95667
Jennifer Matisse
(916) 626-8045
Zachary Jacques is one of those restaurants that is a real treasure to find and a well kept secret. It is quite a drive from our home in Davis to Placerville (45 minutes), however the food is so exceedingly good that the drive is worth it. They created a wonderful French dinner for our Rehearsal Dinner for only $30 per person. The menu for our rehearsal dinner is located at http://www.mother.com/~osherry/wedding/food.html. Beware, you might get hungry just by reading the menu.
Roxies: One Cut Above
Davis, CA 95616
Carol-Makeup Artist (916) 759-1112
Heidi-Hair Stylist (916) 759-1111
Carol and Heidi did a wonderful job with both my hair and my makeup. I was charged $100 for two sessions. One session was a dry run where they did my hair and makeup to see what I would like or not like. And then another session will be done on the wedding day. I thought that they were both very professional and very talented with what they do for a living. And hey, I looked good! :-)
Barbara's Dancing Tonight
Davis, CA 95616
Barbara
(916) 756-8371
Before a wedding most wedding couples grimace when they think about their first dance. Since Brian and I didn't want to make fools of ourselves in front of all of our guests, so we took ballroom dancing lessons at Barbara's Dancing Tonight. The classes were quite reasonable. We got a discounted price of $5 per group lesson (Regularly $11). Try to call them and see if they have any specials. We also got private dancing lessons from Lou, who was very patient for only $35/hour.
The Bad and the Ugly!
John and Louise Koppel
Their shop closed and is no longer in Davis
They currently reside in Folsom, CA
Davis Police Case Number 97-477
Officer Chris Sihner handled the case
The Village Goldsmith is definately a jeweler from hell and a thief. We have bought a loose diamond at Edward's Jewlery in San Francisco and had planned on getting a local jeweler to create a custom wedding band for Brian. Brian dropped off the diamond along with instructions on how to create the wedding band in early December. You can imagine our dismay when when stopped on by his shop after Christmas only to find that his shop was closed, our diamond was gone, and there was no forwarding phone number or address to reach him. We were even more upset since we never bothered to obtain a receipt for the diamond we dropped off to him. In a last act of dismay we contacted the Davis Police department and made a police report about the theft. Apparently we were not the only people who were ripped off by the Village Goldsmith. Another person had reported that John Koppell of the Village Goldsmith ran off with all of their family heirloom's that he was supposed to repair. The Davis police officer Chris Sihner immedately got on the case and tracked down Mr. Koppel to Folsom, CA. With a police officer at his door Mr. Koppel all of the sudden remembered the "lost" merchandise that he had. Shortly afterwards our diamond was returned! I will always thank the Davis Police Department for what they did. I have also, included the Davis Police Case Number 97-477 if anyone would like to verify this story. The sad part of this story is that John Koppell is planning on setting up another jewelry shop. So beware!
A Stitch in Time
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
Anastacia or Judith
(916) 863-6448
We had a jeweler from hell and a seamstress from hell! The seamstress was supposed to take up my wedding dress hem, add some gold trim to the gown and add some cinderella-like sides to the gown. We put down $100 to pay for the material that would be used. We even specifically showed the seamstress the exact material that we needed. I was told that it would take a month and to come back later. When I came back a month later they had put a hole in the front of my wedding dress, they had not taken up the hem, they had bought cheap lace that they stitched together to make it appear like material and had sewed it in a haphazard manner all over my wedding gown. It was nothing at all like what I had told them to do and the lace that was sewn together was not at all like the material I had specifically shown them. They told me that they couldn't find the material I wanted and bought the cheap lace instead. (According to my Mom the material was less than $20 and they had pocketed over $80 of my money.) I told them they should have told me that they couldn't find the material and then I would have bought it. They never even bothered to use real material on my one and only wedding dress. Instead they use a bunch of cheap lace that was stitched together. I told them that it looked cheap and tacky. They got really upset and started to yell at me. I was in the point of tears by the time I left and I was out $100. Further, I discovered a hole in the front of my wedding dress after leaving the seamstresses. My mother ended up taking up the hem and repairing the hole in the dress as best she could. I don't know if I can ever go to another seamstress again. These were utterly, incompetant women. They still do semastress work in Sacramento for the Society for Creative Anachronism, so beware!
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