Venue
Ballroom 19 @ Hibachi
325 Columbus Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Contact: Wai Chan 302-373-8318
I know, I know, Hibachi sounds a little unconventional for a wedding venue. However, this restaurant is located on the top floor of the same building as Dave and Busters on Penn's Landing. It has a ballroom with hardwood floors, enough seating for 200-250, and floor to ceiling windows that give panoramic views of the Ben Franklin Bridge, Delaware River, and boat docks. If you're lucky on a summer night you may get a free fireworks show care of the Camden Riversharks baseball team. Despite it's phenomenal location, the pricing for this venue is easily $50 less per person than any other spot on the river. In addition, the owner, Wai Chan is incredibly accommodating and welcomes you and your family into his restaurant as many times as you want before your event. He even gave us tickets to his New Year's Eve party!
Photographers
BG Productions
Contact: www.bgproonline.com
This husband and wife team are not only incredibly talented, but they pride themselves on getting to know each couple personally to provide the best services possible. Cathie and Al op
en up their home to their clients for a Holiday Party in the winter and a Customer Appreciation 
Party in the spring. On their website you can find photos of clients who started with engagement sessions then moved on to wedding, maternity, and family photos and are still present at the parties. They are the kind 
of people you find and want to share all of the special moments in your life with. They are open to working with any budget and we are soooo lucky to have them! You can see some photos from our engagement session as examples of their work.DJ
Roots and Groove
Contact: www.rootsandgroove.com
Adam and John of Roots and Groove are great to work with and they know their music like no other! When we contacted them for DJ services they invited us over to Adam's house where they sat with us in their basement studio to talk about exactly what WE wanted for our wedding. As Adam took notes, John started spinning music we were talking about on the spot. Roots and Groove strives to provide the most personalized music possible for your event and you are guaranteed no generic Chicken Dance, Electric Slide, It's Raining Men music....unless of course that's what you're looking for!
Cake
Noelle's Sweets
Contact: www.noellessweets.com
Stephanie, owner of Noelle's Sweets, is a friend's girlfriend and we've had her in our sights for our cake almost since we got engaged. She's an experienced and accomplished baker who makes incredible custom cakes that not only look amazing outside, but taste incredible on the inside. Her prices are also less than what you'll see with any standard bakery.
Invitations
Invitation Pie
Contact: www.invitationpie.com
We feel as though we got incredibly lucky with our invitations. My fiance is from Africa and his native language is French. It was very important to us that we do everything we could
bilingually, but finding a company willing to do AFFORDABLE bilingual invitations was a challenge. We also wanted to customize our invitations with a graphic taken from cloth that my fiance's mother bought us in Africa. Sandy at Invitation Pie was incredible to work with. She 
custom designed our invitations and even rushed our order for us so that we could get them out to our overseas guests early. We ordered 85 custom designed, bilingual invitations and paid just $333! I dare you to find a better deal than that! I've attached a few pictures of our invitations for you to see their work.Website
I would also highly recommend utilizing theknot.com tools to their fullest. It's a free website and you can link your guest list so that your guests can RSVP online and then you can build a custom seating chart using those guest that have RSVPed. We also really liked the use of their wedding website and budgeter.
