The webding has come and gone. It was pretty good. I'll cut right to the reviews (pics to be added when I return from honeymooning [heh... honeymooning...]) so I can finish this up by the light of a 4am Helsinki sunrise.

  Elli's Nail Spa

• Wonderful little place in Worthington. I had never heard of it before my matron of honor booked us for mani/pedis there.
• HUGE selection of nail colors
• Can accommodate large parties (we had 9 I think?)
• According to their website, they use "100% Pure Plant-Based Ingredients" and signs in the spa indicate they're cruelty-free as well.

AVEDA waxing: F 

• I got full leg and bikini. NOT brazilian, just to be clear. Also this was two days before wedding day.
• She missed huge spots of hair.
• She waxed the same (VERY SENSITIVE!) area multiple times to get a few straggling hairs, which resulted in major bikini-region pain that lasted for days and then peeled.
• It took FOR-EV-ER. I was there for hours and hours. Her wax wasn't properly heated, she kept running out of supplies and taking her sweet time getting them, and she spent way too much time on some areas (hurting them as a result) while ignoring other areas completely. 
• She didn't have any good place to put her waste products and they kept getting stuck to my feet.
• The curtain didn't close all the way and people could see me from the hallway.
• Seriously, spend some extra money and go someplace pro. The only thing that makes me feel better about this is that they don't accept tips.

AVEDA makeup: B+

• Very nice and friendly, able to book 8:30 am on a Saturday 
• Very respectful and careful of the fact that I requested only vegan products (most are vegan but some of their lines contain bee products or lanolin).
• Unfortunately the vegan thing caused some confusion because my makeup artist called some manager who mistakenly told her that EVERY product contained bee products and lanolin. I told her this couldn't possibly be the case because I purchased products from AVEDA that contained none of those things. She wasted a bunch of time calling a zillion managers who were all clueless, before I suggested we read the damn labels ourselves. This worked. 
• Of their three lipstick lines, two are vegan. Of their two mascara types, one is vegan. Their dry-skin facial cleanser, exfoliant tonic, and moisturizer (which I used at home prior to the appointment) are vegan. I believe all their powder-based makeup products (eyeshadow, blush, etc) are vegan. I accidentally bought one hair product containing honey (Sap Moss) but I think it's being discontinued anyway. I'm not sure if they'll accept a return; we'll see when I get home, and if my mom didn't lose the receipt. 
• She gave me a really cute, classic look. It looked much better than I could have done myself with the same products, which I didn't own anyway.
• Once I informed her that actually I was getting married at 10am, she hurried it up a bit and I was only about 10 minutes late to the venue (which was mostly due to weird road closures anyway)
• They let me get wedding-ready in their spacious and quiet bathroom. Their handicapped stall was big enough for my sister and I to both comfortably change in.
• The makeup artist was fine with the fact that my sister wanted to take pictures of the makeup-doing process. Generally they seemed a little surprised but essentially unfazed by all the weird stuff I had going on while I was there.
• The whole thing cost $16. I was very satisfied.
• One note of caution: they will offer you tea. The tea contains honey. A LOT of honey.

Patty Cake: A+ 

• Free tasting to determine which frosting we wanted. Options were American cream or "butter"cream. We loved them so much we got both. (White American cream frosting with drippy chocolate buttercream on top.) 
• $5 cake stand rental, $50 deposit if stand returned within 3 days. The cake stand was pretty simple and cute. 
• Overall the cake was beautiful and delicious, as well as delivered on time with no fuss despite weird road closures near the park.
• The cake actually somehow managed to taste even better later in the day when we were eating the leftovers back at my mom's house. Physics-defying deliciousness.
• Oh they did all this before we even paid them, too. I think my mom paid them yesterday when she returned the stand.

Wellness Forum Foods: A+

• Chef Del is the nicest person! Like, really fun and friendly! All the staff were all really nice too. 
• They took care of equipment rental and linens and plates and stuff.
• They served the cake for us. 
• There was a free tasting which they gave us for free without any actual contract (there was never actually a contract, we just paid the day of for the amount they quoted us) and it was a LOT of food!
• Of course the food was all completely delicious. We got many compliments. Also there was TONS of it 
• They gave us all the leftovers we could carry. I think my mom served them at the next day brunch or something, but I don't know because I was on a plane by then.
• They did cleanup and return of equipment at the end. I had no worries.
• Apparently there was confusion where they thought my wedding was on Sunday and it was actually on Saturday, which they called and straightened out the day before (Friday). There was no panic or anything, Del just laughed and said don't worry. I didn't, and he came through, and it was great.
• They served sparkling wine, which we provided. In order to do this, they had to do some insurance paperwork with the city, which they were completely willing to do and took care of with plenty of time to spare. To me, this was totally above and beyond what I would expect of a caterer and I really appreciated it since it saved us a lot of time and money and worry.

North Bank Park: A

• Fountain can be turned on or off. Can't be turned up or down because the water height is controlled by a wind sensor or something. I didn't notice whether it was on or off during the ceremony, despite some kind of to-do about it that occurred before I got there. It's a pretty fountain.
• The gorgeous train bridge has actual trains going by on it periodically. If you don't love trains I suppose this might be a con. I consider it a pro because I love trains. It's just the right distance so you can hear them but they're not too loud.
• People who work for the city set up the tables and chairs and whatnot for both the ceremony and the reception, despite having pretty much no guidance from me, other than number of guests expected and that food would be inside and ceremony outside. Perfect.
• There are doors that can open like giant garage doors facing the river but we left them closed because we wanted to keep the air conditioning on.
• Apparently the bathroom sucked but I never had to use it so this is hearsay.
• Parking was easy, they didn't bother with making us get the passes or anything. Although you have to return the passes if you get them, which my husband did, so after our dramatic exit he actually had to run back to return it which was irritating because it was hot in the car and kind of awkward.

• We were allowed to use the patio for free the day before to rehearse, as long as we did it before noon so they could set up for someone else's wedding. 

Overall, the day was awesome. Completely lovely, the weather was amazing, people loved everything, I was happy as a bug in a (very fancy, beaded) rug. I'll leave you one more vegan wedding tip:

•  Digital photography eliminates the need for gelatin-based film. I didn't review my photographer here since he doesn't actually like to shoot many weddings (he did mine because it was in the morning and therefore didn't interfere with his astronomy club meeting) but he did a great job so far and shot all digital. He even showed me some pics during the reception.