This is loooong overdue. I was absolutely fried after planning my
destination wedding in New Orleans! I am
a corporate event planner, so I was a bit OCD when planning our wedding. I couldn’t have been happier with how
everything went. Our guests are still
raving about it and saying it was the best wedding they have ever been to. My reviews are all overwhelmingly
positive. The only vendor who wasn’t
perfect was our DJ and he wasn’t bad, just wasn’t as perfect as everyone else.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Ceremony/Reception Venue: Broussard’s
A+
I
can’t say enough things about our venue and working with Caroline at Broussard’s. The courtyard was stunning, absolutely
stunning. Our guests loved it. We had
our ceremony in the courtyard and then second lined after and came back and
they have flipped the space from Ceremony to Reception. I would recommend bringing your own candles
to add around the fountain and the space.
It makes the space beautiful. The
restaurant only provides one candle per table.
Since the space is so beautiful, we didn’t have to spend a lot on décor. And the food was amazing.
Day of Coordinator: Brittany Gros,
Jolie Designs A+
Since
I am a corporate event planner I wasn’t going to have a coordinator and in the
month leading up to the wedding, I started to realize that I wanted someone on
site to make sure everything stayed on schedule and to execute the plan I put
together. Brittany was amazing,
absolutely amazing. I am so glad we
hired her. From helping to ensure we
stayed on schedule, handing out final payments and taking care of every single
person of the bridal party. She took
care of our parents and brought them their drinks. One of the best things she
did was put together a plate for my husband and I (our wedding was stations,
not sit down dinner). She put the plates at a table in the sideroom of our
venue with champagne and then came and grabbed us away from making the rounds
with our guests. Those 10 minutes on our own was perfect and I honestly don't
think we would have been able to eat if she hadn't done that. My family adored
her since she was so attentive. If you
don’t think you need a day of coordinator, I urge you to reconsider and call
Brittany!
Ceremony Musicians/Cocktail Hour: Joshua
Gouzy/Showarama Hot Jazz Trio A+
We
decided to find a band that could play for our ceremony and then also for the
first hour of our cocktail reception when we got back from our second
line. Joshua was fantastic to work with. He was flexible in working with us on any
song we wanted and he was completely cooperative when I asked if he would mind
accompanying a family friend that wanted to sing during our ceremony. Our friend is a professional singer and she
was raving about how talented Joshua and crew were and also how great they were
to work with. I would definitely
recommend them.
Second Line Band: Kinfolk Brass Band
A+
Our second line band was amazing. Most
of our guests have never done a second line before and they were amazing. Would definitely recommend them for your
second line.
Photographer: Lance Nicoll A+
Lance Nicoll was our photographer and he was great. Our pictures turned out beautiful and he was
a very calming presence as we worked to get all of the shots since we were
behind schedule. He thought of all the
shots we should take and helped recommend the appropriate timeline and schedule
for our first look and group shots leading up to the ceremony. His photos are beautiful.
Cake: Cake Café & Bakery: A
I love cake and I want a cake that tastes good, doesn’t just look good. I visited Cake Café on my site inspection
weekend and sampled their red velvet cupcake and knew that’s what I wanted for
my wedding day. I had some of our guests
tell me the cake was lifechanging (no joke, that’s the word two guests
used). It was great. My only complaint is Steve is hard to get a
hold of (especially when planning from a destination) and my cake topper from
the florist was a tad heavy for the cake, so we had to cut the cake earlier
than planned because the top tier started to tip. No big deal at all. It tasted great and everyone loved it. It is worth it to be persistent and get a
hold of him!
Flowers: Beth’s Flowers A
Flower’s
were not a huge concern for me since the venue was so beautiful on its
own. But the flowers we did get turned
out great (bouquets, boutonnieres, table tops).
Sue was great to work with and was was more willing to work within my
budget than most florists I spoke with.
The flowers were great.
Hair/Makeup: Kiss & Makeup A
I
hired Kiss & Makeup for makeup only and 2 weeks before my wedding, my
hairdresser friend had to cancel his trip.
Brittany scrambled and added a person to do hair both hair and make up
was beautiful for me and the bridesmaids.
They did a good job and I appreciated her helping me out at the last
minute.
Officiant John Zimmer: A-
John
Zimmer came highly recommended and part of the reason I chose him is he is a
former Catholic priest (my dad was a tad upset we weren’t getting married in
the Catholic Church, so John was a way to make him happy as well). Reverend Zimmer did a good job, but I did
wish he could have joined us for the rehearsal to walk through everything. He also did mess up the names/relationships
of our two readers. In the end, it made
our guests laugh though, so not a big deal.
But our guests said he did a very good job. Again, a rehearsal just might have made
things a bit smoother.
DJ: Music Source, Larry Dewitt B
The
DJ was the only vendor that didn’t earn an A and he was good, just not
perfect. On a positive note, he did work
with us in setting up early since our ceremony was in the same space as the
reception (I didn’t want him to be setting up equipment during the
jazz/cocktail hour). In the two weeks
leading up to the wedding though, I couldn’t get a hold of him at all (I wanted
to review the schedule for the night and our suggested song list/music taste). Two days before the wedding I finally got a
hold of him, but it was an unnecessary stress in those final two weeks. I was
honestly getting worried that I would have to find another DJ in the 11th
hour. And while most of the music he played was
great and on track with what we wanted, some others weren’t. Early in the night a country song came on and
I had a strict “no country” rule. Our
best man raced over and reminded him that the bride hates country and the rest
of the night was smooth sailing. Again,
not a bad experience, just not perfect as everything else was.