Louisiana-New Orleans

*********1.14.12 VENDOR REVIEWS******** (LONG)

Hey yall,

We were married 1.14.12 at St. Louis hotel aka Mazarin hotel in the french quarter.   Our wedding day was the best day of our entire life!.. It was more than we could’ve ever imagined.  Everyone  that we've talked to has raved on the food, music, venue---It was fantastic and everyone had a great time—which is exactly what we were going for!... Here are my vendor reviews, if you have any questions please email me, i'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have, tashacrasha692@gmail.com.  It took me a long time to come up with all of this, so I hope it is helpfup in YOUR planning process.  Excuse the typo's etc, I typed this over a few days and a few drinks ;-)

 

1.  St Louis Hotel aka Mazarin Hotel--- B

            Gary and I absolutely loved this hotel, the courtyard specifially.   It's beautiful, the best courtyard in the frenchquarter, in my opinion. We were in the courtyard the night that the Saint's won the superbowl, so it all made sense for us to get married there.  We signed the contract shortly after we were engaged in February.  

            The hotel never bothered to tell us that they would be doing renovations right before the time of our wedding, nor did they bother telling us that the hotel was going to be sold and renamed right around the time that invites went out, so of course, our invitations were sent out with the old hotel name.  Most of our gets were from OOT so this was obviously a problem.  The coordinator, Rachel was very helpful throughout the whole ordeal.  I probably couldn't been in meltdown mode most of the time, but I was surprisingly calm.  The hotel sent out a nice little memo to my entire guest list stating that the name of the hotel had been changed due to it being sold.  We actually found out all of this through theknot.com and I contacted Rachel one day and she confirmed but promised that she'd fix the problem by sending out these notes.  She also reassured me that the renovations would be over by the time that my wedding came around.  Great right?...

At first, we planned on chosing the "middle" package which was about 75$ a head but didn't have premium alcohol so we were going to upgrade that package. When we went in for a tasting, the only package that they offered you to taste was the most expensive package, but we were never told this.  Slight annoyance, but whatever.  The tasting was fantastic and we decided then and there that we would upgrade the package because we didn't know if the medium level package was as good and we didn't want to serve crap food to our guests.  The alcohol was automatically upgraded with this package, so this also helped.  The highest level package was now 100$ a head... grrr....  I will say though that people raved about the food and said that they had never had wedding food that was as good.

            We also had the banana foster station, which our guests really enjoyed.

            When our guest list became out of control, I called Rachel to tell her that we were not expecting 225 people instead of 180, and she informed me that we'd need to rent out more space.  I think it was an additional 500$.  It was really nice though because they opened another room and had an additional buffet so that people were not waiting too long in line for food.

            Here comes the best part:  THE DAY BEFORE the wedding, I got a call from Tara with the hotel who informed me that although they thought the renovations would be complete the found would not be operable for my wedding.  Something about the copper wires in the fountain would cause some time of electricution if it was filled with water.  Fanastic right?  The WHOLE reason we were getting married was because of the beautiful fountain and courtyard and it would not be working… Ugh.  Tara told me how sorry they were and that they could offer me a $2000 refund, hire a candle company to decorate the fountain so that it wouldn’t look ridiculous.  I told her that I needed to call my FI and discuss with him then I’d call her back.  After discussing, Gary was pretty upset as was I, but it was the day before our wedding and there was not much we could do but go with it.  I called Tara back to tell her how upset we were and asked for another free hotel room which she gladly agreed too.

 

The hotel was absolutely beautiful, the food fantastic, the alcohol flowing freely.  Rachel was there most of the time and then had  a personal attendant there for me which definitely to help me stay on task with cutting the cake, etc.  Overall, I would definitely get married there again and I would recommend anyone getting married there, I was just annoyed with the whole shadiness of the selling of the hotel and the renovations and not being told about it.  This is the only reason I am giving them a B rating and Not an A.

 

A few pics of the fountain:

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/fountain111.jpg

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/fountain1.jpg

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/fountain.jpg

 

 

2.  Band--- Bucktown All stars  A++++

If there were a higher rating than an A++++, I would certainly it to them.  They were absolutely FANTASTIC.  Everyone was on the dance floor all night long and have raved about how wonderful and great the band was.  When I first called to book them, they informed me that they had another gig earlier that day and that I would need to move the time of my ceremony, not a problem at all.  I did not even bat an eye;  I knew I wanted them.  The lady that handles the bookings was very professional and accommodating.  They were wonderful.  I’d use them again and definitely recommend them to everyone!

We did a second line from the St. Louis Hotel to Pat O’s down Bourbon Street and it was the highlight of the night.  People said it was the most fun wedding that they had ever been.  Here is a video of our second line.   The band said that they had never seen so many people get involved in a second line and it was like people almost forgot that the saints had lost in the playoffs earlier that day.  The video is from Gary’s uncle from California who also did a little editing!

Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2712756497104

 

us and the band:

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/bucktown.jpg

 

3.  Photographer—Stevie Ramos A+

I’m sure some of you remember my previous drama with my ORIGINAL photographer, Amanda Meyer.  I had to fire her due to unprofessionalism.  She refunded my money immediately because she knew she was at fault.

 

 I’m so glad this all happened though in the end because Stevie was more than I could had ever asked for.  Her engagement pics were wonderful.  She is so fun to work with and had great ideas.   She’s professional, friendly, gets back to you in a timely manner and best of all she takes wonderful photos! We love her!... Have not seen wedding photos yet, but I have no doubt that they will be wonderful!  Will post link when they are ready!

 

4.  Florist/décor—Erin Steen A+

Erin was wonderful.  She was super easy to work with.  She made the courtyard look beautiful!  We had her construct an arrangement for the fountain along with adding candles around it. She made the arrangements for the tables and took into account exactly what I wanted!  They were fabulous!  She constructed a backdrop in which we were married.    We had her set up the sign-in table along with a few other tasks such as putting out the aisle markers.  She was absolutely fantastic and I highly recommend her. 

 

Here is a pic of the backdrop that we had her construct.  I will post pics later of the table arrangements as I can’t find any off hand.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/fountain1.jpg

 

5.   Officiant – Pastor Bering  A+

We initially wanted to have Coco Robicheaux but sadly due to his untimely death, we were forced to look for someone else.  My co-worker was married by Pastor Bering and highly recommended him.  He was absolutely fantastic.  We met with him a couple of times for sort of a pre-marital counseling type session.  He made them very entertaining and we found them very helpful.  He was a Baptist pastor and Gary and I were both brought up Catholic but we wanted a Christian ceremony.  He provided just that!  He has become a great friend to us and someone that I know we can go to if we ever need guidance in our future.

 

6.  Cake—Haydel’s  A

The cake was provided through Haydels with the St. Louis Hotel contract.  I’ll admit that it wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but I should’ve elaborated more in what I wanted it to look like.  I felt like it was too wide and smashed looking.  I don’t know.  I thought it was going to be taller and thinner, but like I said, I should’ve been more specific.   Whatever, it taste great and was moist.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/cake-1.jpg

 

 

7.  Dress-  David’s Bridal  A+

I never in a million years thought I’d buy a dress from David’s bridal.  Every time I’ve looked there, I always thought their merchandise looked like cheap crap.  Just was not my style.  In April, my twin sister was getting married and I went inside to buy a pair of those dyable shoes for my bridesmaids dress.    When I walked in, to my surprise I saw  “My dress” hanging up on a mannequin.  And even more surprised, it was a Vera Wang!  The price was very reasonable.

 

Also had my alterations done here and they were absolutely fantastic.  I had my dress, my after party dress and an additional formal dress altered here.  All three were fantastic.

 

I will no longer talk crap about David’s Bridal… Ever.

These are a couple pics of my dress

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/dress.jpg

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/wedding3.jpg

 

 

I also wore Blue Manolo Blahnik Peep toe heels.  Purchased from Nordstrom.com.  They were fabulous!.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/42f36443.jpg

 

 

8.  Videographer  Jerry Binder  --Pending

I wanted the ceremony and most of the reception videoed but I did not want the video montage, along with childhood photos, and interviews with guess—I just simply wanted it videoed and professionally edited.  I found a rec for Jerry on theknot.com and gave him a call.  His prices were the most reasonable and he worked with me on what I wanted and what I was looking for.  He was very easy to work with, professional and on time.  I will update his rating when we get the video.

 

9.  Flowers—Bouquets/Bouts  --Sam’s club flowers—A+

Sam’s club makes flower packages and has them delivered to your front door.  They were reasonably priced and the flowers were beautiful.  I would recommend them to anyone!

This is the package that I went with.  I would’ve let Erin Steen do the bouquets/etc as well but I had already placed the order for my bouquets when I met with Erin.

 

This is the package that I ordered:

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod1070290&navAction=push

 

This is how they are shipped to you:

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/flowers1.jpg

 

this is a pic of one of the bridemaid’s bouquets:  (sorry for the crap in the background—my husband’s desk is a mess)

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/flowers2.jpg

 

10.  Save the Dates—Paperandinkstudio.com ---B-

Our save the dates were fabulous.  We received so many compliments on them.   I really liked Mary, the owner but it seems like she had a difficult time responding to us in a timely fashion. We spent A LOT on these save the dates, because they were very important to us.  She worked with us on a fabulous design and tweaked them until we loved them, but everytime we had an issue, it took days for her to respond to an email. 

 

Another weird thing that happened to us was after the save the dates were sent out, I received a friend request from someone online with a message asking if I liked the save the dates and the person informed me that he was the person that was hired to actually print our save the dates.  I responded and told him that I liked them very much.  He then informed me that there was a balance on the account and I needed to take care of it immediately…. WHAT?.. I emailed Mary asap and she told me that she had an issue with him screwing them up and having to reprint and he was trying to charge her but for me not to worry because she’d handle it.  I never heard back from him, but what an odd situation.

 

We also hired Mary to do the calligraphy or rather, print the name and address on the card, along with designing a custom stamp and sending them off for us, for an additional fee, of course.  We had so many complaints from people that did not get them.  We had her resend several of them.

 

With that in mind, we did not go with paperandinkstudio.com for invitations.

 

Here is a picture of our fabulous STD:

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/STD.jpg

 

11.  Invitations—Scriptura (On Magazine) A++++++

Invitations were VERY important to us and we definitely splurged on them.  It was the first thing that our guests would see related to our wedding, besides our save the date, of course and really set the tone of our event.  Margaret was absolutely FANTASTIC to work with.  She helped me to design a fabulous invite that she raved was one of the nicest that she’s seen.  It was also featured in their shop window!  I HIGHLY recommend them!

 

Here is a pic of our invite and a pic of it featured in the shop window!

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/invite.jpg

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/invite-2.jpg

 

12.  Second-line handkerchiefs—Gem printing—A+

Handkerchiefs were exactly what we wanted.  They were great quality.  They had the best prices.  Very professional, easy and quick to work with.  Highly recommended.

 

Handkerchief:

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/hankerchiefs.jpg

 

13. photobooth—Big Easy Photo A+

At first, we tried to be cheap skates and get the cheapest package in which the guest received two copies of the photos and we did not get to keep any.  The guests raved about it.  They absolutely loved it!.. After the wedding, when I was seeing everyone’s photos, I was upset that we didn’t buy the larger package and get to keep a copy of the photos.  Big Easy Photo was awesome to work with.  Professional, on time, no complaints what so ever.  They even emailed us after the wedding to follow up.  When I told them that I wished that we could get a copy of the pics, they said that for 100$, they’d mail us a copy of the photos!... Hooray, so of course, we mailed them a check.  I highly recommend them!

 

They even custom designed a little wedding icon at the bottom of our photos.  Here is the one and only photobooth picture that I was in!

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/photobooth.jpg

 

 

14. ice sculpture—New Orleans Ice Sculpture A+

Very professional, on time, replies to emails/correspondence quickly.  Great product, great price.  No complaints!

 

Pic of our dachshund ice sculpture:

http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/?action=view&current=icesculpture.jpg

 

 

15. ceremony music—Matt Castille  A+

Matt is a highschool class mate.  We graduated together.  He’s a fantastic musician and I could not think of anyone else that I would’ve wanted to play music at my wedding ceremony than he.  He is always and can play/learn just about anything.  He played his guitar and sang.  This is a link to his personal website and here is the music lineup that we used, incase anyone is interested.

 

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/Picture2.png

 

 

 

16. honeymoon—Ladera St.Lucia—A+++

Absolutely fabulous trip.  We had a wonderful time and felt like we truly got to experience the island.  We stayed at this resort that had suites which had one wall missing facing the mountain with indoor pools.  It was fantastic.   From the active volcano to the waterfalls to the cocoa plantations—It was just absolutely great!.. Highly recommended!.. We had such a great time

Here are a couple pics of our vacay:

 

 

17.makeup/hair---Lindsay Sandifer A+

Lindsay has been a personal friend of mine for years.  She actually started off as my hair stylish but had grown into more like a sister.  Three years ago, her husband was transferred to TN for his job.  Lindsay is still faithful to her clientele and travels back to NOLA every 6 weeks from Friday-Monday and sees her old clients.  I love her.  My hair was absolutely fabulous and so was my makeup.  She was wonderful!

 

18 Day of Spa—la riviera salon & spa—A

I got the recommendations for this spa from theknot.com  I really liked the fact that after booking 6 guests, you received a free limo ride.  The experience was absolutely fabulous.  Probably one of the best massages that I had ever received.  The only thing that slightly annoyed me was that the limo driver arrived at about 8 am.  We had confirmed a day earlier that the limo would pick us up from the hotel at 830 am.  As soon as he arrived, he began calling my cellphone.  My bridesmaids were NOT there yet and we actually didn’t get down to the limo from our hotel suite until 835 am at which point the owner began calling my cell hounding me wondering where we were.  I was not in the mood to deal with bullshit, so I handed my cell to my sister and let her regulate/handle the situation. 

 

Our experience was great.  Everyone was so nice.  We had champagne the minute we entered the limo and mimosas flowing all morning as we all got mani’s and pedi’s.  I highly recommend them.  I would’ve given them an A+ had I not had been rubbed the wrong way by the owner hounding me.  She was really nice afterwards and apologized for being a biotch in the end.

 

19.  Rehearsal—Jacqumo’s  A

This is my absolute favorite restaurant in the entire city.. This is actually the place that Gary and I met.  My MIL offered to host the even and from what I can gather had a little difficulty getting in touch with the restaurant and coordinating things. 

 

The actual night of the event was great!... The good was good, the service even better.  It was a lad back atmosphere with great good and even better company.  A fantastic time for all.  Highly recommended!!

 

20.  Grooms cake—My aunt, Connie Devillier

 A+

My fiancé is completing a residency in oral surgery and opted to have a groom’s cake in the shape of a skull as he will be an oral and maxillofacial surgeon.  My aunt made and designed the cake.  It was fabulous and we loved it!

 

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/groomscake.jpg

 

 

21. Favors—DIY

Since we are both dental professionals it only made sense for us to have dental related favors. We DIY patient’s bags containing monogrammed toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss… and also white chocolate molars… Our guests loved them

 

Here’s a pic:

 

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/favors.jpg

 

22.  BM/GM gifts---Tiffany

BM got pearl Toggle bracelets along with pearl earrings.  I also picked p gold pashminas for them from gordon’s in Metairie.

 

GM got Tiffany beer steins with monogrammed initials on the glasses along with mignon faget fleur de lis cuff links.

 

Tiffany bracelets were actually stolen from our front porch and Tiffany was more than accommodating replacing the bracelets at NO charge to us with almost no hassle at all.  Our wedding party loved their gifts and I highly recommend them!

 

 

Here is a copy of our wedding day timeline.. Pretty cheesy but fantastic.  Please email me if you have ay questions or would like a copy of any of these timelines/planning essentials!...

 

http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t305/tashacrasha692/?action=view&current=Picture1.png

 

I think this is pretty much it.  If I left something out, I’ll try to add it later.  These boards are super helpful in planning your wedding!.. Try not to take on more than you can handle.  Delegate, delegate, delegate.  If you can find someone to coordinate the day of for you, please by all means, HIRE THEM!.. It is very helpful to have someone by your side tying up all the loose ends all day long!!...This board has been VERY helpful in our planning process.  Thank you so much for all of your help and happy wedding planning! J

Re: *********1.14.12 VENDOR REVIEWS******** (LONG)

  • awesome reviews!  I actually loved the cake and thought it was very pretty.  Very jealous of your honeymoon too!
  • Thanks so much for these reviews.  You had a beautiful wedding with lots of wonderful details.

    On the wedding cake, I think that is a Haydel's thing.  Other brides have commented that the cake layers are short and wide.  I know they can make them more proportional, but you need to pay them extra to do it.  I'm not sure why they do it that way, because it's certainly more aesthetically pleasing when the heights are even.
  • I forgot that I left out a review for Maximo's Italian restaurant on Decatur. Our wedding party threw us a "stock the bar party" instead of a traditional shower. It was fabulous! They have a private room upstairs that would actually be great for a small, intimate wedding! The room has a great balcony that opens up with seating with a great view of Decatur street. The appetizers were fantastic and the liquor flowed freely that night! The service was excellent! Rated A+ and highly recommended!
  • Wow!  Everything looks wonderful and you can tell you put alot of thought into the details that made this a fun and memorable wedding!!  You are inspiring me through the stressful, hair pulling stage I am in now.  :) Thanks for sharing. 
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • Congrats on a fabulous wedding and honeymoon!

    Glad to hear La Riviera worked out well-- I'll be going with my girls the day before the wedding.

    Love your favors.  And your dress!  I almost got the same one.

    Happy Marriage to you!
  • Another that I forgot, Men's warehouse, For tuxes A. Great service, very professional. No problems at all! DH even got a free suit for having so many in his wedding party!
  • Great! We too used men's wear house and they were great and easy to work with since we were workin with oot gm's
    BFP #1 6/18/2012 // EDD 2/28/2013 // Birthdate 2/7/2013

    Lilypie First Birthday tickers

    Daisypath Anniversary tickers

This discussion has been closed.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards