Where should I start planning?

eahoram37

Hi Ladies,

I just recently got engaged and I have no idea what to start planning.  Both me and my fiance are from Ohio, but we would like to have the wedding down here in New Orleans since I have spent so much of my life here.

So far we know that we would like to marry outdoors sometime in the Fall of 2011.  We are open to any suggestions for ceremony and reception site locations.  We will have about 100-150 guests that will be mainly adults.  If anyone knows the best place to start planning I am open to anything.  I just want the wedding to be a memorable time for everyone since all the guests will be coming in from out of town.

Thanks for your help

Reese

TurWalk

Hi Reese!

I'm an OOT bride too.  Our wedding is April 2011 at the Omni Royal courtyard. We're expecting about 100-120 guests.  I would start searching for a venue now.  If you plan on having a planner, they can help with venue suggestions and arrange tours.  I have not hired a planner yet (thinking about month/day of coordination) but started by contacting venues for information. 

I started with this site:
http://www.weddingsinneworleans.com/weddingvenues.html

It has most of the popular hotels and halls.  I also considered Audubon and City Park, Latrobe's on Royal, Muriels, and the NO Pharmacy Museum.  I used required minimums and availability to help narrow the list down.  We made a trip down to NO and toured the top 4-5 places on our list before booking the Omni. 

Good luck!

bmfrazie

I am also doing most of my planning from out of town.  The thing that I realized is pick your venue and date first.  You really can't do much without that.  Oh and your budget.  After you have those three things in place all other things can be plained.  I first layed out what exactly it was that I was wanting and found my venue from there.  Then I did an inspiration board with my colors and theme.   My venue is the Benachi House and Gardens in mid city. 

Good luck. 

[Deleted User]

this sounds funny but i did a lot of my looking for venues using wedding photographers websites-  look up new orleans wedding photographers and if they have blogs and examples of their work you can see many venues and then once you have them narrowed down you can visit. also start emailing venues for their prices.
for photographers- michael caswell and studio tran are some good websites to look at to see some venues.

we had our wedding at the Board of Trade on Magazine Street and loved it. some other ideas: Audubon Park Clubhouse, City Park Pavillion of Two Sisters, Maison Dupuy hotel, st. louis hotel, muriel's restaurant, broussard's courtyard....

Megan auer

I got married in NOLA last year and planned it from FL. What I would suggest is starting with a band (if you plan on having one) this was the hardest one for me to get. You have to start with the vendors that can only do one event a day. So if you know a specific date that you want you need to secure these people like band, photographer, wedding and reception venue. These are the biggies.

My reception was outside at Broussards in their beautiful courtyard for 169 people. It was AMAZING, great food, beautiful New Orleans Courtyard and great to work with. I also considered Audubon Club House, la Trobe's, Rozy's Jazz Hall, city park Pavillion of 2 Sisters. I hope this helps and good luck!

Megan