Ceremony and Reception- Latrobe's on Royal: I can not say enough good things about Latrobes! First its a wonderful venue full of the old New Orleans charm but with the space many places in the quarter do not have. The food at the venue is top notch and they went out of the way to make special arrangements for us upon arrival and announcements of the wedding party. Jessica, the coordinator was fantastic. In the days leading up the wedding I heard from her several times to finalize the details. At our rehearsal the night before, I basically threw boxes of second line hankies, praline favors, and programs at her asking her to set them out at different time through out the night. Everything was done exactly as I imagined it would have gone. My husband and I had our own waiter making sure our bellies were full and our glasses never empty. They even began pouring our drinks into the special parade throw cups I ordered for our guests to take on the second line at the end of the night. We received so many complements on the place from the New Orleans natives as well as out of towners. It is truly a special place for a wedding.
Band- Soul Vaxxination: We didn't know much about Soul Vaxx prior to booking them. They don't get many mentions on this board, but they were fantastic. They had both a male and female singer (which was a great surprise). They were very interactive with our guests and got the party going. They even did a special wedding party announcement for us to the Saints unoffical theme song. We also had them do our second line parade. I have to admit going in I was a bit nervous, but they charges only 450 dollars extra as opposed to getting a whole new band that would have cost about $700. They rocked the second line parade. It was the highlight of the wedding for several of our guests.
Hair and Make-up: Flawless Bridal: Heather and Lindsay did an amazing job on each one of my ladies. They arrived at our hotel room on time and even with a few add-ons to my original number got us all done on time. They ever "redid" one of my bridesmaids who went early since she decided she didn't like what she asked for and would have perfered more of her hair up. They were very professional and fun to work with. They even did my 95 yr old grandmothers hair and make-up. Some how Lindsay even snuck eye line and mascara on my mother-in -law who never wears the stuff. Everyone looked great. I would very much recommend them to others.
Flowers: Mead Wenzel- The flowers Mead made for us were beautiful. She took my few ideas from our first meeting and really made them come to life. She was about to use all of the flowers I suggested in such a wonderful way. I would not recommend Mead for an out of town bride however, unless you have a contact in town. She is a bit hard to get a-hold of and as we got closer to the date I began to get nervous. There was no need however since the flowers were wonderful. I would consider Mead an artist not a flower shop owner, so sometimes her response time is longer than many other in the business.
Luminous Events: I was so happy to find Lisa on the web a month before the wedding. I still can't believe she was available the night of out wedding. Luminous Events did the candles for our ceremony and reception. The extra cost of adding her at the last minute was well worth it. The lighting they added transformed our ceremony in to truly a romantic and magical place. I got chills when I walked down the aisle.
Second line Parade: Don Powers- Don arranged a second line parade like non other for us. As many of you are considering the second line parade, we did ours at the end of the night (11-11:30). Don suggested we take the parade up two blocks of Bourbon Street. At first I was like ok, hope we don't lose a few people in the crowd. Boy was I wrong!! The police escorts cleared the entire street for us and our guests. It was a crowded night on Bourbon, so people were linning the streets for our parade. It was amazing! I think it was the thing our guests enjoyed the most. They felt like there were truly in a New Orleans PARADE, not just a second line around the quarter.
We had several other vendors all of which were great. These were just the standouts and the ones that I know some of you were nervous about due to others reviews.
Congrats and good luck to all.