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

So if anyone is thinking about eloping hopefully this will help! I couldn't be happier and do not regret doing it. But be prepared for disappointed friends and family haha! Ultimately, everyone was thrilled for us and shocked that we had the you know whats to do it!

Hotel: Prince Conti in the French Quarter……..A

Everyone at the hotel was very friendly. When booking the room online I added a note that we were visiting NOLA to elope and would appreciate their most romantic room – our first night there, they had a complimentary bottle of champagne sent to our room! So sweet! The room itself is what I expected, decent size, clean and in a great spot in the French Quarter. If we ever go back I would stay there again.

Mani/Pedi: Spa Aria at the Hotel Monteleone…..F

Everyone was nice but I don’t think the person doing my nails had any experience (or mini and pedis are done differently in the south!). The dead skin round my nails was not removed, cuticles were hardly pushed back and no drying fan so I had to walk back to my hotel in those flimsy flip flops and the poor girl was literally fanning my hands so they would dry! I got my toes painted, which there wasn’t a big selection of colors and a French on my hands. Okay, if you’re going to hand paint the white line on a French you better be good – I’m sure you know where I am going with this. Not only were the lines not even but she left polish underneath my nails! Mind blowing! I couldn’t even look at my nails, I just wanted to get out of there before I blew up. I’m a pretty relaxed person and don’t let things get to me but my nails were awful! My fabulous man ran to Walgreens and got me nail polish remover so I could at least remove the tons of paint I had under my nails. From faraway you couldn’t notice it, but that’s not the point. I didn’t get to relax and it was the first thing I did that day and it’s not the way you want to start your wedding day. I would NEVER recommend getting nails done here.

Hair & Makeup: Get Polished……..B-

Two ladies came to my hotel room (20 minutes late), one was actually the owner. I was prepared with magazine pages and knew what I wanted. My hair came out fabulous! Although my curls were stringy by the end of the night and I didn’t even do anything crazy to make it go flat (like dancing). My makeup on the other hand, I’m still not sure. The magazine pages I had were of models with natural color eye shadows and that dewy look and what I ended up with was black eyeliner and a silver smoky eye! My first reaction was “it’s a lot of makeup, can my eyes be not as dark?” She used some q-tips to rub over my eyes and when I looked in the mirror again it looked exactly the same and I told her that. She told me I must not be used to wearing makeup (which I am used to makeup) and that I have big eyes and need the eyeliner. I could tell she was getting annoyed with me and before I got annoyed, I paid them so I could work on my makeup myself. But because they ran late, my photographers showed up and I really only had time to wipe some of it off and apply my own lip gloss. I have to say though, that everyone who has seen my pictures has complimented my hair and makeup before I even tell them the story. I don’t think it looked bad, it’s just not what I asked for. It could have been worst so I wasn’t going to let it affect my big day! If I wasn’t eloping or had time I would have done a trail first. I wanted to use Just Face It but we had a miscommunication and I booked with Get Polished first.

Pressing Wedding Dress: One Cleaners….A+

Plane + satin dress= wrinkles! I knew I was going to have wrinkles no matter what I did. After researching online I came across One Cleaners – thank god! They were beyond fabulous and pressed my dress, groom shirt and suit in ONE DAY! And if you time it right they have a hotel drop off service.

Limo: Big Easy Limos…….A

I got a deal on living social for a stretch limo. I booked my date easily and they sent a white limo even though the deal was for a black one. They arrived ahead of time – great service.

Photographer: Dark Roux…A++++++++

These guys really made my wedding day fun! It’s a husband and wife team (hello 2 photographers for the price of one!). I love their style and they made us feel really comfortable. I couldn’t ask for anything more! What I love best about them is their style and ability to capture the moment. They knew we were first timers in NOLA so made all the suggestions on where to take pictures and even told us places we needed to visit before we left town. I even hired a friend of theirs to be my “day of assistant” and she was awesome too (wanted someone to carry my coat and makeup since it was just the two of us traveling I didn’t really have anyone to help out). I can’t even explain how great they were and booking them was probably the best decision I made! Here is a photo of us on their facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150436791563977&set=a.10150102430903977.268447.339408823976&type=3&theater

Chapel: French Quarter Wedding Chapel…….A++++++

No, a crazy cousin didn’t come bursting in to stop the wedding like they did on Big Easy Brides! Reverend Tony was great and really took the time to talk to us and share life advice. There was a violinist who played the wedding march which was romantic and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. He performed the ceremony just like I wanted. The chapel has a lot of charm and character and we got some really cool pictures. Reverend Tony felt like a parent and reminded us that we were there because we love each other, it was nice and sweet. He did a nice job of making me feel comfortable and relaxed right before I walked down the aisle. If you’re eloping or having a super small ceremony I would check it out and don’t let the show or other people’s thoughts influence you.

Reception/Dinner: Bombay Club…….A++++++

This place was great! Even if you’re not eloping and looking for a romantic dinner check this place out. Call ahead and make a reservation for their private tables for 2. They have these adorable tables that are enclosed on 3 sides by ceiling high walls with curtains draped at the opening and it’s a single table with a love seat. The service was great – food was even better! When dinner was done we moved to the bar to enjoy more drinks and live music. I loved it, perfect way to end the night.

Flowers: WaterMeNot on etsy.com……A+

I wanted to eliminate having has many vendors as possible to make it less stressful so I bought my bouquet and boutonniere on etsy.com from seller WaterMeNot. They were beautiful and really life like. When I got back from our trip I put them in a nice vase and given them to my mother.

Just some odd and ends:

- You do need to have a certified birth certificate for you and your groom. They make a copy of it so you get them back. (bring a pen, all they had were pencils and I felt weird filling out a formal document in pencil).

- If you are from out of state you and get married in less than 72 hours from when you get your marriage license, make sure your pastor/ravened/JP gives you a wavier form after they perform the ceremony to turn in with the rest of your marriage paperwork.

Hope this helps! Good luck!