The Grande Promenade at Pat O'Brien's Vendor Review

oliviosis

I am posting this review seperately since a few of you have asked specifically about it and the layout.
Overall I give them an "A"
Crystal, the event planner there was great for the whole thing.  They are very laid back and kind of let anything go.  Very accomodating.
Service was great, fast and effortless for us, they had it all taken care of.  No big lines at the bar.
I will say, the layout with the three rooms has its pluses and minuses but that is not really their fault, we knew going into it that the large space could be an issue.  It was PLENTY of space BUT we had 150 guests with 16 tables.  11 were in the "main" room where the bar/dj/stage area is.  The others were in the second room where the bufett can cake were set up.  The problem was that the people in that room were really very segregated from the "party".  They couldn't really hear anything.  I am not sure if the DJ was piped into that room.  That is something you should ask about.  It was very quiet in that room and I felt bad for the people at those 5 tables.
We used the room that overlooked the Riverwalk as the cocktail area and that worked out well. 
It is an amazing amount of space to decorate.  I was lucky and had a very talented friend who'd offered to decorate.  It took him ALL day!  He got there at 10 am and left at 5:30 as the reception started (to change).  He did a ton though so if you are fine with less decor, then you could get away with less decorating time.  If you want to see pics email me (below).
I thought the food was good.  It was what I expected, nothing gourmet.
The open bar was a huge hit.
If you want more details or have specific questions, email me at oliviosis@yahoo.com or reply back here.

BeccaC1234

Just wanted to say congratulations and it sounds like you had fun! 

c_herrera81

Congratulations on your wedding!  I'm glad that everything went so well for you.  I'd also like to say thank you so much for the post!  This is definitely helpful for me and figuring out the layout for my wedding!  I actually did talk to a dj today who is able to put a wireless speaker in the other room so I'm very glad to hear that it is worth paying a little extra!  Question for you...did you find that people were up and moving about thru the different rooms or were people pretty much at their table from the get go?  My concern was the same as yours in that I don't want people in the room with the buffet tables feeling left out!  I seem to recall Christa mentioning that after dinner more people are up and moving about....just curious if that was your experience with your guests.  Also you guys look awesome in your pics!  Congrats and thank you again!

oliviosis

I am actually just finding out about drama that ensued from my placing a old family friend of my mom and dad's in that second "buffett" room.  Apparently she was very angry that she was in that room and not the "main" room.  She was so mad that she didn't even acknowledge me when I came over to speak to that table! 
We had 5 tables in that room, those people at the table above pretty much stayed where they were even after I encouraged them to move wherever they wanted.  Another table, my husbands co-workers pretty much stayed where they were too but they were having a blast together.  Some came in the other room and danced with us.  And the table of my husband's childhood friends, also in that buffett room, mingled and danced all night in both rooms.  I think our biggest downfall was that I didn't realize that there wouldn't be speakers in that buffett room so they even more left out.
I'm not sure how I would've done things differently other than making sure speakers were placed in there.