These folks were my vendors in Baton Rouge 12-11-10:
Venue for Ceremony and reception: The Gatehouse
Laura was great and took care of so many little things for us. Their package includes so much that other locations couldn't compete. They provide cake, napkins, food, drink, DJ, I could go on and on. The one and only nit I have to pick is that my guests on their patio couldn't hear the DJ announcements and so some of them missed the garter/bouquet toss and cake cutting/toasts.
Flowers: Hunt's
One of the owners, Joey Boudreaux, helped me through the whole process and made me feel like their most important project of the year. They created a few different plans/themes and were happy to nix what didn't appeal to me. The flowers turned out so nice; they really listened and gave me a winter wonderland fit for a contessa.
Photography: Ron Carr, Amiezing Faces
My husband and I were sold pretty fast on them since you get the rights to your photos as part of the package. Much more enlightened approach in the digital age in my opinion. We also liked the variety of pictures, we got tradtional portraits as well as fun action shots and some cool artistic ones; our guests were impressed. He can come off as a casual guy, but the photos are professional and speak for themselves, he captured great memories of our wedding day.
Cakes: Gambino's
We got two cakes from them and they were both beautiful and delicious. The bride's cake was paid through our package at the Gatehouse and the groom's cake we ordered directly from them. It was a crawfish boil cake and turned out so great. They made edible little crawfish, mushrooms, corn, etc for it but it was still very affordable.
Bridesmaid's Dresses: David's Bridal
Ugh, where do I start? So glad I didn't get my gown here. I picked them because they're an affordable national chain and two of my girls live out of town. They made me sign up for an account so all the girls would be associated with me but butchered my name, making it difficult for my maids to get what they needed. We had to fend for ourselves in their store but at least we finally found some flattering dresses for the girls. I'll spare you the rest of the rant, maybe other locations are better or I hit them on really bad days but my experiences with them were all poor.