I've loved being a part of this board and getting so much wonderful advice from you guys. I've even made some IRL friends from the board. We had a ton of friends and family from all over country that came in for wedding and wanted to make sure they truly got the full New Orleans experience. Many of the paper products were truly a labor of love as I spent several weeks, cutting, hole punching and hand writing things on wedding programs, food signs, second line cards, etc. The second line handkerchiefs were made by my bridal party and I during the bachelorette party. We gocco'd them onto scalloped handkerchiefs that I purchased online. If you know someone with a gocco, this was a relatively simple project to do and it came out great.
Vendor Reviews
1.
Venue: New Orleans Board of Trade (
http://www.neworleansbot.com/)
When I came on my first planning trip, I looked at several venues that weren't quite a good fit. I really wanted to get married in the French Quarter, but needed something to accommodate my 350-400 person invitation list (We ultimately invited 360 and ended up with 275 guests) and didn't want to get married in a windowless ballroom. I sent my mother and her friend to look at the Board of Trade and booked it shortly after. The space is run by Leah over at Pigeon Caterers. They are very accommodating and easy to work with. The space is incredible and has a spectacular ceiling. That being said, the space is a little rundown and the carpets definitely need replacing. No one could really tell the day of the wedding, but it's something you definitely notice when the space is empty. They are hoping to renovate it some point, but I don't know when. I got lots of compliments from our friends and family for choosing the venue. I also got married in the courtyard, which was really lovely.
2.
Caterer: Pigeon Caterers (
http://www.pigeoncaterers.com/)
Again, my contact at Pigeon was Leah. She was super nice to work with, very flexible about budget and the food was fantastic. I only wish that I had eaten more of it. I also spent some time with the catering staff while they were cutting the cake, and they were all super nice. I laughed so hard, because one waitress told me that she had worked like a thousand weddings over her lifetime and had never seen so many people eat so much food that were so little. Never underestimate how much a bunch of Asians will eat at a wedding. We were supposed to have a 30 minute cocktail hour before the buffet opened and my coordinator had to open the doors early because there was a huge line of people peering through the door.
Pigeon was nice enough to let us bring in an outside vendor. We opted to have a sushi bar at the wedding that was done by Little Tokyo, as well as a traditional Chinese roast pig. I have no idea where that came from.
3.
Cake: Flour Power Confectionery (
http://www.flourpowernola.com/)
Ronda was such a pleasure to work with. I think the cake tasting was by far my husband's favorite part about wedding planning. She accommodated my many design changes on the cake and was also very helpful with pricing. We opted for the faux gateaux cake, because it saved us several hundred dollars. The wedding cake was white chocolate strawberry shortcake and the groom's cake was red velvet. They were seriously the best cakes I've ever had. We didn't save the top layer of our cake since we are from out of town, but I definitely plan on ordering this cake every time I go home. It was that good!
4.
Photographer: Maile Lani Photography (
http://www.mailelaniphotography.com/)
I reached out to a handful of photographers and only talked to Maile before sending my deposit. She is SO sweet and her photos are incredible. She has just been listed as part of Style Me Pretty's Little Black Book and Southern Weddings magazine. One of her pictures was just featured in this month's BRIDES magazine. While we tried to meet up for the wedding, the timing never seemed to work out. We met for the first time on our wedding day. She had a great second shooter, named Gabrielle Chapin (
http://www.gchapinstudios.com/), who also shoots weddings. Gabrielle was also super nice and shot some great photos of our day. Maile has a very specific style of photography and is one of the few wedding photographers in New Orleans shooting in a range of digital and film cameras. She even has a package with polaroids. I can't recommend her enough.
5.
Florist: Meade Wenzel (504-289-9883)
Meade. Meade. Meade. She is hands down one of the best florists in New Orleans. She does florals for most of the debutante and Mardi Gras balls in New Orleans, as well as several weddings each weekend. The work she does is impeccable and all of her referrals are done by word of mouth. She will work with almost any budget. That being said, Meade is not for every bride. She writes everything down by hand, does not email and is sometimes really hard to get a hold of. If you are a fussy type-A bride, Meade is not the florist for you. I personally really loved working with her and so did my husband, who is a landscape architect. I basically told her my budget, my wedding colors, flowers that I hated and gave her some photos of things that I liked. My flowers ended up being really beautiful and I would hire her again. She was one of my favorite vendors.
6.
DJ: DJ Munkie C (
djmunkiec@yahoo.com)
I got this recommendation from my wedding coordinator. Roger was very nice to work with, came early to set up and also did the lighting. His pricing is very reasonable and he accommodated all of my needs. This is a part time job for him, so he doesn't have a website, but he has worked several weddings with my coordinator and comes highly recommended.
7.
Officiant: Judge Kevin Centanni (
504-466-7984)
We had a quick, no frills ceremony. Judge Centanni was really nice, very professional and laughed with us as we fumbled through the wedding ceremony, which my husband and I did not really bother to read or rehearse.
8.
Ceremony Musicians: The Courtyard Kings (
http://www.courtyardkings.com/)
This was another recommendation from our coordinator. They were really easy to work with, had lots of great suggestions for songs and the pricing is on par with other ceremony musicians. They played for both our ceremony and cocktail reception, because the pricing included three hours. Funnily enough, it turned out that one of the musicians was my brother's roommates in college. I think they are a great option for anyone looking to hire a more jazzy group for their ceremony vs traditional musicians. They do play both classical and jazz music, and will learn any song you want for $50.
9.
Second Line Band: Storyville Stompers (
http://www.storyvillestompers.com/)
Can't rave enough about the Storyville Stompers. I know every second line feels like the most exciting moment in the world, but mine did not disappoint. Woody, the bandleader was great to work with. They showed up on time and were absolutely incredible. We marched from the New Orleans Board of Trade to Petite Bourbon. At one point, they started playing "You Are My Sunshine" and everyone in the second line started singing. I can't wait to see my wedding video.
10.
Hair: Ginger Dickey at Color Bar Salon (
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ginger-Dickey-at-Color-Bar-Salon/247840165228642)
I found Ginger through a photo shoot she had done with Tying the Knot Wedding Coordination. Ginger was super nice to work, very fast and our hairdos stayed up the whole night! The morning of my wedding was the Crescent City Classic, so she had difficulty getting to my hotel, but made up for lost time. She does really beautiful work. Make sure to check out some of the pictures on her facebook page.
11.
Makeup: Make Me Up Nola (
http://makemeupnola.com/)
I actually did a couple of other makeup trials with different makeup artists before settling on Make Me Up. I did not end up doing a trial with her until the week before my wedding. Celeste, the owner, is a consummate professional. She really listened to me and made me really comfortable. She has been doing weddings for years, so she is used to accommodating large bridal parties. She is definitely a little bit pricier for bridal makeup, but I was very happy with my decision to hire her. It was worth the extra money. Her pricing for bridesmaids is on par with other makeup artists in the city.
12.
Invitations: Jeronimo's Lithocraft (
http://jeronimoslithocraft.com/)
I was totally ready to write off my dream of having letterpress invitations until I read a recommendation about Jeronimo's on weddingbee. Their pricing is incredibly reasonable and they do impeccable work. I actually designed the invitation myself and sent the files to them to be printed. I got so many compliments on my wedding invitation. At the last minute, I decided to have our names gold foil printed. I had handwritten them myself, so it was a really special touch. I highly recommend them to anyone who is design savvy or has friend who is a graphic designer. Just keep in mind that they don't have an in-house graphic designer, so they won't fix your files. They deal in print-ready files.
13.
Photobooth: Southern Gem Photobooth (
http://southerngembooths.com/)
Everyone had a blast with the photobooth and I loved the scrapbook that they provided. They had a really nice attendant who manned the booth and we didn't have any problems all night. The pricing is on the lower end of what is being offered in New Orleans and the owners were great to work with. I provided them with a custom banner to put on the photobooth pictures.
14.
Hotel Blocks: Hilton Riverside, Royal Orleans, Wyndham Riverside, Country Inn & SuitesFor some reason, 90% of our guests chose to stay at the Hilton Riverside. I'm not sure why, because both the Hilton and Wyndham were $99/night. All of the room blocks were very great and their representatives were very nice to work with. I feel bad that some of the blocks were kind of empty, but even after our Hilton block filled people kept booking rooms there. I don't know if everyone was a Hilton Rewards member or something.
15.
Veil: Crowning Glory Designs (
http://www.projectwedding.com/vendor/show/crowning-glory-designs-candi-merle)
This was another weddingbee recommendation. I really wanted a chapel length drop veil with some lace appliques at the bottom. You have no idea how hard it is to even find a drop veil to try on. You would think the Duchess had brought them back in fashion. Anyways, Candi Merle was a dream to work with. So responsive and incredibly reasonable. She sent me several photos of her work and samples of lace appliques to put at the bottom of my veil. When I look back at my wedding pictures, it was one of my favorite things from the wedding. When she mailed the veil, it got lost, but she was very nice about it and was about to send a replacement veil when it arrived.
16.
Wedding Coordinator: All About Events (
http://www.allaboutevents.net/)
I booked Carolyn for her month and management consulting package. Although I planned most of the wedding myself, it was so great to have her as a local resource and someone to work through problems with me. I didn't want to feel like I couldn't call my coordinator if I had issues that needed to be worked out. We did not meet until my wedding rehearsal the day before my wedding, but I felt like we were already old friends. Everything on my wedding day was seamless and exactly as we discussed. I really appreciate that she was confident, non-plussed and had a great handle on the vendors and the timeline. She did a fantastic job and could not recommend her more.
17.
After Party: Petite Bourbon (
http://www.petitebourbon.com/)
Petite Bourbon has given this space a complete face lift and they are now renting it out as an event space. I noticed that they've recently done some weddings. They have a courtyard in the back, so it could easily accommodate a smaller ceremony and wedding reception for about 100 people. The best feature of this space is the balcony which is right on Bourbon Street. A family friend gifted us with 55 cases of Mardi Gras beads. I couldn't believe it, but we threw all but three boxes. They had a nice bar, a great spread of food and security downstairs. It was so much fun. Our New England guests kept calling this my second reception, but we called it an after party.
18.
Limousines: VIP Transportation (
http://viptransportationinc.net/) We ordered two stretch limos (one for the bridal party and another for the groomsmen). They were great, showed up on time and very nice to deal with. No complaints here.
19.
Rehearsal Dinner: Trey Yuen (
http://treyyuen.com/)We did a traditional ten course Chinese banquet with a tea ceremony. We took up two full dining rooms of the restaurant! Everyone was so amazed by the restaurant, the causeway and of course the food. The soft shell crabs were some of the best I have ever had. They were caught fresh that day from Lake Ponchartrain. They're used to large parties, so it's a great place to do a rehearsal dinner if you're on the Northshore.