Planner – Kelly Sherlock (A): I made prior recommendations for Kelly here on the board based on my experience with her up to that point. She tailored her package to what I needed/wanted, worked out the hotel room blocks, and constantly gave me feedback and guidance through the year. Now that the wedding is over, I can recommend her for the great job she did in the weeks leading up to the wedding and most importantly the weekend of. When the coordinator at the Cathedral realized she was my planner at the rehearsal (their guidelines say “your wedding planner has no place in our church”), he almost sighed with relief and told me you are in good hands, we love her. He also told me he often recommends her to brides. She has a no nonsense and business like attitude, which was perfect for me. She knows what she is doing and will get the job done. She kept everything together when the transportation company royally screwed things up (see below). The only reason I am not giving her an A+ is because I was feeling a little wary about a month out (didn’t help that is when the hurricane hit) and was hoping for a bit more responsiveness when I was starting to freak out, but looking back I was maybe a little anxious.
St. Louis Cathedral (A+): Kevin and Sandra are pros and Kevin was very concerned about how I, the bride, wanted things to be for the ceremony (this was during the rehearsal). He would ask me first, basically tell everyone else that it was what I wanted, then would get the approval from our priest. I was very (pleasantly) surprised by this. I was also very happy that Kevin immediately picked up on the fact that FI’s (now DH!) children were a part of the ceremony and how important that was to us. I never had to say it- he was always the first one to say they need to be here for the vows, or front and center for this. It made our ceremony exactly what we wanted it to be. Also, when I was nearly 30 minutes late to the Cathedral (due to transportation fiasco), Kevin and Sandra were at the front doors waiting for me and immediately reassured me, straightened out my dress and petticoat, and arranged my blusher. Michele Starnes, the music coordinator (and organist), was also extremely helpful via email throughout the whole process. Anytime I had a minor question about the Mass, I would shoot her an email instead of calling the Cathedral and she would get back to me. The Cathedral was worth the stress of picking an available date and worth every penny! This is what it was all about for me.
Ceremony Musicians- Harry Hardin/New Orleans Finest Musicians (A+): Harry is incredibly helpful and responsive, via phone or email. He always addressed my specific questions and made suggestions. Very professional, but friendly too. I had a string quartet and a trumpet for my ceremony and it was amazing. The quartet was at the front of the church with the cantor (Megan Dearie by the way, one of the approved Cathedral cantors, was simply amazing- my priest said to me in the middle of Mass during one of her solos “She is good!”), so it was very elegant. Super easy to work with, professional, and fabulous musicians. Music for the Mass was very important to me and to my priest (our priest from home traveled with us and performed the ceremony) and we spent a lot of time on our selections and the instrumentation. Harry told me he loved my music selections and instrumentations so much that he was going to keep the line up and recommend it to other brides, but he’s the one who made it happen!
Photographer – Jennifer Zdon/Twirl Photography (A+): Jennifer is sweet and kind, but also is professional and gets the job done. Her work is amazing in my opinion and I loved, loved my engagement pictures in the FQ and I can’t wait to see my wedding photos. She worked well with my planner and together they came up with a timeline for the day of that got it all done and respected my desire to have some alone time before the ceremony (not knowing I was going to be waiting around for a looong time waiting on a car..haha). She also had an extra assistant (in addition to the 2nd photographer I paid for) with her to make sure all of the details I wanted were captured. Jennifer also listened to my concerns about possible sensitivities with FI’s children and handled the situation perfectly. But the bottomline is the quality of photos, and she is fantastic.
Videographer – Korry Melton/My Bella Films (A based on what I know so far!)- without having seen the final work product, I can tell you Korry has been great to work with, Kelly recommended him to me, and he was on time, etc. He also did our photo montage for the Friday night Welcome Party and he did exactly what I wanted (even though it didn’t exactly follow his usual format) and he came and set up the TV to show it on. I have no doubt my wedding video will be great. I can’t wait to see it because I hardly remember a thing from the wedding!
Reception Venue- The Wax Museum (A+++)- The Wax lived up to all of its great reviews on this board. They were flexible, accommodating, and friendly from day one all the way up to seeing us off. Beth was always wonderful to us and it held true on the day of as well. We had another attendant during the reception and she was all over the place and on top of everything. I never had an empty glass, she brought us food at our table to make sure we ate, she managed the cake pull wonderfully, and on and on. All of our guests (this was a 100% DW) were thrilled with the uniqueness of the museum downstairs and loved how great the reception room upstairs looked. It did look fantastic. Beth is a true professional and more importantly she is in tune to what you want for your reception. When I let her know that I had so many last minute cancellations, she said they would refund my money for the alcohol since it was still days away – they didn’t have to do that, but that is just one example how they are. If you are looking for a unique space that is large enough to hold a good amount of people (we had tables for 140, but ended up with closer to 130 on the day of), that can be very flexible to your style and wants, and still be VERY budget friendly, this is your place. Hands down the best decision I made for my wedding.
Catering – Benedict’s Plantation (A+): I was gathering pricing info and menu options from other caterers when I realized I completely overlooked the caterers offered by the Wax. I am so glad I gave them a chance because they bent over backwards to work with me on my budget, gave me all the food I wanted, and it was fantastic as well! Shirley, the owner, brought a tasting to us at the Wax since we didn’t have a convenient way to get out to their location other than spending money on a cab. We loved all of the food we tried- all of it. In creating our menu, she was very aware that our guests were all from OOT and would not only want to try as much local food as possible, but that we should have some familiar food as well for the less adventurous. The food got rave reviews from all of our guests. It was everything we expected.
Secondline Band- Smitty Dee’s (???)- I honestly do not know what grade to give them at this point. Hopefully when I see the video I will be able to give more specific feedback beyond the bad taste I have in my mouth right now. Long story short, we were 30 minutes behind schedule due to transportation and I have since learned that literally during my entire ceremony Dimitri was blowing up my planner’s phone and being very rude about the delay and insisting that he was going to need more money to wait for us to be done with Mass. However, he would never tell her a dollar amount and couldn’t comprehend that I was at the altar and she couldn’t discuss it with me at the moment (hello!). He continued to call and gripe about the delay. When she finally told him if he wanted to bail on this bride who was late for reasons beyond her control, he could do that and she would make sure everyone knew he had done that. Then he changed his tune and gave her a dollar figure of $450 for the extra 30 min of wait time (seriously?!). All I knew of it at the time was when Kelly was bustling me, she quickly mentioned that they may follow up with me about an additional charge for the delay and I said fine. Kelly said the rest of the band apologized to her for the leader’s attitude, but not him. I have yet to hear from them asking for more money, but we’ll see. All of my guests said the secondline was the most amazing thing they had experienced (even in the drizzling rain) and I think it was great, but I just can’t be sure. 
Reception Band – New Birth Brass Band (???)- not to be confused with Rebirth- another I don’t know what grade to give because it was so bizarre. FI and I have seen them play several times at Preservation Hall and they play there regularly. We chose a Louis Armstrong song for our first dance and really, really wanted them to play it and sing it live (they even told me several weeks before the wedding that they had just played that song at PH). We lined them up quite a long time ago to play just the first hour of our reception while people were getting their cocktails, appetizers, and finding their seats. And then we would be introduced and they would perform our song. I don’t even know if they played the full hour due to the delay, but I was told by guests that they kept insisting that people come out on to the dance floor when all people really wanted to do was get a drink and find their seats after second lining 7 blocks down wet streets. My mom later told me they dragged her and my dad out on the floor. Then to top it all off when we finally got announced, they played our song but literally WHISTLED the words instead of singing them. ?!?! I mentioned this to Kelly soon after and she told me they told her they weren’t going to sing and when she questioned them about it (knowing I had booked them for this very reason and we had confirmed the song with them many times), they gave her attitude and said she was “pressuring them.” I don’t think I have ever seen them mentioned on this board, and this was mine and FI’s idea, but steer clear of these guys. They are a fantastic band otherwise, but obviously not reliable to do what they say they are going to do for a wedding. My mother is convinced the lead guy was not remotely sober.
Photobooth- Big Easy Photobooth (A+)- so much fun and the hit of the party! These guys were great in creating our guestbook and I have a flashdrive of all the pictures too (both sent home with me that very night). Highly recommend!!! This was not originally in the budget, but over time I decided I was going to shove it in there come hell or highwater and I am so glad I did (everyone is glad!).
Linen Rental – Your Event Delivered (A) - linen delivery and set up were wonderful and exactly what I wanted. Very easy to work with and professional. Jeanne even recommended a different cloth napkin for me when I mentioned I was trying to stay within a budget and that saved me a lot of money (and they looked beautiful on the tables). I splurged here to dress up the room and it was worth it.
DJ – Quinn Landry/Impulse Entertainment (B-): I wanted to like the guy and thought he would be great based on my interactions with him in the week before the wedding. Our parent dances went great and then he immediately went into our college fight song, which I thought was kind of strange, but I didn’t make too much of it at the time. Looking back it was obvious he wanted to get all of our must haves out of the way early and do whatever he wanted the rest of the evening. I gave him a fairly short list of must plays and he played maybe half of them. He did not play the special song for my parents and did not play the one song our 6 year old daughter really wanted (in was on the list and we even emailed back and forth specifically about that song). Our 2 kids and 2 nephews were the life of the party controlling the dance floor and it was hilarious. Then as the night went on, with my 6 year old out there in a circle of girls, he starts playing Salt-N-Pepa “Push It.” WTF. She doesn’t know what it is and keeps on dancing away. I just looked at FI and said well this is inappropriate. The music got trashier after that. I stopped dancing hoping he would get the hint. After this he was MIA from the booth most of the rest of the time. I wasn’t going to say anything until both my FI and mom said separately that he was terrible. My mom pointed out that you could barely understand what he was saying when he made announcements. Early in the evening, the dance floor was packed. It dwindled as the night went on and for good reason. Very disappointed (but most people were drinking and having a good time regardless).
Cake- Haydel’s (A+): As said here many, many times before, the tasting leaves a lot to be desired but the actual cake was moist and delicious. It was beautiful and exactly the way I envisioned (not a top priority for me and never sent them a single picture- it was over the phone and a lot based on their suggestions)- perfect!
Cake Stand Rental – Fabulous Cake Stands by NolaB (A): this was definitely a splurge, but the stand was gorgeous (!!) and it was easier for me to rent a stand that was to be delivered and picked up than messing with trying to buy one. Cindy, the owner, is very sweet and helpful and growing her business. Check out her website- she has some beautiful stands. She will also work with Haydel’s (or your baker) to make sure you have the right size stand and cake board. Since my stand was gold and Haydel’s cake board is silver, she brought them gold paper to cover the board with. My only complaint would be that she said she was going to take care of this paper by a certain time and Haydel’s was very anxious about it and called me 4 different times to let me know when she should deliver it by and that she hadn’t done it yet. I know they meant well, but it wasn’t something I really wanted to deal with the week of the wedding. I will post pics of the cake and cake stand in my next "Details" post.
Florist – Christina O’Malley (A+): Christina is all she is made out to be on these boards. Yes, she is busy, but when it is crunch time she is on top of it. She emailed me 6 weeks out before I could even email her to start finalizing. A few weeks out I mailed her 3 urns that matched my décor and one broke during shipment. She offered to use one of her own gold urns instead of me trying to search for a replacement. Sounds minor, but that was during my freak out phase and it was a huge help. I don’t have any pics of my actual arrangements (it is killing me to not have more pictures), but what I recall of the centerpieces they were exactly like I requested and in keeping with the photos we exchanged. Also, the bouquets and corsages were lovely. Very happy with my choice.
Hair—Just Face It (A): I originally booked with Jessica and the only reason I am not giving an A+ is because she cancelled my hair trial on one of my planning trips back in April for a family emergency, so I had to reschedule it for the week of the wedding. No big deal since I already knew exactly what I wanted to do with my hair and it wasn’t complicated. But, the day before the re-scheduled hair trial, she cancelled again for another family emergency and told my planner that Angele would be taking her place for the trial and the wedding. Again, I wasn’t too concerned because I had read rave reviews for Angele on these boards and at one point thought to myself, dang maybe I should have requested her instead. I was a little annoyed that Jessica never contacted me herself, but I let it go. All that being said, Angele was fantastic at the trial and on the wedding day. I showed her one picture, she immediately articulated what I wanted, then 30 minutes later…perfection. Exactly what I wanted. Our mothers and all of the bridesmaids looked great and were very pleased with their hair (they could choose whatever they wanted). I already had a check made out to Just Face It for the day of and unfortunately didn’t have enough small bills on me (and it was getting hectic) when she was about to leave, so I followed up with her last week to get her address so I could send her a better tip, which was well deserved. Loved her and my hair! Also, I shouldn’t forget to add that Jessica was great to work with throughout the process and responded to all emails very promptly and professionally. I like to think the best of people and I’m assuming she had legitimate emergencies both times. I’ve never read anything other than good things about her and her business.
Makeup—Katie Malone/Pixie Cosmetics (A+): Katie did a great job at my trial and also on the day of. The trial was at her shop on Magazine Street, but she came to the hotel on the day of. She adjusted the few minor things I decided I didn’t like about my trial and I loved my wedding day makeup. So did our mothers and bridesmaids. Everyone looked fantastic. Very sweet, professional, and responsive to emails. Highly recommend. She also brought a second makeup artist that day, Kelly Bode, whom my planner often recommends as well, and she did an equally great job.
Tuxes—John’s Tuxedos; (A+) My planner suggested that we use someone local so if there were issues with tuxedos on the weekend of they could actually do something about it. The guys got measured at home and sent in their measurements. In theory, this sounded good. In reality, I wished I had made it the guys’ problem to pick up their tuxedos from Men’s Warehouse or somewhere and bring it with them and return it on their own when they got back home. This has nothing to do with John’s, just my own experience. John’s was fantastic start to finish in their service. They delivered all of the tuxes to the hotel and each guy picked theirs up at check-in. However, several tuxes didn’t fit right (the measurements didn’t always translate) and it was an ordeal for me to make a list of what needed correcting for each guy and have them bring replacements. Of course, it would have made sense for the guys to just jump in a cab and go to John’s and get it right and be done with it. But these are guys and that wasn’t happening. So we paid John’s to bring everything out again, stay with all the guys in the suite while they tried on the new pieces, and make sure everything was great. And it was, but good lord. My husband was the biggest complainer and I should have known how this was going to turn out. But in the end it was all good thanks to John’s great service. DH did comment that he thought the tuxes were a bit worn looking and needed replacing.
Carriage—Royal Carriages (A+): Super easy to work with, confirmed everything ahead of time, and showed up on time. Also, once our kids realized we were leaving the reception without them (foreign concept, wait what? We’re not going with you? Haha), we let them get in the carriage with us with their cousins and ride around the block once. The driver was great about it and very sweet to them. He even let our daughter sit up front with him and hold the reigns. She was thrilled. We did the 30 min FQ tour and then got dropped off at our destination.
Transportation—Celebrity Limo (F -): I give them an F- and will upgrade that to an F if they refund me my money as I’ve requested. We used them for all of our transportation: buses to shuttle guests from the hotel to the Cathedral; limos for all of the WP, their spouses, and our parents; and a Rolls Royce for my dad and me to get to the Cathedral. They were really great to work with, set up all of the contract details easily, were the only transportation company I could find that would charge for just the one way transfer instead of the 3- hour minimum. They also worked with me to have one of the shuttle buses come back for a second trip to the hotel given our expected number of guests instead of paying for another bus. On the Friday before the wedding when it was becoming obvious it was going to be raining, they worked with us again to have the shuttle buses stay at the Cathedral during the Mass to wait for guests to take them to the reception (assuming there would be no secondline due to the rain)- they charged us plenty to have the buses on standy, but it could have been worse. I even used them to pick me up from the airport on the Tuesday before the wedding to help with me with my luggage since I was traveling alone with my dress. They were on time and that driver was great. But….EPIC FAIL on the day of. First, all 3 limos for the WP were late – 45 min late to be exact. So Kelly put the entire WP in one of the buses since they were actually on time. However, that bus had a water leak in the roof and one of the seats was soaking wet (discovered after someone sat in it). Every time the bus made a turn, water would pour into the bus from the leak in the ventilation window in the roof. An usher had to stand under the leak and used the box with the remaining corsages to catch the water so it wouldn’t splash the ladies. At least the other buses were ok, but some guests were waiting a while to get picked up at the hotel because this one bus had to be used for WP. In the meantime, the Rolls Royce driver calls the hotel to let them know he too is running late and stuck in traffic. At this point I am standing outside with the valet waiting for some vehicle, any vehicle, to come get me. One of the limos finally shows up and attempts to back up into the valet drive so I don’t have to go out to him in the street and get wet. This took forever. He is blocking traffic and people are honking and cussing. We can now see the Rolls driver down the street, but he’s still 2 blocks away and we are late. So I get into the limo with my dad and no sooner than I finally get situated do I smell burning. The limo overheated. So I get back out of the limo (not easy) and the Rolls finally gets there. The other 2 limos were never used because everyone was gone but me by the time they finally showed up. To make matters worse, the Rolls driver did not know the procedure of pulling up in front of the Cathedral and wasted another 15 min driving from one side of the Cathedral to the other and back before Kelly was on the phone with him yelling at him what to do. A security guard from the Cathedral finally came out in the rain to the street where we were and directed him. Prior to this he was suggesting that he couldn’t drive up there, he was very worried about the bumper of the car, and that I should walk from the street corner (in the rain). In the end, I was 30 min late to the Cathedral because of the transportation nightmare and it caused me to not be able to take my pictures in Jackson Square after the ceremony (I had to make a split second decision between secondline or pictures due to Smitty Dee’s attitude and the time crunch), I lost 30 minutes of my reception (for which I had paid to have an extra hour), and I’m waiting to see if I have to shell out more money for the wait time for Smitty Dee’s. Disaster that kept on giving from that point forward. Update: I have called the owner yesterday to speak to him and he said he would call me back in an hour and he still hasn’t called back. I’ll give him until the end of the day. Kelly already spoke to him last week and gave him a piece of her mind and told him she will refuse to allow any of her brides to ever work with them again.
Hotel Room Block – Hyatt French Quarter (formerly the Wyndham Chateau Bourbon (800 Iberville) A++ This was one of Kelly’s doings, but we made the ultimate choice to use them as our main block because they were really the only hotel that met all of our needs (price wise, number of rooms, amenities, and location in the FQ). When we contracted with them last summer, they were the Chateau Bourbon and knew they’d be doing major renovations. Molly Hannen (sales manager) and Brittany (managed our block) were completely accommodating and helpful every step of the way. We booked up rooms at a rapid fire pace as soon as our STD’s went out and they did everything they could to give us as many rooms as possible without an attrition clause. When I arrived to the hotel last week it was the first time I had seen the renovations (we stayed there once during them- crossed our fingers that what they promised was true) and the hotel lobby, rooms, and amenities were wonderful. All of our guests kept commenting how nice and big the rooms were. Our suites were spacious and perfect too. MIL had a 2 bedroom suite with a living area and it was ridiculously big- perfect for the kids. FI had a suite with a balcony overlooking Bourbon and mine opened to the pool. The service at the hotel was impeccable and anything I needed they were on it immediately. The bellman moved my stuff from my regular room to the suite and had all of my gift bag items already in my room when I arrived. I had the gift bags handed out at the front desk and everyone got their bags without having to ask, no problems. Highly, highly recommend. MIL also hosted our farewell brunch at the hotel and it was great as well (it was supposed to be in the lovely courtyard, but it was moved inside due to rain). They also have an atrium where we took all family pictures since we couldn’t do them in the courtyard as planned. Lots of room and natural lighting.
2nd hotel room block- Maison Dupuy- we had this as a back-up room block when the Hyatt became full. No one was booking there, which was fortunate because 2 weeks before the wedding I got an email from them saying they are cancelling our contract under the “Force Majeure” clause due to the damage to the hotel from the hurricane. They would contact the one couple booked there to tell them it was cancelled (not to offer to help them find other reservations). Luckily, we had just gotten this couple a room at our main block anyways. I just thought this was odd, poorly handled, and I was perplexed that this one hotel apparently suffered so much damage when nothing else around it did. I can only imagine the disaster it would have caused if I had a significant amount of guests booked there.
RD & Welcome Party—Antoine’s (A++)- ok well DH and I are extremely partial to Antoine’s, it has been our favorite restaurant for quite some time and that is why we picked it for our RD (we actually decided this long before anything else). We had a small RD in the Rex Room downstairs and they had the room set up beautifully. As always, the service is amazing and the food is great. After dinner, all of our guests were invited to a cocktail and dessert welcome party in the Twelfth Night room upstairs and it was fantastic. Couldn’t have asked for more. MIL & FIL were impressed and that is hard to do!
Bridesmaids Brunch- Court of Two Sisters My MOH hosted a brunch for me (even though I originally intended it to be the other way around) for my bridesmaids and my closest girlfriends. We did the Jazz Brunch at Court of Two Sisters on Friday and it was fantastic. It was, of course, raining like the rest of the weekend, so we missed out on the beautiful courtyard. But inside was just as charming and we had a lovely time with mimosas and all.