Hey ladies!! I had my wedding Friday and thought I should check back in and do my vendor reviews. I wasn't on here all the time posting but I was here every now and then and I really enjoyed the recaps
Friday was the absolute best day of my life and even though we had a few obstacles, I enjoyed every second of it!! Anyone who is even thinking of getting married in New Orleans, do it! Best decision ever
Wedding Coordinator- Merideth Reed of Belle Soiree A++++++++
Hiring Merideth was seriously the best decision I made! She was absolutely amazing! I hired Merideth when I very first got engaged and even though I only booked her for month of coordination she constantly helped me through my year long engagement. She was also very easy to get in touch with either by phone, email or facebook. She would sometimes get back to me within a matter of minutes when I emailed her. Her shining moment though was of course the wedding day! I honestly wouldn't have made it through the day without her. So many of my vendors messed up and she fixed it all! My photographers dropped out on me the day before the wedding and Merideth made sure to get someone there the day of to capture our ceremony and second line since luckily my sis is a photographer and stepped in to take pics before the ceremony and at the reception. I also had a lot of decor that broke in the shipping process and Merideth somehow managed to gather a ton of decor for the ceremony and reception to make my vision come true. She got the music at our reception going even after Event Rental deliveerd the wrong cords. She kept me calm all day and assured me she would take care of everything and she certainly followed through on that promise! She set up my centerpieces, made sure everyone followed the timeline and just took every single ounce of stress I might have had away. She even drove us around all day the next day after the wedding since we didn't have a car! I can't recommend her enough!! I really feel like I gained a friend through this whole process and I am so sad that I won't be talking to her all the time now that the wedding is over
Contact Merideth: info@bellesoireeweddings.com
Vintage Furniture Rental- Julia from Mrs. Vintage A++++
I had wanted vintage furniture at the wedding forever and could never find anyone in New Orleans. Luckily, at the last minute I found Julia from Mrs. Vintage rentals and she was amaizng! She has tons of stuff, is super sweet and very helpful. She is super easy to get in contact with and will answer any and all questions you have! I actually flew in to New Orleans for a day planning trip and after I met with Merideth she took me over to her storage area and we played with all her beautiful vintage things and came up with an awesome set up! Then she even took me to lunch and drove me back to the airport!! She is such a sweetheart! She can do all the styling or you can just rent the pieces but I would highly recommend her styling! She really is a great vendor and I wouldn't hesitate to book her!!
Ceremony Space- Jackson Square A+
Jackson Square is the place I knew I wanted to get married the moment I got engaged. The spot is gorgeous and is a landmark of New Orleans so there is no place I would have rather had it. It is fairly cheap at around $350 with a $200 deposit. Everyone was absolutely amazed at how beautiful the park is and they loved being a part of a ceremony in the heart of the quarter. People are allowed to be in the park though so if you are shy I would not recommend this venue. I had about 40 guests but we had an entire park full of people watching us! When I turned the corner around the statue, I think I turned to Merideth and was like "Oh my god there are so many people here!!" lol. They were all sitting in the grass and benches watching. It made for a pretty cool experience though and some people in the park at a wedding on Saturday recognized my parents from our Friday wedding and told them how beautiful our ceremony was
Reception Venue- Hermann-Grima Musem and Courtyard A+++
This reception venue is absolutely gorgeous! One of the prettiest courtyards I have ever seen in New Orleans.The space is perfect for smaller weddings but would probably be too crowded for anyone with guests over 75-100 people. We had about 40 people there and it was perfect! It is $500 to rent this space for 3 hours and there is a girl named Aimee that helps you out with everything you need there. Anyone who is looking for a gorgeous courtyard with tons of New Orleans flair then this is the place! It seriously took my breath away when I walked in for the reception! Contact Aimee McCarron: amccarron@neworleans-food.com Website:
www.hgghh.org
Second Line Band: Jaywalkers A+
I really really enjoyed having the Jaywalkers as our second line band!! They were on time and looked sharp! One of the things that bothers me about other second lines is that they wear shorts and t-shirts and I always think it looks so awkward when everyone is all dressed up. Jaywalkers were dressed to impress and had a cute lady who danced around out front to keep the energy going! The tuba player was funny and overall they jsut rocked. My friends and family were all raving about the second line and we got tons of attention parading down the streets. They even stayed to play a little longer till we could get the cord for our sound system!!
Catering- Raplh Brennan Catering and Events A++++
The food at the wedding was AMAZING!! Seriously, best food I have ever had!! This is the only caterer they allow at the Hermann-Grima house and now I know why! Everything was set up beautifully, the staff were all super friendly, and seriously all the food was to die for! My guests were talking about the food all week and how that is the best meal they had in New Orleans the whole time they were there!
Aimee is also the contact for them!
Misc. Rentals- Your Event Delivered F-
I would stay away from Your Event Delivered Event Rentals if I were you. They are very hard to work with and seem scammy to me. They wanted to tell me that our courtyard had 500 ft of string lighting and it was no where near that amount. They now say its 300ft after I brought it up but I still don't believe that. They charge a ridiculous amount of money for pick up and drop off and their "after hours" fee is redonkulous! We had 26 chairs we were renting and they wanted to charge me $200 to pick them up at 6:00 pm. I ended up getting chairs from YUR EVENT RENTALS which was much cheaper. They also didnt leave us with a cord to connect the sound system to the computer. Overall, I would never work with these guys!!! Please choose anyone else!
Cake- The Sweet Life Bakery F-
They are absolutely horrible and I would never recommend anyone use them! The cake looked nothing like what we discussed and they did not secure it to the cake table properly so it fell on the ground. Absolutely horrible experience and when I tried to work with them to get some sort of a refund they refused and said nothing was their fault.
Flowers- Nola Flora A+
We had very minimal flowers, just stems in medicine bottles but Nola Flora was awesome and worked with Merideth the day of to get here a bunch of cute white flowers to be scattered about the tables
Second Line Hankies- Gem Printing A
We ordered our hankies the day before the wedding and they were ready to go the next day. They were cute and served their purpose and the guests loved them. Gem printing was also very easy to work with.
Hotel Blocks- Place D'Armes C-
The Place D'Armes is a gorgeous little hotel smack dab in the heart of the french quarter and I'm sure for any other stay they would have been perfect but for the wedding they just had too many mishaps. First of all, they made us chaeck in at 5:30pm when check in is at 4:00pm. We arrived at 10am and thought they might be able to clean the room up quickly and get us in a little early and instead they made us wait all day and then some. You would think when the bride and groom check in you would at least let them check in at check in time. We also had a tiny tiny room!!! I know a lot of rooms in the french quarter are small but honestly this is the smallest room I've ever stayed in. We payed for a balcony suite during St. Patty's week so the room was a pretty penny and it just sucked. All of our guests and parents rooms were at least 3-4 x bigger than our room! I mean why would you put the bride and groom in the suckiest room you have?! Our room was so tiny and we had so many boxes of decor that we could barely sleep on the bed in there. Also, my friend sent us flowers the day of the wedding and the hotel never delivered them to us
I'm pretty sure I saw a super cute flower arrangement on the front desk but they just forgot to give it to us I guess. I didnt know it was ours till my friend texted me today.. Oh and they kept forgetting to give out the welcome bags! Then when I tried to go pick up the welcome bags to hand out myself the front desk lady wouldnt let me have them... She said the guests had to pick them up! If she wanted the guests to get them then her dumb a$$ should have handed them out lol. Anyways, not such a great experience with them
Photogrphers- Of My Affection F- - - - - - -
Do not EVER use these guys!!!! I'm sure most of you wont have to worry since they are based out of Utah but I still just need to post this. When I first got engaged these two girls were just starting their photography business together so they offered to shoot my wedding if I just paid for their travel expenses. I was so excited to have gotten such an amazing deal since I loved their work and they were a pretty popular company where I live. Well, time goes on and I dont hear much from them but I'm not worried because all they have to do is show up the day of. Anyways, it gets closer and closer and I am trying to figure out when they want to leave but they will only give me days not times so I wait a while longer to book their flights. Their hotel rooms were already booked. I find some flights that are cheap and ask if those are ok but I hear nothing. So I wait because I don't want to book the flights and have them not be able to make that time. I know it sounds like I should be worried but these girls are my sister's good friends and one of them I consider a friend so I never even think about getting worried. Then the wednesday before I leave for the wedding, one of them messages me on FACEBOOK! Really, facebook? That the other girl decided she cant make it because she cant find a babysitter... ummm WTF? You want to wait a week before my wedding to tell me you cant find a babysitter?! I know this is complete lies because the girl is married, both sets of parents live next door, and she's grown up in this town so everyone is her friend and could have watched her kids, but even so she couldnt have figured this out a couple months ago? This is when I start freaking and try to contact the other girl... only she can't talk on the phone because she is getting a boob job!! Now I really freak because I think that with only a week to recover she'll never be able to shoot the wedding. I call 2 friends of mine that have had boob jobs as well and ask them of they think she would be able to shoot on the wedding day. Both of them say no. I cancel the girls flight and frantically try to find a new photographer but am having no luck since my budget is so small now. The next day the girl calls me and tells me she promises she can do it and she is so sorry for how the other girl acted but can't be held accountable for her actions. I say ok well you can either drive 5 hours to this airport since its cheaper or you can fly on our standby passes from your town. She asks for standby. I tell her that the only open flights are at 5;30 am and 7;30 am and the rest are all looking really full. I also tell her she might have to be at the airport all day to catch a flight and she says this is all fine. I tell her that I won't be able to email her the confimation number and flight until late night around 12am at least because of the system. She's all good with all of this. Now the morning rolls around where she needs to get up and get to the airport and she sleeps in.. misses the 2 flights that have any seats and tells me she wont wait at the airport all day to make it on another one. And thats the story of how I had no photographer at the wedding. Luckily, my sister is an amazing photographer and stepped in but she is also my sis and maid of honor so now I have no good pics of us together and my sis had to work all day during my wedding. Luckily Merideth also got Stevie Ramos to shoot our ceremony and second line last minute so that my sis could actually be my maid of honor.
Photographers Plan B- Shannon Kaeding Photography and Stevie Ramos Photography A++++++++++++++++
Shannon Kaeding and Stevie Ramos Photography stepped in and did an amazing job of capturing my day! Both were last minue add ons but they did an amazing job. I can't recommend them enough!!
Shannon Kaeding Photography contact: shannonkaedingphotography@gmail.com Website: shannonkaedingphotography.blogspot.com
Stevie Ramos contact: stevie@stevieramosphoto.com Website: stevieramosphoto.com
Let me know if any of you ladies have questions or anything at all and I will try and help! I'll leave you with a sneak peek my sis
@Shannon Kaeding Photography sent me