Better late than never! I have been meaning to post these reviews forever, feeling very guilty for waiting so long. I found the Knot reviews really helpful during my planning, so it's only fair that I should contribute too! Our day was absolutely perfect - and I do mean that. I was so happy with my vendors. There were one or two speed bumps along the way, but the end result was perfect. Sorry in advance for the extremely long post.
Wedding Coordinator: NOLA BASH: A+++++One of the absolute best decisions we made! We hired NOLA BASH for the weekend of our wedding, but they really went above and beyond. Danielle was available throughout my wedding planning process to offer advice & tips, and in the weeks leading up to the wedding, she was absolutely invaluable. She reconfirmed all of our vendors, sorted out the last minute details, and offered to take on any other things I needed help with. Also she was really helpful in making me feel comfortable and organized, reminding me to relax, not to worry, and to focus on enjoying my day. She was so calm and in control - I was not concerned about a single thing. She knew many of the vendors we had selected, so it was great that she had existing relationships with them and knew how they worked. When it came down to the weekend itself, both Danielle and Melissa were there for our rehearsal & dinner (which was a crawfish boil in the park), as well as our entire wedding day (a LONG one) and our day-after brunch (where they brought all of the items that had been left behind at the reception by friends & family
. Throughout the weekend, but especially on the big day, they ensured that everything ran smoothly - nothing was out of place at all. Our day was absolutely perfect in every sense. I know that took some behind-the-scenes magic from Danielle & Melissa, but to us & our guests, every detail was in place. Our wedding day was everything we had planned for and dreamed of. I would hire them again in a heartbeat. Highly recommend!!
http://www.nolabash.com/
Welcome Party: The Davenport Lounge at the Ritz: A-
We had a large number of out of town guests, so we hosted a little welcome party with drinks in the bar at the Ritz. When I called about reserving a table (they didn't answer my emails), they told me it would be $2000 just to reserve the table (no drinks included in that number!) so we just decided to wing it and tell people to meet us in the bar. Maybe a little risky, but our party was just for a couple of hours before dinner. We got there early and grabbed a few tables and ordered a few bottles of champagne and snacks. Everything went super smoothly - the bartenders & waiters were really nice and efficient.
Hotels: The Ritz and Iberville Suites: C
We tried to get a hotel block, but they told us they were unable to offer us a block due to being in an oversold position. This was a year before our wedding so I thought it was a bit weird. But we both really liked the Ritz and we had a lot of people who were coming to New Orleans for the first time and wanted to make a nice trip out of it. So we decided to recommend the Ritz and the Iberville Suites (same building, same management but a lower priced alternative). Most of our guests were able to get rooms through the Ritz website at a lower rate than block rate anyway. We probably had about 30 rooms across the two hotels. The reason they get a C is because when I brought all of my carefully constructed out of town gift boxes, they informed me that there would be a charge of $5 per box to deliver them to the rooms or hand them out to guests. They were the ONLY hotel that charged for this - we also delivered gift boxes to the W Hotel, Intercontinental, Holiday Inn, Omni Royal Orleans, Hampton Inn, Hilton, and probably 5 others that I can't remember - no one else charged us for giving them to the guests. And more importantly, no one else LOST the gift boxes. Half of my guests at the Ritz/Iberville did not receive their boxes. This was much more upsetting to me than the $5 per box - my sister & mother & I spent so much time putting them together and I was so excited for everyone to get their little NOLA-themed treats. When we checked out, my husband spoke to the front desk about it and they took the charge off our bill. But like I said, I was much more upset about the lost gift boxes than the money. They seem strangely disorganized for such a nice hotel. There were a few other things too, but this is not the place for nitpicking, so I'll just say that we probably won't stay there again even though I think it's a beautiful hotel.
Bridesmaids Luncheon: Commander's Palace: A+++
I hosted a lunch on the Friday before the wedding for my bridal party. Commander's is always one of my favorite places to take guests. Their lunch prices are actually a really good deal. They gave us a beautiful private room on the second floor looking out into the oak trees, and did not charge anything extra for room rental. And they had balloons and flowers on our table. It was all really lovely and the service and food was just as great as ever. My girls loved it!
Rehearsal dinner:
We did a crawfish boil so that our out of town guests could have the experience. Also I thought it would be fun to have a more casual event. We did it in Audubon Park, across the street from the church, so it was really handy - we just walked over after the rehearsal. Our guests came with their kids who played on the playground nearby. I downloaded a bunch of zydeco music from iTunes and my sister set up her iPod stereo system and we hit play and the music was taken care of. We bought our own alcohol (beer & wine) which worked out really well too.
Catered by Southern Hospitality Catering: A++
Southern Hospitality did a great job!! They brought all the food, tables & chairs, everything. Everyone was super nice and friendly throughout the planning process and on the day itself. We had crawfish as well as a seafood pasta and a chicken/andouille jambalaya. All of the food was delicious, and a lot of people went back for seconds and thirds, until it was all gone!
Snoball Stand from Plum Street Snoballs: A
I loved Plum Street Snoballs and having the snoball stand was a great idea for dessert - a big hit with the kids. Plum Street Snoballs brought everything and set up their stand with all the different flavors.
Church: Holy Name of Jesus
I always knew I would get married here, so I never considered another church. This was the first call we made (after telling our families of course
It is a beautiful church and they do a lot of weddings. Everything is very well organized and the lady in charge of weddings, Liz, is very helpful and replies to emails very quickly. They also do wedding music recitals in case you are in town - you can go and hear a lot of different options for your wedding music in advance. If you are considering having your wedding here, you should call ASAP because they get booked really far in advance. We called 16 months in advance and were lucky to get our date. My friend booked 18 months in advance and could only get a Friday night.
Church Music:
Organ: Jonathan Szymanski: A+ Jonathan is the organist at Holy Name. He was excellent. Organists are amazing musicians - such coordination required! Super nice guy and also very prompt with the emails.
Trumpet: Ronald Benko: A+ I hired Ron based on recommendation from Jonathan the organist. We wanted the Trumpet Voluntary as a bridal entrance song, which is why we needed a trumpet. Mr. Ron did a wonderful job.
Cantor: Givonna Joseph: A+ Another recommendation from Jonathan. She has a website where you can hear excerpts of her music. A beautiful voice - several of my guests mentioned to me how lovely it was. Her Ave Maria was just what I had in mind.
Guest Transportation: Hotard: A-
Hotard supplied 2 nice big 55 passenger buses that were clean and comfortable. They were organized and replied quickly to emails. The only reason I put A- is because the bus drivers weren't given the correct instructions and drove our guests 20 minutes in the wrong direction toward the reception instead of the church, before one of our out of town guests realized it and alerted the driver. Our guests barely made it to the church on time. I only found about this weeks after the wedding from one of my guests, so it wasn't something I had to worry about.
Bridal Party Transportation: Celebrity: A+
Celebrity provided a minibus for the groom's party, a limo for the bride's party and a vintage Bentley for the bride & groom. The drivers were on time and courteous and the cars were all perfect and clean. My groom is really into cars so he loved the white vintage Bentley.
Hair & Makeup: Just Face It: A+
Jessica is another great vendor that I found on the Knot. We did a trial run for my bridal portraits and she totally got it perfect the first time. I didn't ask for any changes on the wedding day, and I don't know how she did it but it was even more perfect for the big day! She and her team did all the hair and makeup for my bridesmaids & my mother. Everyone looked great and they were all happy with their hair/makeup. I went with the airbrush makeup, which I was a little nervous about at first, because I normally have a very natural look and while I wanted to be a little more glamorous, I still wanted to look like myself. Jessica was able to make the airbrush makeup look natural and perfect, without looking weird or fake. It lasted the whole day (from 10am to after midnight). She also does normal makeup if you don't like the idea of airbrush (although I would recommend at least trying it for your trial run). Also Jessica did a great job of putting my hair up in a way that stayed up the entire day, and yet did not give me any headaches (I get headaches really easily from ponytails or headbands etc). I felt beautiful on my wedding day and a big part of that was Jessica's great work.
Photographer: Matthew Foster Photography: A++++
Matt gets booked up far in advance, and I can certainly see why. Yes, he really is as good as everyone on the Knot says. And everyone says how nice he is, which is absolutely true. Actually, he is even better than everyone says, and even nicer! Mat is a great guy, extremely talented and super friendly and relaxed and fit right in with our crowd without seeming intrusive. Our pictures were ready a few weeks after our wedding - I think it was the week after we came back from our honeymoon actually. And they are stunning photos. I can't say enough good things about him. I am so glad we made the investment in such beautiful photos that we can look back on forever.
Videographer: Studio Vieux Carre: A+
I booked them based on recommendation from my photographer Matt Foster. I asked him for recommendations because I had read about how important it was for photographers & videographers to work well together. And they did. It was so fun to have all these great vendors who knew each other and enjoyed working together. I haven't seen my video yet, but based on their work, I expect it to be great and I feel very confident in our decision to choose them.
Reception Venue: Nottoway Plantation on River Road: B+
We had our hearts set on a plantation reception & we knew it would be a big hit with out out of town guests. We chose Nottoway over two other plantations - one of which did not have an indoor option in case of rain, and the other which did not have any staff members dedicated to working on weddings (plus they would have had up to 3 weddings at the same time unless we bought them out). Nottoway is a bit further away than the other two, but it is absolutely gorgeous. It was renovated recently, and the whole place is in fantastic condition and they have a whole team of people dedicated to running the wedding receptions that take place. The reason for the B+ rating is that we were assigned 3 different coordinators from the time we chose the place until our wedding took place and things just weren't as organized as I expected. Also towards the end of our planning, I felt like they kept trying to charge us extra for no good reason - this really seemed greedy because we were already paying for an extra long 6 hour reception. For example, somewhere along the way, they forgot to order the specialty wine & champagne (as per our contract) and tried to charge us a lot more per bottle because the price had gone up. The general manager ended up sorting out the problem, but I ended up having to source the wines/champagnes myself and had a hard time finding them. They only arrived a few days before our wedding, so that was a bit stressful. In the end, the girl in charge of our reception at Nottoway was on the ball and everything was just perfect. But I was really happy that I had brought in my own coordinators Danielle and Melissa from NOLA BASH to ensure everything was set up properly. The reception went very smoothly - the time flew by even though it was a long day. The weather was perfect - we had a beautiful outdoor cocktail hour and then dinner and dancing in their ballroom.
Cocktail hour music: Dr. Jazz & the New Orleans Dixieland Sounds: A+
I really really wanted jazz music at our reception, but my groom wanted music that everyone would recognize and dance to. So we compromised and had a jazz band for the cocktail hour only. They did a fantastic job and played all the songs I asked for. Then they did a second line for us around the outside of the plantation and into the ballroom, where they played our first dance. This worked out great and we were really pleased with the music. They were so nice and really easy to work with by email and even sent me a CD of their music in the mail before I booked them.
Party band: Groovy 7: A++++++++
Oh my goodness, how do I even begin to describe how good they were?! Almost 4 months later, and I am still getting compliments from guests about how great our band was. They were AMAZING musicians and extremely friendly and nice people as well. They played softer music through the dinner, then a 2 hour hardcore party set for dancing. I danced the entire time - didn't miss a single song. I thought their fee was very reasonable - they were worth every penny and more. I am so glad we booked them so far in advance - I didn't realize how popular they were until I started reading the Knot (we had already booked them after hearing them play). I don't know what else to say except that if you are considering hiring them, don't even think about it anymore. Pick up the phone and book them RIGHT NOW.
Florist: Christina O'Malley: A-
Christina was great, although the flowers were not exactly what I wanted and I did feel like we spent a lot of money. I was pretty clear about what I wanted, but the arrangements were not as full or with as many blooms as I wanted which was a nature issue, not the fault of the florist. I was going for a lush all white look using flowering branches, and what I got was more of an earthy, all natural look because there weren't many blooms on the branches. However, the arrangements still looked nice, and none of my guests would have know the difference, and it didn't take away from the perfectness of my day. Plus Christina was super nice to work with, very kind and patient throughout my planning process, and came up with loads of ideas to help us stay within our budget. If I had known how it would turn out, I would still choose Christina, but I would ask for different flowers to be sure that I could get the look I was going for.
Wedding Cake: Royal Cakery: A+
Expensive but they did a great job. Their cakes are absolutely delicious and they have about a zillion different cake/filling combinations to choose from. All very yummy. They can make pretty much any cake. I showed them a picture of the cake I liked - from a Martha Stewart magazine, and they said no problem. In fact, they had made that cake design several times already. So my choice wasn't as original as I thought, but they did a great job. It was even better than I expected. We also rented a beautiful silver cake stand from them (I think it was something like $30 - very reasonable). The cake was so delicious that our guests ate the whole thing, even though we had ordered more than 1 slice per person (and we had the groom's cake too).
Groom's Cake: Cal's Bakery in Gonzales: A+
I really wanted to surprise my groom with a special cake, but the quote i got from the Royal Cakery was very expensive (half as much as our wedding cake even though that was way bigger and much more elaborate). So I found Cal's Bakery in Gonzales, LA which is near our reception venue. I sent them a picture and they made a perfect copy, with a few changes that I requested. All at a very reasonable price. My groom was thrilled with the cake and our photographer caught his surprised & delighted expression on camera which made me even happier
Day after Brunch: Hermann-Grima House & Courtyard: A+
We wanted to do a farewell brunch with our guests the day after the wedding and a courtyard was just what we had in mind. Hermann-Grima is a great historic place - would also be nice for a ceremony if you are have a smaller guest count. Bacco does all the catering for the Hermann-Grima House and the food was really good. My guests were going back for seconds. We had mostly breakfast foods and then we were able to do a bar on consumption basis for people who wanted a bloody mary or mimosa - most people didn't drink much since they partied so hard the night before, so a consumption bar worked out best for us. We worked with Aimee at Ralph Brennan (which owns Bacco) and she was very nice and really helpful in planning our event.
Invitations: Lucky Luxe Couture Correspondence: A+
I really wanted to get my invitations locally, but couldn't actually get any responses from the two local places I contacted. Then I found Lucky Luxe online and they are located in Mississippi which is local enough for me. Plus they do invitations for brides across the country. The girl who runs it is super sweet and quick to respond to emails and very patient with my many changes. I am obsessed with paper goods, so the invitations, save the dates, menus, programs etc were really important to me. We got a beautiful suite of mostly letterpress paper goods (some items had to be digitally printed) - it was all custom made and gorgeous. And a very reasonable price. She has a lot of different options for all different budgets so if you are interested in some beautiful and unique invitations, check out her website.
Other recommendations:
The Big Book for Your Big Day by Mindy Weiss: This was the best book I used during my wedding planning. It covers EVERYTHING in great detail. No useless pictures or forms. Just lots and lots of very good info. I am recommending it to all my friends who are getting married.
Etsy: Holy cow, I had no idea how great this site was until I started planning my wedding!!! I bought so much stuff from Etsy sellers that it's impossible to list them all. Here are just a few of the Etsy sellers I recommend: lizmpetro, dinkybug, MaisonStGermain, kellylynndesigns, JulieHananDesign, puck513, kaleidoscopebyerin. I keep going back to Etsy and finding all kinds of other stuff for our home & great gifts. Highly recommend.
Sorry for the long post - I hope this was helpful for some of you. Good luck - I wish everyone a wedding day as perfect as ours was