Jan. 2014 Wedding

melissalee814

Just seeing if anyone had advise for planning my New Orleans wedding from California. I am from NOLA, but my fiance and I are travel nurses in California. So hard flying in for a few days and making decisions. Any advise would be helpful!
I already have my ceremony site (Ursuline Academy), and almost have the band booked (The Mixed Nuts).
Thanks!!!

louisianablue

I would strongly recommend hiring at least a month of wedding coordinator that you can consult with throughout the planning process.  It was definitely worth it to me and I also got lots of great advice from this board. 

TDixon2B

I'm planning for the same time period, and right now both my fiance and I are in separate countries.  We were never going to be able to coordinate a visit at the same time, and I was a little overwhelmed at the idea of planning a New Year's Eve wedding from afar pretty much by myself.  I got a recommendation on this board for Weddings By Lulu and she's been a life-saver.  Hiring a planner to schedule venue and vendor visits during my quick 2-day visit was invaluable.  She narrowed venues down for me and we got an incredible amount accomplished in such a short time.  On my own, I would have wasted time going to places that wouldn't have worked for us anyhow.  Now I've got all my major vendors locked down and I feel like I can pretty much coast for the next year.

jap5053

I would also get a coordinator. Being that I went to Ursuline also, we both know how strict they are about use of the chapel. I would get a clear and concise picture of what is or isn't allowed in the chapel before talking with florists or any other vendor. This will be helpful before you get your heart set on anything. In addition to hiring a planner asap, I would also hire a photographer before anything else. Photographers tend to book up pretty quickly. I had to book Studio Tran more than a year out. Email and your planner will become your best friends over the next year Good Luck!

danalambert

Ditto - a planner may be a big help and booking your photog as early as possible a good idea!

derksenriley

Definitely book your photographer early. And since it sounds like you may be visiting some to plan, I'd definitely recommend meeting photographers in person to make that decision - you'll be spending a lot of time with them and you want to click!  Also consider setting up room blocks early so you can lock in low rates  (usually people have until 1 month before the wedding to actually book the blocks before the hotels release them).  We did Save the Dates for our January wedding because it's close to the holidays and a lot of people went ahead and booked hotels when we sent those out.  Now hotel rates are about twice what our blocked rates our, so people definitely appreciate that. 

tnmegeliz

I am getting married then too! I just did my room blocks this week since we are going it on MLK weekend! We are going down there in late Jan, possibly Feb for the weekend of the bridal show to finalize everything with the venue I want, to shoot our engagement pics, and possibly meet up with the cake baker I want. Hopefully we will get our save the dates out by mid-march. But I agree with the photographer statement.. Especially if it is a big part of your day. I've found mine after contacting DOZENS. You always want to get the best bang for your buck and a lot of times those photographer fill up very quickly!!

melissalee814

Well, my mom is retired and my stepmom works for my dad. So they are my "wedding planners" I know any details they can handle back home. Thanks for the advice... after my reception site is booked I will be looking for a photographer next!