We had a beautiful wedding on Twelfth Night at the Peristyle in City Park, with reception at Parkview Terrace. I just wanted to share my best and worst experiences so that if anyone out there is on the fence about these vendors, they might have some guidance. I really appreciated all of the women on this board for helping me discover vendors and so I'm passing along the favor now!
The Worst:
Photobooth: Nola Eclipse Photobooth: F-
They refused to honor the confirmed and paid-for contract and basically told us they had another booking that day and wouldn't be showing up. I saw a Living Social deal for a photobooth months ago and had confirmed that the date was available before I bought the deal. The woman who runs this company was always difficult to get a hold of and unprofessional on the phone throughout the process ("I'm at the gym right now so I don't have my booking calendar with me but I'll email you the contract when I get home"... and repeatedly didn't send it) but once I got the contract I figured they'd honor it. She emailed to say we were confirmed once I sent her the contract, so I didn't give it anymore thought until about two weeks out from the wedding. I also gave her the benefit of the doubt because I figured she was swamped with the Living Social deal. Anyways, a few days from the wedding my coordinator finally got a hold of her and found out they wouldn't be showing up. Needless to say, I would not recommend this company to anyone and will be seeking a refund.
The Mixed Reviews (Mostly good):
Venues: City Park
Ceremony: The Peristyle: A+ Gorgeous, and I thought it was very reasonably priced. A few people had trouble finding it so make sure you include location info on your website as it doesn't show up on some smartphones.
Reception: Parkview Terrace: A+ for the day of the wedding. Everything looked great, the food was delicious, and they kept things running smoothly. The personal server we had (Sean) was so nice and accommodating - my now-husband was drinking sparkling cider and he kept bringing him discreet refills, he took care of our parents, etc. They sent us home with tons of food, a beautiful basket of fruit and a bottle of our wine and champagne. We ended up with around 100 people and since it was cold outside, the terrace didn't get used much - I think they usually set up some of the tables out there but it seemed like they'd moved them inside - there was still enough space but it might've been tight if we'd had 150 guests which is their max.
*The one thing that I didn't like was that they had tip jars out at the bar - gratuity was included in our bill and I don't want my guests having to reach for their wallets. I probably should've said something but by the time I noticed the tip jars it was well into the reception...
We opted to upgrade to their top bar option, added a coat check, and upgraded to real glassware, plates, and flatware. Also added a pasta station, where they made vegetarian and non-vegetarian options of creole pasta. I think we got good value for our money and it was worthwhile to have the upgrades but we were prepared to cut some things if money got tight - I liked that City Park was flexible on this.
Prior to the wedding, I'd give City Park a B. They really came through at the wedding, but we were a bit stressed out by the lack of communication beforehand. For example, our main contact, April, was out of town during the time when our numbers and payment were due - and she didn't let us know ahead of time or give us the name of a contact person while she was gone. I had no problem with the fact that she took vacation during the holidays, but we felt lost for a couple of days when we couldn't give them our numbers on time. Also, we had a couple of guests with allergies and dietary restrictions and City Park was not very accomodating - they basically told us that they had no way of knowing if any of their food was gluten-free. My mother-in-law ended up going to a local restaurant and ordering some gluten-free meals to be served at the reception for these guests (who we still got charged full price for by City Park, even though they didn't eat their food). We also had to really push for more healthy/ vegetarian options as the menu is very seafood and fried-food -heavy. They ended up making some off-menu grilled veggie skewers and the vegetarian pasta so it all worked out but I was worried for a while that we'd need to bring in food for the vegetarians as well.
Second Line Band: Young PinStripes Brass Band: A-
They showed up on time, played for the whole time paid-for, and everyone loved them. The band looked and sounded great and the second-line was so fun! However, I just realized when looking back at photos that only 5 total band members were there, when we had paid for 7. I'd also put tips for 7 members in the envelope my coordinator gave them. I did not notice that there were fewer of them in the moment, and they still sounded great, so this is kind of a wash, but I do feel a little ripped off. I don't know if the other members got sick or what. The band leader, Herbert, was really nice and he did contact me a few days beforehand to run through the location, song requests, etc, which was nice. I suggest giving someone else the payment in one envelope and the tips in another, and having that person tell them they should check with them at the end - this will ensure they play for the full time you contract for (I think they would've left right after the second line ended if we didn't do this - but they played for the first bit of the cocktail hour which was awesome). I also will note that they wanted to be paid in cash, and carrying that much cash made me uncomfortable.
DJ: Jack Magic Entertainment (John) B+
I think the guests all enjoyed the music and there were a lot of people dancing, but there were some communication issues that detracted from the experience for us. For one, we had at least 3 other people who were supposed to be running things and who the DJ could've checked with, but he kept talking to me and the groom during the wedding to ask if we were ready to do this or that. We'd submitted a timeline beforehand, and we had a day-of coordinator and her assistant, as well as a venue coordinator, who could've answered these questions. I wish that we'd had an in-person or phone meeting with John before the wedding to answer all of these questions and so that he could get more of a feel for what we wanted the vibe to be. He did play all of our "like" and "love" songs, but it seemed like they were sort of clumped at the beginning of the night and then it got really 'clubby' (for lack of a better word) towards the end - the music was louder than we would've liked, and more explicit lyrics, etc - for our crowd which was 75% older family. The 25% friends and younger people were dancing, but I didn't like seeing so many grandparents, aunts and uncles, and family friends, sitting and trying to yell over the loud music. We ended up asking him to turn/tone it down after a few songs of the clubby atmosphere but yeah, I really wish we'd been able to give him a better sense of our vibe before that.
Jack Magic also provided the sound for our ceremony, which to my knowledge was fine, however the musicians had to move the microphone to the officiant themselves after the processional and I think it would've been better for him to have a separate microphone already set up.
The Best:
Makeup: Cat Vo, AristoCat Beauty: A+
I loved Cat's personality and her work. I do recommend doing a trial - I wear contacts and wearing false eyelashes was new for me, and at my trial we found that a smaller lash would be better, and that we needed to apply it before I put in my contacts so I wouldn't tear/ blink as much. My makeup looked amazing all night, but I still looked like me, which was great. She also does hair but my hairdresser from home did the hair for the wedding - if she wasn't there I would've had Cat do it though.
Flowers: Christina O'Malley: A-
The flowers were delivered on time, looked nice, and were as we'd discussed. The one thing I didn't like was that the yellow flowers in my bouquet and the BMs bouquets had a brown tone to them (not from not being fresh, just the color of the flowers) and it wasn't what I'd pictured. I thought her prices were reasonable. The boutonierres were all pretty limp after a few hours, but they looked good for the photos.
I did end up doing my own flowers for the ceremony - 100 mini sunflowers from Sam's Club and blue vases from Dollar Tree, which I thought looked great and cost about 1/5 of what she'd quoted for the ceremony flowers.
Cake and King Cake: Haydel's: A-
The wedding cake was pretty and tasted good. The king cake tasted great but wasn't so pretty. The problem was that our wedding was on a Sunday so everything sat for an extra day as they don't deliver on Sundays - the result was a slightly dry wedding cake, and the colored sugar on the king cake melted. I'm not sure of the value of their cakes as it was included in our venue but the king cake price seemed really reasonable - like $1 per serving.
Photography: Arte De Vie, Doug Keese: A+ (photos pending)
Doug's personality was a great match for us and we really enjoyed working with him. We hired him by the hour for the formals and ceremony through cake cutting, and a family member offered to photograph the rest of the reception. I wish we'd just hired Doug for the whole event, he is so calming and professional! I can't wait to see our photos!
Day-of-Coordinator: LuLu Alexander, Weddings by LuLu: A+
Lu really came through for us and I would hire her again for sure. She made everything less stressful throughout the weeks leading up to the wedding. I hired her after contacting her and being impressed by her recommendations for a few vendors - she was originally unavailable on our date but was giving us information on pricing and availability for transportation, etc, even though we hadn't hired her yet! She became available and was within our budget, and although I had to convince my then-fiance and our mothers that we needed some help, we were so glad we hired her. I loved being able to communicate through email and she didn't forget a single detail even though I was starting to.
I thought Lulu's services were an amazing value even before I realized that she also brought with her an assistant - on the day-of there is someone there to keep everyone on track schedule-wise, while the other goes and makes sure the venue is set up. Things ended up being set up a bit differently than I would've liked due to it being windy, but they checked with me before making changes, and everything looked great. Also, I'm not sure if there were any other problems on the day-of other than the photobooth not showing up, but if there were, they were handled without my knowing, which was great.
My only critiques would be that I would've loved to meet with LuLu before the day of the wedding, and that one element of our decor didn't get to the ceremony but was at the reception instead (a sign by folk artist Simon with our names and the date, and the colors tied together all of the wedding colors at the ceremony). Originally we were supposed to meet two days before the wedding, but I was having printer problems and running late, so we ended up pushing it back. I was driving around with 100 sunflowers, wedding umbrellas, favors, etc in the back of my car for two days - at least it wasn't hot out. I think if we could've found a time to meet sooner I would've been able to better articulate where things needed to go, but on the morning of the wedding I was flustered. Everything worked out fine though, and the original missed meeting was my fault.
Transportation: VIP Limos: A+
We had a shuttle from hotel to wedding site, and back, which was a 20 person limo bus. It was on time and clean, from what I heard. We'd originally paid for a certain number of trips and I think they ended up doing extras at no extra cost because it took less time than scheduled to get to City Park from the hotel, and there were people still waiting for cabs a few minutes before the ceremony was scheduled. My dad and I rode in a towncar and the driver Sid was really nice and turned down the temperature, rolled down the window, etc, as needed. He was on time and we never felt rushed. He also drove me and my husband back to the hotel after the reception. Also, we paid a little extra to have the towncar wait through the ceremony and transport any older/ disabled guests that didn't choose to second line. I'm not sure if anyone used it but it added peace of mind for them to have it available.
Hotels:
Guests: Hotel Provincial: A
We had some problems getting a large enough block, and Margie the sales manager was occassionally difficult to work with ( I think she didn't believe we'd actually fill the size of block we told her we needed, so she gave us a smaller block and then tried to up the price when it filled). Our guests ended up filling half of the rooms in the hotel for the weekend, so we brought them a lot of business. I think there were some small hiccups - i.e. somoene who requested two beds got only one, and then got a lot of grief when she asked to switch rooms. We ended up hosting a welcome party in one of the courtyards. We would've liked to have an inside option as it was cold but they wouldn't let us use their conference room unless we bought their food and drink - this seemed a bit greedy to us as we were already bringing them thousands of dollars worth of business, and the food menu was overpriced & didn't look good, so we just did it in the courtyard. All of the staff seemed very nice and helpful. I did get a phone call from Margie the day after the wedding asking me to track down one of the guests and tell them they were late checking out... which was very odd. I told her I was on my honeymoon and sorry but I had no idea who he was or how to get a hold of him.
Getting Ready Hotel: Lafitte Guest House: A+
I loved this hotel; it was only two blocks from the hotel where the guests were, so we had some privacy, but it was also very convenient. The bed was comfy and all the rooms I saw were beautiful. They only charge $20 a night for parking which is cheap for the quarter. And they have a kitchen available to all guests with breakfast, and snacks and drinks available all day.
Honeymoon: Henderson Park Inn, Destin, Florida: A++
So relaxing, beautiful, and quiet. We can't wait to go back.