I am FINALLY posting my reviews. I apologize for it taking me over 4 months to get this done. Hope it helps others as much as this board helped me with planning. Enjoy and best of luck with your planning!!
Reception Venue- Audubon Tea Room, Tea Room Garden- A+ The Tea Room did such an unbelievable job. They provided great service, incredible facilities and excellent food. Many guests said it was the best food they had all weekend during their stay in New Orleans. Wish I could have enjoyed more of it 
Kathy Arce was my POC for the venue and I really enjoyed working with her. This is a busy venue and sometimes emails are not answered for a couple of days but be patient…they give their full attention to their brides so when your day gets closer, you will also receive that full attention. They are such professionals and you will have little to worry about when it comes to your reception. My only regret is I wish I would have added the 4th hour. 3 hours went by way too fast!
Ceremony- Rayne Memorial Methodist Church on St. Charles- A+ This is an absolutely beautiful church on St. Charles. I am Catholic and my husband is Baptist so we decided to go with a Methodist Church for our ceremony. I still wanted the cathedral look that many of the Catholic churches had to offer and this church met everything I was looking for. They had on-sight coordinators that were included with the cost who take care of everything you need. This really helped out since I didn’t hire a coordinator.
Florist- Blooms Floral- A-Keith Casio did a phenomenal job. His arrangements were beautiful and he is super creative. He doesn’t work out of a studio but made arrangements for me to meet him at Barnes and Noble each time I was in town. I hate to give him an A- because he did such a beautiful job on my flowers but he made me sweat just a bit because he is pretty laid back. I think it also had to do with the fact that it was the weekend after Mardi Gras and many people were “laid back” that week You will not go wrong with him though…I couldn’t have been more happy with my flowers. Rehearsal Diner- Oceana Grill – A+This place is not mentioned near enough on The Knot as a recommendation so I was really excited to find it. I was looking for a laid back venue in the FQ and wanted to go with Acme but it turned out to be booked. Oceana Grill had fantastic service, great food and was reasonably priced…it exceeded our expectations. Bridal Dinner- Muriel's- AI took my BM to dinner instead of lunch at Muriel’s a couple days before the wedding. It was perfect! They enjoyed it so much. The hostess told me she was going to have to seat my party of 12 at 2 separate tables so I asked to speak with the manager and he was able to get us all on one table. Bridal Party Mani/pedi's- Amy’s Nails - AI was looking for an affordable venue that would have enough chairs for a large wedding party. I found this place over off of Magazine Street area. They had about 12 chairs in one room so we were all able to be in the same room. They were sweet and did a great job. Band- Jerry Embree and the Flavors- AI wanted a band who could entertain all age groups and this was the perfect fit. They sounded great and had no problem getting people on the dance floor. They even learned our 1st dance song less than a week before the wedding because we took so long to pick it. I had planned to give them a list of songs to play but ran out of time…it turned out I didn’t need it. I also gave them a list of songs to play during the break and they downloaded all of them for me. Again, a vendor that is not mentioned as much but totally worth looking into. Photographer- Matthew Foster- A++I think everyone on here already knows how wonderful Matt Foster is so I won’t get too carried away. We went ahead and added the 2nd photographer which was a great decision because he was able to stay with me the entire time. He is fun and makes you relax and I could have not asked for better pictures. If you want to look at our pics go to his website and look under Tim and Teresa. The password is Baker.Videographer- Chris Serio- Videographey Shoppe- prelim A++This was such a surprise for us. I was looking for someone good but didn’t want to spend as much money on this vendor. Chris did a phenomenal job!! Not only was the video well done, he was so quick in sending us the finished product. We received our wedding trailer the Tuesday after our wedding and the full length version and all the raw footage was delivered within 2 weeks of the wedding. You can check out our video at www.bridefilm.com/">
www.bridefilm.com click on theater and then Teresa and Tim. Again, this is another vendor not mentioned near enough that really is spectacular. Cake- The Royal Cakery- ABoth the cake and grooms cake were delicious. Shirelle was so nice and helpful since I changed my mind on my cake a dozen times. I found a picture from a photographer website and she was able to replicate it but make slight changes to keep it within my budget. We had a Nichol’s State Helmet for our groom’s cake too. It turned out great. Favors- Secondlinehanderchiefs- A+I just did the handkerchiefs for the second line as my favor. This was a great company and cheap! Wedding dress, Bridesmaid Dresses- Stardust Bridal- A+I live in Texas so I bought all my dresses at Stardust Bridal in Dallas. The dress I wanted was from the previous season so they didn’t have it in the store. They had the designer send it to them so I could try it on. The veil I wanted was out of my price range so I ordered a less expensive veil. When it came in, they did not like it so they called the designer of the more expensive veil and had them make me one similar to the one I wanted at no additional cost.Transportation- Hotard- A+We rented a 55 passenger bus to take guests from the hotel to the church, reception and then back to the hotel. They had to make a couple of trips but it worked out great. Very affordable!Transportation – American Luxury – AWe also rented a mini-bus for the wedding party. It worked out great. They were a few minutes late picking the bridal party up after taking the guys to the church because of traffic but it gave us some time to take some spontaneous photos down Canal.Makeup/Hair- SWAK- A+Gwen is awesome! She was one of the first vendors I booked. I absolutely loved my make-up and hair for my engagement portraits and wedding day. She was timely and professional and was even helpful at just keeping my mind off of being stressed the day of…felt like she was part of the family. Message me if you have any questions. Thanks!