st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Our wedding was a dream come true, and I can't believe it was over so quickly! here are my vendor reviews, I hope they will be as helpful as others' were for me: St. Louis Cathedral – expensive, but wonderful, and the memories of being married in such a beautiful, historic church were well worth it. Yes, they can be difficult to get in touch with, but I always got timely answers to any questions I had. . Kevin Charpentier was wonderful, and ran us through a relatively stress free rehearsal and made sure everything was just right before sending anyone down the aisle. Father Mark Lomax (St. Luke’s Catholic Church – Slidell, LA) – Father Lomax is such a nice man. He did a great ceremony and was very pleasant to deal with, despite the fact he was feeling a bit under the weather. Emily Sullivan – We used Emily and her assistant, Danielle, as our month-of coordinators and let me tell you, they were worth every penny of their fee and then some! They were so very pleasant and professional…they made our wedding run so incredibly smoothly that even DH’s guy friends took notice! We had so many compliments about how perfectly done our wedding was, and it would not have been that way without Emily and Danielle! Get Polished – Lisa and Danielle were just wonderful! They did an amazing job on me, my 4 bridesmaids, and both moms. They ran like a finely tuned machine, getting us done quickly and beautifully and with plenty of time to spare. Some of us didn’t really know what we wanted other than to not look like a prom picture, and we were all very happy with our results! I highly recommend the airbrush makeup and false lashes! Muriel’s – words cannot describe how blown away we were by our reception – everything was absolutely perfect! The food was amazing, as was the staff. We are still getting emails, facebook messages, and phone calls raving about the food and the entire experience. I was a little disappointed that some of our guests bailed for a little while to catch the Krewe of Boo parade, but everyone had a great time and that was the most important thing to us. Many people have commented that ours was the best wedding and reception they have ever been to. I highly recommend the goat cheese crepes – they were extra in addition to the package we chose, but so worth it! EVERYONE is still raving about them! And Dianne was just the greatest to work with! Christina O’Malley – I LOVED our flowers! I had some pictures of ideas I liked, but couldn’t fully describe exactly what I was going for. Based only on the phrase “old world” Christina nailed it! The altar arrangements took my breath away and everyone loved their bouquets. She was such a doll to work with and her prices were VERY reasonable! MIL paid over $3500 for wedding flowers (in the 1970s) and we spent about 1/3 of that and got amazing florals and gorgeous metal candelabra that Christina made herself! Our arrangements were very good sizes, full and fresh and absolutely gorgeous! Joey Stassi – Joey worked his butt off and we can’t wait to see the results of his work. He showed up on time, was very inconspicuous and unintrusive, and everyone loved him. We found him on the internet and discovered he had done my cousin’s BIL’s wedding. They highly recommended him and, even though we only communicated by phone and email prior to the wedding, everything went smoothly and we felt very comfortable with him. He was also very reasonably priced, too. Harry Hardin and Helen Maxwell – We hired Harry to play violin, and he booked harpist Helen Maxwell for us as well. They played beautifully! There was a long-ish pause before the recessional, but that was totally my fault as I forgot to tell Harry what the last words spoken by the priest would be so they could use that as a cue (where they were located they could not clearly see what was happening at the altar). I got so obsessed with the Catholic church paperwork I flaked on some of these sorts of details. I would definitely recommend them, they were fabulous! Storyville Stompers – The Stompers did our second line for us, and they were so much fun! Their timing was perfect and our (mostly out of town) guests loved them! They were perhaps the best money I spent on the whole wedding! We have received so many raves about them! Crescent City Brewhouse – we had our rehearsal dinner here. The filet mignon was amazing! Everyone enjoyed their dinner and the beer (and the bar tab was much less than we expected). They were so great to work with, even after I flaked on giving them the final headcount on time and we arrived a bit early when the rehearsal ended up being much shorter than we expected. The Sweet(s) Life – a friend of mine’s side business. She made really beautiful custom cufflinks for all of the groomsmen and DH, as well as some really beautiful charms for all of our bouquets. She also does programs and digital scrapbooking and just about anything else you can name…she is quite the creative genius! Netbride.com – we ordered the bridesmaid dresses from here, and saved $70-100 on each dress from what the bridal shops were charging. We also received them a month before the promised delivery date! The girls were on their own for alterations, but still netted out saving a bundle. My MOH is getting married in February and we are using them again. We were VERY pleased with the service, quality and savings! Place D’Armes – we all loved the hotel and were treated very well. They were great about delivering out OOT bags to the guests and David Valentino blocked us a huge, beautiful suite to get ready in. We plan to stay there on all our future trips home to NOLA. Bourbon Orleans – we had a block with the BO, but our guests found much better rates on Expedia, so it was sort of a waste to set it up. We also found out that one of our guests had money and a shower gift she had brought along for us stolen from her room. Very embarrassing! Everyone else loved the hotel, but I would not advise setting up a block there. They also charged us a fee for handing out the OOT bags upon check-in, which most hotels did not do (even ones we didn’t have blocks with). Backyard Printing – we got our custom second line hankies here, and they were awesome! Very good quality and exactly what we wanted! Paper House Online – we ordered custom go cups and were amazed by the quality and the quick turnaround time. Aunt Sally’s pralines – if you are considering these for OOT bags, contact the store in the French Quarter – they have a wedding deal that is a good bit less per praline than ordering online and no worries about them breaking apart in shipping.