Reception: Southern Oaks. A.- We had a great time. The staff is very helpful and the food is amazing. They provided a cake stand and a birdcage/card box with no additional charge. I love this place and always have. The staff is very attentive and all of my guests have complimented the food and the flow of the reception. I love that they provided the opportunity for my husband and I to have a private dinner to ensure that we got to spend a few quiet minutes alone and to make sure that we got to eat. They also fed the photographer and videographers which I think is a nice touch. My only complaint: of my nearly 300 favors about 100 were put out for our guests to take home. When I realized this (at the end of the reception) I was very embarrassed. We asked that the favors were put in baskets, so guests could take them on the way out. They put two baskets...on the bar. This place is beautiful and definitely worth the price. Despite the one little snafu, the reception was everything (and more) that I imagined. I highly recommend. (www.southeroaksplantation.com)
Church: Chapel of North American Martyrs (Jesuit High School) A.- My husband graduated from Jesuit and we usually go to midnight mass here on christmas eve, so it seemed natural to have our wedding here. It was lovely. The chapel is large enough to hold over 1000 students, but with our roughly 180 guests it looked pretty full. The aisle is longer than it looks. Our priest works at the school and he did the fastest wedding I have ever been to. We did the full catholic wedding and mass, with communion and everything. We started at about 7:15/7:20 and were done before 8pm.
Photographer: Mark Eric. A++++. - Mark does amazing work. His pictures are beautiful. His is a really nice guy and was fun to work with. My fiance was not exactly excited about engagement pictures, but Mark made him feel at ease instantly. I highly recommend him to anyone looking for someone who can capture the emotions of the day as well as document the details. He lives and works out of Pineville, but travels pretty much anywhere in the state. I don't think I can fully express how much I love his work. I haven't seen my wedding photos yet, but I stalked his website for the last year just to see some of his new images. Gorgeous. ( www.markeric.com)
Videographer: Blink Video A+. -Blink does amazing work and Melanie and Christine are both very good at what they do. They were friendly and easy to get along with and made my bridesmaids and family feel instantly comfortable with a camera in the room. They were there for all of the important moments, but were very inconspicuous. They also captured a lot of the details. I can't wait to see our video. I was sure of 2 vendors that I wanted when I began to plan the wedding souther oaks was one and Blink was the other. (www.blinkvideo.net)
Florist: Christina O'Malley: A+. - I learned about Christina from other reviews and posts on this board. I'm so glad I went with her. She was SO accommodating. Like someone else posted she does sometimes take a while to respond, but it was never more than a day or two. I didn't have a clear vision for my flowers, but what she put together for our wedding was beautiful and very well made. I wouldn't have made any changes. She sends a questionnaire which was very helpful and then she sent a proposal with several options. Flexible and accommodating don't begin to describe her. My bridal portraits were very last minute. I emailed her on a Monday or Tuesday and asked if she could do a bouquet for that Friday and she did it with no problem. We also had some last minute changes to our bridal party and literally 2 weeks before the wedding she was able and willing to make the changes. I really liked her and highly recommend her. (christinaomalley@cox.net)
Hair/Makeup: Two Sisters hair and makeup A+. - Gina and Stephanie did amazing work and were super nice. From the first email exchange I knew we would be a good match. Just the tone of the emails conveyed a relaxed vibe, yet very professional. (which is more than I can say for some others.) We were laughing and having fun throughout the day. They use airbrush make-up: amazing. I again, didn't have a clear vision of what I wanted for makeup and only a vague idea for hair, they did a great job. I absolutely loved it and it lasted all night. They did hair and makeup for 6 people as well as makeup for both moms and hair for one of the bridesmaids in about 4.5 hours and everyone looked incredible. All of the bridesmaids did their hair down with big curls (which was odd since I told them they could do whatever they wanted) and everyone's hair was just as beautiful at the end of the reception as it was when we left the hotel. I wish they could do my hair and makeup everyday. (ginatros@yahoo.com)
Dress/Veil: Yvonne LaFleur A-. - I loved my dress, loved it. It was completely and totally different from everything that I had tried on previously. The sales associate chose the dress for me to try and I'm so glad I let her. The store has an interesting set up. All of the dresses hang from the ceiling, which I really liked, it allows you to see all of the dress and the details and not have to sift through packed racks to look at a dress through a bag. Also, none of the dresses are over $2000 and alterations are included. I would recommend making an appointment. They have only one fitting room for the bridal section. They don't do fittings for alterations on the weekends, so that can be inconvenient for some; however, they're open until 8pm on Thursdays. It took a little longer than expected to get my dress. Part of it was my fault, I didn't find/order it until April and I was told 4-6 months. It was like 5.5- stressful. My only issue was that when I finally got my dress and did my fitting one of the beads fell off, now they put it back on, but it was in a different direction and threw off the symmetry of the beading. I doubt anyone really noticed it, but my attention to detail noticed it immediately. I also purchased my veil and earrings from the store. When you finally say "yes" everyone get champagne!
Bridesmaid Dresses: J.Crew A+. - I love j.crew, I always have and I knew that my dresses would come from there. I let my bridesmaids choose the style. 6 girls and no one had the same dress. I chose silk chiffon because it had the widest selection of styles. Some of them shopped early and were able to get great deals on the dress. One girl got her dress the week before the wedding, no problems. (I also got my rehearsal dinner dress from here.) They have bridal consultants that you can chat with online. (www.jcrew.com)
[the flower girl's dress was from kohls. I found it by just searching random store websites. this was a $60 and my sister's final cost was $22. I think it was an easter dress, it was adorable]
Ceremony Musicians: Musiconsultant A+. - I really did my research on musicians, they were the most affordable and were very easy to work with. We did a trio with 2 strings and a piano. Not only were they affordable, there are set prices for the number of musicians; it was not based on the instruments. We used some secular music (contemporary songs) for our ceremony and they got the music and prepared the songs in about 2 weeks. It was beautiful. They played for 30 minutes before the ceremony and then for the recessional until all of the guests were out of the church. They don't have a list of contemporary songs on the web site, but they played all of the songs we requested. (www.musiconsultant.com)
Transportation: Celebrity Limo. C. - We met with them at a bridal show and really liked the representative. Then we found a groupon type of deal (I think it was Yollar) and booked them. At first they tried to say that we couldn't use the deals we purchased, but my husband pointed out it did not have that in the fine print. They told him that if he could get to their office that day they would allow us to use them...luckily he was off that day and was able to go. The grade goes down for the actual day of the wedding. We had 3 limos and limo bus (for our guests staying at the hotel) all were to arrive at 6:30. The groom and groomsmen and the limo bus were to leave asap and then my bridesmaids and my dad and I would leave with the police escort. That did not happen. It was very stressful and confusing. We weren't seeing each other before the wedding and I didn't want his first look to be me coming out of the hotel. Luckily his attendants were able to shield his eyes. Then we went to the church, the first car almost took a wrong turn and had to ask our police escort for directions. REALLY?? Then the trip from the church to the reception was horrible. There was road construction, instead of trying to go back to a main street they took us winding through a residential neighborhood. The final straw...when we booked we got a free town car transfer to the hotel after the reception. The driver was a complete JERK. He was reckless and drove way too fast. He told one of the attendants to "tell the bride if she's not out here in 2 minutes I'm leaving without her." SO RUDE. I don't know if this is how people are normally treated or if we were treated so poorly because we didn't pay full price. Either way, if I had it to do over this is probably the only vendor I would change.
Cake: Haydels A- As others have said the cake at the tasting is not the best, but the cake at the wedding was great. Haydels was the most affordable and they helped us design a cake. (Again, didn't have a clear vision) The cake we got was perfect. They make the cake, day of the wedding unlike some other (more expensive) places. All in all we were very happy with both of our cakes, but we had way too much left over! My SIL pointed out that Southern Oaks offers so many desserts that the guests weren't eating as much cake, so maybe order a smaller cake?
Favors: Elmer's Chee-wees. A+ - We were looking for something original and unique to New Orleans and we love Chee-wees. We bought 300 1oz bags and it was less than $150. I got a call from the company, I guess they're not used to seeing 300 bags to a residence. When I explained that we were using them as wedding favors; the woman on the phone sounded so grateful. She sent a confirmation email when our order was shipped and included a very lovely message wishing us "a life time of happiness" I just thought it was a super sweet touch. Our guests liked them. (www.elmerscheewees.com)
Invitations: Paper 'n things (Baton Rouge) A. - We had a relatively good experience here. They were very willing to work within our budget. If we found something that we liked, but was out of our range, they were able to find something similar. In the end, we had them address our invites as well. This took longer than expected and we got our invites out just 2 weeks before our RSVP date. (luckily it was about 8 weeks before the wedding and 2 weeks before we really needed our final head count)
STD: Wedding Paper Divas. A.- Loved our STDs and got lots of compliments on them. It was easy to order and they arrived quickly
Hotel Block The Westin Canal Place. B.- There were a few issues with the hotel. When I went to check in at about 4:30 on Friday before the wedding, the clerk had to call and make sure the room was ready. It took a while. (check in is supposed to be at 3pm) As for the wedding day, there were apparently 3 wedding parties getting ready at this hotel and a military ball. Needless to say we were late to the church because no one could get an elevator to go down to the lobby. It was a mess. We were also promised champagne and chocolate covered strawberries; we did not get them. I know it was not anything extravagant, but still I would have like to have gotten what I was promised. The room rate was off by a bit, but by Sunday I didn't have any fight left in me so I just paid the bill. One redeeming factor, my bridesmaids had ordered a few bottles of wine for the 12 or so people who were in and out of our suite. When they ordered the third bottle, room service delivered the wrong wine and when my bridesmaid noticed this she was not happy. She asked why they different bottle was brought and they told her they ran out of the other kind. She was not happy. Anyway, the room service lady returned with the correct bottle of wine and gave it to us free of charge.
Tuxedos: Al's Formal Wear. A. - We had a great experience with Al's. The tuxedos looked great and everyone's fit perfectly. For every 5 paid tuxedos you got one free. So that was nice.
I hope this is/was helpful. I know I got a lot of help from reading these reviews and I hope I can return the favor.