Hi all,
Longtime lurker, first time poster. But I got a lot of ideas for local vendors by searching on this board, so I figured I should stop lurking and give back. :-)
Our wedding was pretty personalized, and we ended up cutting out a lot of things (flowers, church, limo, invitations, DJ) that just weren't important to us. We needed everything downtown because we live in Bywater and over 100 of our 150 guests flew from out of town, so venues in the suburbs were out. I bought almost my entire wedding online or made it myself, so as you will see this can be done.
Venue: Musee Conti Historical Wax Museum. I cannot even say enough about how awesome this place is. We had an attendant with us all night, and Beth who you will work with is so laid-back. There are no rules about coming in early and DIYing the place up, so it was perfect for me. The basically ran the whole thing and absolutely nothing went wrong (I guess I was expecting something to!) We had the ceremony there, and then they send everyone downstairs to walk around the Wax Museum (there's a small bar in there) and have cocktails while they move the room around for dinner.
Catering: Benedicts. We ended up going with the package that came with the Wax Museum and I thought the food was good. Your basic Cajun/creole fare, which the out of town guests liked.
Cake: Haydels. We also had a grooms cake was teal with the Hornets logo. Great reviews from all the guests on the cake, very moist and good.
Dress: It was custom made by Galit Couture for another bride (for at least $4K more than I paid-- some minor stains and I had to re-glue on some swarovski crystals), and I bought it secondhand off Etsy for $375 on an impulse. I never tried on another dress. You will not always have an amazing experience on Etsy but I did, so I encourage people to shop there for wedding stuff! Make sure all measurements exactly match up.
Headpiece: Twigs and Honey.
Shoes: I had two pairs, one I purchased on Ebay and one on Endless.com
Flowers: I made them myself out of origami. It was a lot of work, but not as much as you think. Just pop in some movies, zone out, and fold. The work was totally worth it-- they looked original and cost less than $40.
Hair and Makeup: Rocket Science on Elysian Fields. The girls there totally took care of me and a few others in my party. Loved the whole experience. They even offered to bring me wine when my stomach hurt because of nerves.
Photography: Maile Lani. The pictures were amazing. She is super nice and fun to work with and I just love her style. Here's a link to our "highlights" slideshow if anyone's interested in what her pictures are like.
http://www.mailelaniphotography.com/slideshows/sarahmichael.htmlRoom Block: Omni Royal Orleans, and Omni Royal Crescent. We blocked rooms at both at $10 off the original rate they gave us because we did the rehearsal dinner at the Rib Room. No complaints from anyone.
Rehearsal Dinner: The Escoffier room at the Rib Room. We did this because it was conveniently located inside the hotel. The Escoffier is sort of a balcony overlooking the rest of the restaurant but they can close the windows so you can do toasts privately. They did switch managers halfway through and lost our contract, but fixed it promptly and professionally.
Band: Jazzmen. We did a second line around the room at the Wax Museum, since our ceremony and rehearsal were in the same place. No problems with them showing up-- they were even half an hour early!
Favors: Beads by the Dozen. Awesome. I got 144 beads with plastic medallions for 50 bucks. They even called me immmediately to let me know one of my colors wasn't available and to give me more options. You design and print your own sticker to go on the medallion.
Centerpieces: We used the candelabras at the Wax Museum and draped the Mardi Gras beads on them.
Ring Dish: Etsy :
http://www.etsy.com/listing/63601913/vintage-script-hearts-in-stock?ref=tre-300684212-4Invitations: I did e-mail invitations through Glosite.com. I highly recommend it for tech savvy brides who don't find it necessary to kill lots of trees. The people who run it will respond promptly. It's sort of a combo invite-RSVP system-website. There is also an option to print your invites to send to select (older) guests. I thought people might be offended by not getting a "real" paper invite, but all I got were comments on how easy to use and informative the site was. However... I would not recommend going this route unless you are willing (in lieu of money spent on invites) to put lots of TIME into making your site look good and are at least a bit savvy.
Tech Stuff: Inkscape. It's a free vector graphics program and I highly recommend it. I did my own programs and various decor elements, then exported to PDF and printed. All by myself.
Poster: We also had a custom poster on an easel in the lobby like this one, from Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/72469102/wedding-guest-book-poster-custom-design?ref=tre-300684212-11Various vintage papers: Etsy. I hung some vintage sheet music from twine on the rafters, and put vintage papers and cutout hearts on tables.
Post-Wedding BBQ Catering: The Joint. We got pulled pork, mac and cheese, and potato salad and bought our own buns. It was excellent.
If anyone has any DIY questions, I would love to help out since I am now a huge expert! I hope this post was helpful to someone. Good luck!