These are way overdue, but other Knottie's reviews helped me so much when I was planning, so I had to post them anyway! I'll try to keep it as brief as possible. I was an OOT bride, and 100% of our guests were from OOT as well.
As a note, I had a negative experience with my wedding planner, who dropped the ball in some pretty major ways planning-wise, and behaved incredibly unprofessionally at my wedding. She has since left the industry (I think/hope), and I am not about smearing anyone on the internet anyway, so I will not mention her name or the name of the company she worked for. But for the other OOT brides out there who have to put their trust in someone local to help them coordinate things, my advice is to go with an established professional and CHECK THEIR REFERENCES. Also, if you are getting the feeling that things are falling through the cracks, or not getting done, SPEAK UP. I think I was too concerned with being nice / liked and I regret not asserting myself more. Anyway, on with the reviews:
ROOM BLOCKS: Ritz-Carlton, Monteleone, Dauphine Orleans, Inn on Bourbon - AWe tried to find an option for every style/price point within walking distance of our venues in the FQ. Most of our friends stayed at the Inn on Bourbon (we got a great rate there), and family at the Monteleone/Ritz. All were easy to work with and pretty accommodating. Didn't hear any complaints about any of these hotels - just make sure you warn people that IOB is NOT quiet (it's Bourbon St after all).
We stayed and got ready at the Ritz-Carlton. Highly recommend - the rooms were gorgeous and the staff is amazing. We were upgraded to a huge suite which was incredible for getting ready and allowed us to host an after-party after the wedding.
INVITATIONS / ALL PAPER GOODS: Stamped Paper Co. (stampedpaperco.com) - A+++Stamped designed GORGEOUS custom save the dates, invitations, and a full suite of paper products for our wedding that just took my breath away. They were so unique, fun, and beautiful, and just completely captured the spirit of New Orleans and of our wedding. Jill is a creative genius who will work with you to find the perfect visual representation of your event, and she is amazing to work with. People raved about these invitations, and multiple friends confessed that they decided to make the trip after they saw how beautiful the invitations were and knew it would be a great event. Cannot recommend Stamped highly enough.
REHEARSAL DINNER: Restaurant August - A+
Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. I did a lot of research on venues for our dinner, and was surprised to find that of the fine dining restaurants in the area, August had one of the lower $ minimums for private dining. We had a small rehearsal dinner (wedding party and immediate family only), and booked the private room upstairs. The room has a private bar with bartender, so we were all able to have a cocktail before dinner. Food was incredible. I gave them a seating chart, place cards, and bridesmaid/groomsmen gifts ahead of time and they set everything up perfectly. Their event coordinator Christy is AWESOME. Great experience all around.
WEDDING NIGHT-EVE COCKTAILS: Napoleon House - C-Beautiful place, but... this was a bit of a fiasco. We wanted a place to be able to meet up with wedding guests the night before the wedding as they got into town. I called Napoleon House multiple times to confirm that they could accommodate us, and they assured me every time that they could, and to come on down. When we arrived, we were treated extremely -
extremely - rudely, like we were creating a ridiculous imposition to order drinks, etc. It was honestly very strange, we almost felt like we were on Candid Camera or something. We were bringing a ton of business into their establishment, and it's not like we were a rowdy crew - our grandparents were there... just not what we expected at all. But it ended up working out ok and everyone had a good time.
CEREMONY VENUE: Hermann-Grima House Courtyard - B-The H-G House is a beautiful place for a wedding - at sunset with all the lanterns and uplights it looked like an absolute fairyland, and the pictures are stunning. However there are definitely things you should know going in:
- Views are highly obstructed. If you have more than 50 guests - no matter what they tell you - many will not be able to see you at the "altar."
- Due to proximity to Bourbon St., you will hear lots of noise and LOUD music from the bars nearby. I wish I would have known this. I hired an elegant jazz band to play for our ceremony, but all I could hear as I walked down the aisle was the Black Eyed Peas blasting from a nearby bar (not the vibe I was going for). Being from OOT, I had only ever visited the venue in the morning/early afternoon, so I didn't realize it would be an issue. (My wedding planner should have, but that's another story.)
- If you (the bride) are late, there is no way to get to the back of the aisle without walking past your guests. This happened to me - my bridesmaids tried to hide me with a screen, it was kind of comical though not at the time, haha.
- The "event coordinator" is nice, but kind of hard to work with. For example we asked her well in advance if the wedding party could take some pictures inside the home immediately following the ceremony, and when we got there that day the room was set for a funeral... again, not the vibe I was going for (and again, something my wedding planner should have handled). She also SUPER-rushed us through the rehearsal, and took ages to respond to emails. Nice girl, maybe just reeeeeally busy? Who knows.
- They will arrange cocktails for you which is nice - our guests had French 75s waiting for them after the ceremony to drink during the second-line and they were delish.
RECEPTION VENUE: Latrobe's on Royal - A++++++++Best decision we made in planning the wedding, no question. Everything you've heard about them is true - the venue is so unique and gorgeous, location could not be better, food, service, everything is first-rate. They are so nice and so accommodating during the planning process. Fantastic experience in every single respect - cannot recommend them highly enough. BOOK EARLY - I wanted an October wedding and 18 months beforehand they only had 2 Saturdays left. There is no such thing as too early here.
OFFICIANT: Rev. John Zimmer - BOhhh, he is so, so, SO nice so I hate to say it... but he was (really) late and called me by the wrong name as he pronounced us man and wife. It was kind of funny, but... I mean. I don't think that is typical of him and otherwise it was a nice service - he was very accommodating to the fact that we are not religious and wanted it to be all about love and family. Good guy.
CEREMONY / SECOND-LINE / COCKTAIL HOUR MUSIC: Dr. Jazz - A+These guys are real pros. So kind, so lovely, great musicians. They brought a true touch of class to the event, and were awesome to work with. I just loved them. Would recommend them in a heartbeat.
DJ: Rock-It Productions - A-
John did a great job at the reception. He had everyone - and I mean
everyone - on the dancefloor all night long. He was also responsible for the sound system at the ceremony (which completely failed - no one could hear us past the first few rows), but he was such a good DJ that I can't even grade him down that much for that.
HAIR AND MAKEUP: Blush and Bashful - A+Nicole and Holly (and their team) came to our suite and did hair and makeup for all of the bridesmaids, both moms, and myself. They were so fantastic in every way - just wonderful girls, everyone had a great time with them, and we all looked gorgeous. Couldn't have been happier.
CAKE: Zoe's Bakery - A+Zoe's blew me away. We went with them because their quote was
significantly lower than the other bakeries we talked to (and things were getting tight budget-wise), so I wasn't expecting anything that memorable. But both the wedding cake and the groom's cake turned out so beautiful and beyond delicious! A great day-of surprise, highly recommend.
FLORIST: Dunn & Sonnier - BMy experience with them was mixed - they are super nice guys, and some things (bridesmaid's bouquets, groomsmen's bouts, ceremony arrangements, etc) came out beautiful. But some things didn't turn out as well... my bouquet was kind of asymmetrical and weird, the flowers in the reception centerpieces were not the colors I asked for, etc. Not a huge deal just not what I was expecting.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Jason Cohen - A+++We couldn't have asked for a better experience with our photographer. Jason and his assistant are the most fun, awesome guys and make you feel so comfortable even if you are an awkward photo person (me). Our engagement session and wedding photos came out absolutely amazing and had that spontaneous photojournalistic feel we were hoping for. Great work.
VIDEOGRAPHY: Bride Film - A+Fantastic! They really do beautiful work. They surprised us with a gorgeous same-day edit of the ceremony which they played at the end of the reception. It was so cool because it allowed everyone to hear our vows (even though the sound system failed at the ceremony). Everyone was in tears and absolutely loved it. The full video did take quite awhile to finish (around 4 months), but it was worth the wait - captured the day perfectly.
GET-AWAY CAR: Bill Latimer, Classic Limos of Yesterday - A+Bill and his classic white Rolls Royce were there right on time to sweep us away in style. Super nice guy and gorgeous car.
PHOTO BOOTH: Red Eye Photo Booths - A+These guys were great. Super easy to work with - they let us customize a logo (which Stamped created for us to match the rest of our paper goods), and the guest book option turned out to be so much fun.
FAVORS (PHOTOBOOTH FRAMES): www.photoboothframes.com - A+These little frames were very affordable and the perfect complement to the photobooth strips our guests took home.
SECOND-LINE HANKIES - Backyard Printing - A+We got customized hankies with our names/date for the second-line here - they are so affordable and turned out perfect. Very easy and nice people to work with too.
CAKE PULLS - Jewelry by Rhonda - A+A HUGE selection of affordable, nice cake pulls. They even provide the ribbon and a card with each pull's meaning. Perfect.
SPARKLERS: SparklersOnline.com - A+These worked out perfectly - we got the extra-long sparklers for our getaway and they look so pretty in the pictures.
ETSYI recommend all of these amazing sellers:
AuraOfLaura - A+++These were a big hit. Custom Italian stone map coasters for our groomsmen gifts. Beautiful, and she was an absolute peach to work with, extra "+"es for being the nicest person ever.
loliscreations - A+Custom clutches for the bridesmaids, my mom and myself. They were perfect!
NewOrleansUmbrellaCo - A+Our second-line umbrellas - exactly what I wanted/how I pictured them.
OriginalBridalHanger - A+My personalized dress hanger - perfect!