We got married on 10/05/2013 and it went off without a hitch (despite the impending tropical storm Karen)! I am a destination bride planning from Houston TX and used a TON of internet vendors so I will try and keep these reviews to the NOLA relevent vendors. These will all be pretty positive reviews because even if there was a few miscommunications everything ended up working out beautifully! If you have any questions about other vendors I used or more details on the ones I reviewed feel free to PM me!
Pub Crawl Locations: Carousel bar in Hotel Monteleone (B+) This bar is BEAUTIFUL and very large so perfect for a big crowd. It has an actual carousel that rotates as the main bar which is a huge hit with guests and super unique. I gave it a B+ because the bartenders were sub par. They were making inconsistent drinks and some were pretty bad. They also were very hard to get their attention. When we wanted to leave to go to the next location my Dad tried for 10 minutes to close out the tab with no luck and rude responses. Pat O'Briens (A+) This is a NOLA classic that out of towners love! They set us up in the courtyard and were very accomidating of our group and pulled together a ton of tables. Service was wonderful and prompt. My only complaint is they kept trying to push my dad to buy everyone shots despite our multiple declines...anyway they still get an A+. Cat's Meow (A) It was "okay", fun for a karokee bar but loud and everyone kind of trickled off at this point in the pub crawl.
Rehearsal Dinner: Acme Oyster House in the FQ (A+++): Perfect for our rehearsal dinner for 35 guests! They had a private party room upstairs that is beautiful! it has it's own bar and batheroon and balcony. The food was phenominal. The service was phenomial. They had TVs and a projector for us to play slideshows of pictures. Their price is very reasonable and they were super easy to communicate with. I can not say enough great things about this venue.
Welcome Party: Loa Bar in Internation House Hotel (A+): I originally thought we would have around 50ish people for our "come and go" welcome party that was a last minute thing organized by myself and my then fiance but we ended up having at least 100+ guests show up. Loa handled it beautifully and allowed us to spill out into the lobby and essentially take that over for our party. They made a selected menu of drinks for our guests to order off of with discounted prices for us. We ended up having a bar tab of like $750 which I thought was very reasonable for 100+ people for 2 1/2 hours of an "open" bar. They were easy to get a hold of and not to mention the bar is so pretty! My bridesmaids and I stayed after everyone left and had a bottle of champagne and girl time in the then deserted bar the night before the wedding and it was so much fun!
Bridal Brunch: Luke's (A+): Beautiful back private room, perfect for 10-15 people. Phenominal food!!
Wedding Planner: Emily Sullivan Get Polished Events (A): Emily did an amazing job with recommendations, at first I had a hard time letting go as I am a type A personality and a control freak. When she gave me three choices I would go online and research 50 other options only in the end to go with one of her 3 because she was right and they were the perfect fit for the price or date or quality or whatever. I guess I only gave her an A rather than an A+ because she had another wedding that same day (which I knew when I booked her) so the day of got a little stressful for me since I really could have used more prepping from her on exactly what the timing of everything was supposed to be. I just felt really out of the loop. I schedule my days down to the 15 minutes sometimes. People kept asking me questions about timing and where to be and when and all I could say is "I don't know, call Emily" and that really stressed me out. In the end though everyhting turned out amazing, went on schedule, looked beautiful, was amazing and for that Emily deserves a ton a credit! Also, I can't imgaine having to do all the planning myself...seriously would have had a major anxiety attack multiple times if it wasn't for Emily. And as I stated before due to my personality I was probably the most annoying client ever and she had a lot of patience with me.
Photographer: Eddie Marroquin (A+ so far): I have not yet gotten my pictures back but so far so good! He did my bridals and I loved them! He last minute fit me in for bridals the Thursday before my wedding and was able to crank out 70+ options for us to choose from to print out for the Saturday wedding within 5 hours, we picked one on Friday morning and he showed up with it printed and framed the next day...talk about amazing turn around. Super accomodating for an out of town bride that didn't have any other options for bridals! He is a great photographer and very well priced for the high quality of work that he puts out. From the few shots I have seen I know I will be very pleased with the rest! He was prompt and easy to get a hold of. He made sure he got the shots we wanted and his second shooter (Sarah I think?) was awesome. They were both very pleasent to be around on the day of the wedding. Highly recommend!
Ceremony & Reception Venue; New Orleans Board of Trade (A+) I booked the BOT last September for both our ceremony and reception before they had done a bunch of renovations and loved it even back then. Once I saw how everything came together on the day of I was stunned on how amazing it looked. Leah we very easy to get in contact with and she was prompt in her responses. They were fairly priced and flexible with working within my budget. Allowed me to add a 30 minute cocktail "hour" with no extra rental charge. We had to use their in house catering (Pigeon) and the food was amazing! All I have heard since the wedding was how great the food was. They gave my a bridal attendant and I never caught the lady's name but she was a godsent. I have seen bridal attendants in the pass the man handle the bride around and get in the way of pictures and end up just being annoying rather than helpful. This lady was the opposite of that, she would appear out of nowhere and before I knew it there would be a glass of water in my hand or someone fanning my neck between pictures outside or a fresh glass of champagne on the table and just as fast as she appeared she was gone. She was like this little wedding fairy that you could never catch a glimpse of spreading wedding cheer and perfection. awesome.
Cake: Haydel's (A): The price was right and it look pretty enough. I only ate the bite that my new husband fed me and that's it. It had a different design on it than I was expecting but looked good enough. I honestly didn't really care about the cake.
Groom's Cake: Sweet Life (A+): We did a redfish groom's cake at it looked awesome! Did taste it but the groom loved it and so did the guests.
Flowers: Bella Blooms (A): It took a while for her to get my vision but in the end she got it spot on for the reception and the bridesmaids bouquets. I gave a A instead of an A+ because I honestly didn't really love my bridal bouquet and it had a little bit of browning on the edge of the flowers by the time I got it, I wish I could have just held one of the bridesmaids bouquets instead but oh well. The rest of the flowers looked amazing and she went above and beyond on the reception flowers and the candles for the ceremony.
Makeup: Get Polished Events (A+): I got the airbrush makeup done for both my bridals and the day of. It was a bit off for my bridals which was my makeup trail but we got it all squared away for the day of the wedding and it was perfect for the one that really mattered!
Ceremony Music: New Orlean Finest Musicians (A): Had plenty of songs to choose from, sounded good from what I was paying attention to. They were supposed to do a song mid ceremony and they started it at the wrong time so that was a bit awkward but oh well. They were supposed to stay and play for the 30 minute cocktail time and I don't know if they did or not, I was taking pictures.
Reception Band: Phunky Monkeys aka Taboo (A+++): They did an amazing job! The singer (Mike) has an amazing voice and is perfect MC as well. They got everyone on the dance floor and played great songs at the appropriate times and really just made the whole reception go perfectly. I would highly highly recomend them for any wedding or event. Also very professional and easy to communicate with. They dressed up perfectly for the wedding (nothing bothers me more than a wedding band in casual or skanky clothes, def don't have to worry about that with Taboo). Guests loved them, we loved them!
Second Line Band: Free Agents Brass Band (A+++): The second line was the highlight of the evening! Everyone loved it and the band was great! Showed up on time and made for a great party!
After Party Venue: Pat O'Brien's in FQ (A+): Accomodated the large group very well and service was great!
Second Line Dress & Rehearsal Dinner Dress: RentTheRunway.com (A+): Rented a monique lhuillier white lace dress for my rehearsal and a floor lenght gold badgley mischka gown for the second line for a fraction of the price to buy them. I have rented dresses here before and have always had a very positive expirience.
Confetti: FlutterFetti.com (A+): We ordered 60 tubes of the water solable white flutter fetter for guests to launch as we exited the ceremony, it was awesome! The product I ordered (the kind the disolves in water) is not available yet on the website but you can email to order it. They were an awesome touch and so much fun! They come in airless launcher so they don't make a pop sound you sure flick your wrist and the confetti launches out, so cool!
Hotels: Omni Royal Crescent (A++) They upgraded me to the Omni Suite even though I had only booked a king regular room for myself for the whole weekend including our wedding night to save money. The suite was perfect size to get ready and it was a great hotel, we have a block here and a lot of our guests were here and loved it! Country Inn & Suites (A+) My husband stayed here with his groomsmen and a lot of our guests, we had a block here. They were accomodating and priced well. Perfect location just accross the street from the wedding venue.
Bridesmaids Dresses: J Crew via Ebay (A+): I had all the girls choose the style they wanted from the floor length navy blue chiffon J Crew dresses, then I bought them off ebay for half the price they sell for at J Crew. I paid ~$200 per dress (a steal compared to the $365 price tag at J Crew).
I made my own Second Line umbrellas, hankerchiefs, garter and programs. My dad built the arch we stood in front of for our ceremony and I had a family friend do my hair. I worked with several etsy vendors that I will review in a different post. I don't have that many pictures yet, just some scrounged up from guests Iphones but here you go! Will post more when I get the professional ones back.