From One Bride to Another

Thanks Lisa for this great todo list!


December 15, 2011
Destination weddings can be as stressful as you make them, just as anything else in life can be. My best advice to brides that are planning a destination wedding would have to be – START EARLY! My husband and I did ALL of the planning and coordinating for our wedding and we started in January for a November wedding.

#1 Choose your venues and lock them down.
Lock it down, as in make the payments and sign the contracts… You are most likely to get the month/day/time you want if you do it as early as possible. As mentioned before, I started in January and we originally wanted and early evening wedding in October. BE AWARE!! October is a very, very popular wedding month in New Orleans, and many places in the south. We were unable to get a Saturday wedding in October in Jackson Square Park, so we ended up with a November 12 wedding at 2:30. WOW!!!! I am so happy that it worked out that way. The weather was AMAZING on that day and honestly, it was still 90 degrees on some Saturdays in October so waiting really worked out to our advantage. It was a beautiful, sunny 72 degrees on our wedding day at the fountain in front of the amazing St. Louis Cathedral. Waiting until November was a great thing!

Our ceremony venue: Jackson Square Park
Our reception venue: Jackson Brewery Bistro

I cannot say enough great things about Jackson Brewery Bistro. The location is amazing and the place is very, very cool. It is located across the street from Jackson Square Park and on the river. The place has views of the Mississippi River on one side, with patio seating outside along the river (the MS Queen Steamboat docks right in front of the building as well.) On another side is a view of Jackson Square and all of the horses and carriages and the area where the street performers are in Jackson Square. From another window, you can see the St. Louis Cathedral and the park area, with the beautiful trees and greenery. There are also views from the huge arched windows in the place of historic Decatur Street and the French-style architecture and balcony-lined buildings. The people that we dealt with at Jax were awesome. They were so helpful, accommodating, and went out of their way to make our wedding reception everything that we wanted and even MORE. Their attention to detail was impressive. They went the extra mile at each step along the way to ensure me that the wedding day would be perfect, and it was. Marlene and David Sheely are wonderful people and they made our wedding day wonderful as well. It was great music, great food, great drinks, great FUN, New Orleans style!!!!

Do NOT wait until the last minute to plan your rehearsal dinner. This is usually left up to the groom and/or groom’s family to plan. Well, we waited and that is the one thing about the wedding weekend that we definitely would have done differently. We had it on the Friday evening before the wedding, which just so happened to be 11-11-11. This was a very, very popular day for weddings and wedding receptions in the city, so finding a perfect venue within two months of the wedding was nearly impossible. Go ahead and put the groom and or/groom’s family on planning the rehearsal dinner just as early as you are working on the venue and reception details. That way, they will both be up to your expectations (hopefully) and carefully planned out with all kinks out of the way. Our rehearsal dinner was less than ideal. It was a beautiful place, but there were things that could have been much better. We have high expectations and they did not meet them. We had our rehearsal dinner on the 11th floor of the Westin on Canal on 11-11-11. It was a beautiful room with good lighting, but PLAN EARLY is all I need to say about this and we will move on to the next thing.

#2 Details, Details, Details!!
Get them out of the way early…
With the venues – menu, drink choices, set up, décor, logistics, lighting, music, entry/exits,…
What else needs to be planned?

• Flowers (rehearsal dinner, wedding party, wedding ceremony site and reception site)
• Wedding Cake and groom’s cake – We can highly recommend Haydel’s Bakery in New Orleans. They did a beautiful job.
• Cake topper
• Wedding favors for guests at reception – We had pralines in black and white small boxes with black ribbon. I wrote the wedding date on the outside of the box in calligraphy.
• Hotel goody bags for out of town guests
• Transportation to/from venue – We rented a bus to transport guests from the Ritz Carlton to Jackson Square for the ceremony. The bus ran two rounds and was nice, clean and comfortable. Cajun   Encounters was the company we went with for guest transportation.
• Bride/Groom exit from reception – We used Royal Carriages and had a driver in a top hat and tuxedo drive us off in a white carriage as our guests blew bubbles! It was AMAZING!!!
• Chair and/or tent set up – We had 100 white resin chairs set up in Jackson Square for the ceremony and used Perrier Rentals. They were reliable, on time and great to work with.
• Music for ceremony – We had a violinist and classical guitarist. The music was absolutely beautiful. Harry Hardin was the musician we went with and his beautiful wife played at the ceremony. Our guitarist was a dear friend and our vocalist was a very talented family member.
• Wedding Officiant – We can highly recommend Joe Pitzer in New Orleans for a wonderful, beautiful, Christian ceremony. He will actually allow you to personalize the ceremony to what fits your needs (and I did.) I pulled bits and pieces from ceremony scripts that I loved and put them together.
• Photographer – PAMELA REED is amazing!!! She was unobtrusive, detailed, fast, and caught every shot that I requested when she met with us before the ceremony, at the reception site (which she did NOT have to do) to go over details with us about the upcoming weekend’s events. She is absolutely wonderful.
• Invitations - You can choose to have them created or undertake this on your own. There are so many, many options out there for you to choose from!!
• Programs – Like invites, you can choose to do them on your own or have them made. There are limitless options.
• Rehearsal dinner invites – We sent our out by E-Vite and loved it. It was easy and we were able to get out all details without the worry of addressing, stamping, personalizing…. It was simple and got the job done effectively.
• Bridesmaid gifts and groomsmen/ushers gifts – There are many options out there on this one. We personalized everyone’s gift with a name plate and the date on it.
• If having a destination wedding, maps of city/coupon books and postcards are available to you at the New Orleans Visitor’s Bureau… Call ahead and have them put a package together for you. Then, put them in the hotel goody bags.
• Make sure that you have someone to be in charge at the rehearsal. A wedding director can be a friend or family member, but put someone in charge. My wonderful aunt was in charge and did a great job.
  Have someone in charge at the reception… Things will flow more smoothly if you have someone paying attention to time, details… (when to have first dances, cake cutting, toasts, bouquet toss and garter toss…)

#3 Get all of your stress out of the way BEFORE the big day!!!
 Stay in contact frequently with all people involved in the wedding planning and make sure that you are on the same page throughout the process. Any time you can meet face-to-face it is to your advantage – over email and phone calls.
 Call and confirm with EVERYONE the week of the wedding. At this point, you have been in contact with them throughout the process but this will be an official CONFIRMATION call.
 Designate any bridesmaids, friends, and/or family members to be in charge of things, but you have to make sure they are done and in some cases YOU will have to get it done because people will skip out on ya or leave you at critical times. Don’t take it personally. People have to think of themselves as well. It is nothing against you when this happens, and I do say WHEN and not if.

#4) ENJOY YOUR DAY!!!!!
You have planned, you have stressed, you have cried, you have “what-iffed” you have had nightmares, you have worried, you have been let down, you have planned, you have worked, you have dreamed, you have imagined, you have planned, you have asked WHY?, you have jumped for joy, you have stomped in anger, you have planned… You have planned!!
On the day of, there is no more planning to do, so it is time to let go and have the best day of your entire life and enjoy marrying the man of your dreams!! There is no more planning to do, let go and ENJOY YOURSELF. At my reception, we left the dance floor maybe 3 times to talk to family and friends, other than that – they had to meet us out on the dance floor to get a hug, a dance, or a chat with us in. We danced and sang and danced and jumped, and shouted and danced, danced danced!!!! It was an AMAZING day and I was completely stress-free! Enjoy your wedding day. YOU DESERVE TO!!!