Muriel's knows how to put on a great reception. If you've ever seen their event spaces on the second floor, you know they are absolutely beautiful and overflowing with character - i.e., not the typical ballroom you could find anywhere. No extra decoration is required, which is really nice. The location couldn't be better, and the enormous balcony overlooking Jackson Square is something you can't get at any other venue. What really cemented the choice for us is that many venues in New Orleans require a high minimum for Saturday night weddings. We were planning a ~75 person wedding, which meant we were priced out of many of the venues which have minimums for Saturday night receptions pegged at 150+ person weddings. At Muriel's you have the option of renting half of the second floor (one of two rooms) and the food and beverage minimum for the Plantation Room (the red room) was just right for our size crowd. I had a lot of anxiety about our decision to hire a 7-piece band for the reception as we knew the room was not that big and we'd need space for a dance floor along with space for all our food stations and the bar. In the end it worked out, but I will say that there were no seats in the room itself - just a few highboy tables. Fortunately the weather was glorious and our guests made full use of the wonderful balcony which wraps around the second floor and has plenty of seating. We also rented the seance lounges which are wildly over the top and fun (and we put a photobooth in there), and the lounges provided additional seating, although the balcony was where most everyone wanted to be. The food was fabulous, the staff was great, and everything went off without a hitch. And Muriel's was easy to work with - during the planning process, the event coordinator, Maria, responded to my lengthy emails filled with questions almost immediately. We were very, very pleased with our choice!

AMAAAAAZING!!! Honestly, the best decision we made during the entire wedding process! And if you don't believe my review below, read all the other positive reviews on weddingwire, the knot, tripadvisor, etc. Everyone loves this place.

We really wanted a less traditional wedding, something with ambiance and romance and intrigue, so we decided to do a destination wedding in New Orleans! We priced out just about every place in New Orleans, some people have said Muriel's is expensive, however, we happened to think they had the lowest "food and beverage minimums" out of all the places, which was good because we really wanted it there. They have a few rooms you can choose from, based on our size we went with the Cotillion Room and it was the perfect size for our ~40ish guests plus DJ and photogs. The ambiance is second to none, the food was amazing, we are still getting compliments about the food, all of it - the chicken, the steak, the shrimp and goat cheese crepes, the hors d'oeuvres.. oh and they also did our cake on a moment's notice and, though i was worried, WOW, it looked amazing and tasted even better than most of the ones that we had sampled at cake tastings.

We worked with Maria who was supremely responsive, I would venture to say that not 3-4 hours would go by before we'd get a response to our looooong emails filled with questions. Maria also worked with us to plan an event that would fit in our very strict budget. She was so flexible and very nice, she was an amazing coordinator on the day of... we had unexpected rain so our ceremony in Jackson Square had to be moved last minute, and Maria was wonderful in accommodating us and working with other people in the bridal party to take care of everything so that I could just enjoy the day.

We did a cocktail hour in the seance lounge and our guests LOVED it, if you choose muriel's, be sure to use the seance lounge as well!

We had our rehearsal dinner at Muriel’s, and it was a wonderful experience. From the beginning, Lorie was responsive and helpful. She made the planning process extremely easy and ensured that everything was just as we wanted it to be. On the night of our rehearsal dinner, we had happy hour and passed hors d’oeuvres in the Seance Lounge, and everyone commented that it was a fun and unique experience. We had about 40 guests, and everyone fit comfortably in the Little Gem room for dinner. Lorie and her team made sure that we had high chairs placed at specific tables and that one table had plenty of space for a large wheelchair to maneuver in and out. They were extremely accommodating to our handicapped guest, which was a major concern of ours beforehand. The food was amazing. Everyone raved about it, even those who had dined there many times before. And it was nice to have the balcony overlooking Jackson Square available to us so people could step out and enjoy the view and the night air. We are so glad that we chose Muriel’s for our dinner. We truly couldn’t have had a better experience!