Nola Wedding - Vendor Recommendations

Hi Brittany

I LOVE New Orleans, I visited in July 2017. What a fun destination for a wedding!

Have you considered an event planner to help plan the wedding? Is this something your budget could accommodate? It is also possible to book a partial planning service if you weren’t interested in a full planning service.

Here are a selection of wedding planners from the WeddingWire vendor search if you would like to browse and see what type of services they offer - New Orleans Wedding Planners

Have you a wedding venue in mine yet? Or are you still researching?

Hi Brittany,

I'm planning a destination wedding in New Orleans right now too. It can be stressful! I would say it would be worth while looking into a wedding planner to see if they can help. I am focusing primarily on all-inclusive venues to try to avoid hiring a full-service planner, so that is also something you may want to consider.

www.neworleans.com has a whole section on getting married in New Orleans too. Good luck with the planning!

Im getting married October 6th at Magnolia Plantation beautiful large venue.

Renaissance Nola Photo - Ranada is SUCH a sweetheart and she is so good at what she does she will bend over backwards for you. Oi love her so much already and we haven't even had our wedding.

The Mercantile Hotel is really nice, and the St. James is also nice. The house of Blues does weddings sometime which i think is pretty cool and unique.

Cocoa Bean Bakery has AMAZING CAKES! And the best fillings. Chef Anthony is so great!

Verde is a good make up and hair place. Very sweet and they have a location in New Orleans and will travel to you wherever you are getting ready.

Thank you! I’m looking into wedding planners & I’ll keep verde in mind for makeup! Thank you guys!

A lot of the all-inclusive venues include day of coordinators. We're getting married at Pat O's on the River next July, and they have been SO easy to work with. Flawless Bride has really good hair and makeup packages too.

Hello my Fiance and I are from New Orleans. Our wedding will be at The Four Columns. We live in Texas. I must say its not easy planning a long distance wedding but for sure it will b worth every minute. They have nice packages so you wouldn't have to worry. It is not east for me because i am a Bridezilla. I got a Brass Band and much more because we love to party.. Of course our wedding is an celebration. Why not go all out.. Ms. Brenda will most definitely do everything for you.. Just let her know what you want...
Congratulations and I hope you find everything you need to make your Day special.

The Life of the Party LLC for Wedding planners
Elisa’s cake by the pound for Wedding Cake vendor.

Hi - My fiance and I are getting married in new Orleans in November. We are doing our ceremony at the NOLA Pharmacy Museum ( big courtyard in the back) and then we are having our reception at the Cabildo that over looks Jackson square. Its a LA state museum. Food art will be our caterer. I am actually ordering my flowers online pre-arranged from an online vendor. Then buy some greenery and baby's breath in bulk and I am having some of my martha stewart-like aunts in charge of decorating the venue with the flowers (it saves so much money). As long as there are REAL beautiful flowers and greenery everywhere - I doubt my guest will stop to ask if it was me or someone else who arranged them in the vase...

We very nearly had our reception at the Bourbon Orleans hotel and Roosevelt hotel Both are FABULOUS and are all inclusive - only reason I didnt accept is because my fiance is on the quirkier side and did not want a Ballroom-type of reception.

My fiancé & I live in Gretna, which is part of the Greater New Orleans area, & we're getting married in October. I've looked at so many places in the last year, so I'll just list a few for you, including where we're getting married, with links.

French Quarter Wedding Chapel - We're having our ceremony here. It's small & intimate w/ a Las Vegas meets New Orleans vibe. They can get everything for you (photographer, videographer, music, cake, flowers, etc) or you can bring in your own. They'll also help arrange a Second Line through the Quarter or a carriage ride (and you can get married while riding through the Quarter).

Gretna Cultural Center for the Arts - We're having our reception here. It's an old post office that they converted into a performance space, but they also rent it out for events. It's about a 10-15 min drive from downtown New Orleans and is in "Old Gretna", so the whole area has a historical vibe. It's on the cheaper side, but it might be more of a headache for you b/c the only thing included is the tables.

New Orleans City Park - Great for outdoor weddings...The park is filled with beautiful flowers & sculptures, and is just an all around gorgeous area. It's a great option if you don't want to be downtown or in the French Quarter but still feel like you're in the city.

The Four Columns - I saw someone mention this one. It is outside of New Orleans (about a 15 min drive), but the decor is gorgeous & the food is pretty good as well. We were going to go with this venue before we decided to go cheaper & smaller.

I also saw someone mention NewOrleans.com which is our tourism site. It really is a great resource for everything New Orleans. And, I also have a list of Black photographers, videographers, caterers, bakers, dress shops, etc if you're interested.

New Orleans destination wedding here! We are planning from Atlanta, so this is a destination wedding for us and most of our guests, so planning has been hard. I honestly should've hired a wedding planner, but we're past that point with most of the big decisions finally out of the way. We're having our ceremony and reception at Rosy's Jazz Hall in October. Their pricing is great (includes venue, catering, alcohol, venue coordinator), and the reviews for the food and service are amazing. The venue coordinator Darlene has been super helpful so far! We are using a DJ recommended by our venue (Decades Music), and they will also coordinate our second line. Rosy's has a lot of character, so decor will be minimal. My florist is Ethereal Array, which has been great since she was able to accommodate a smaller order (found her on Thumbtack!). Our photographer is Natalie Hains (Eye Luster Photography), and we found her based on reviews online. We did an engagement shoot with her back in November, which made us feel a lot better about the decision. We are getting married on a Friday, which saves a little on costs so I would recommend looking into that if you have any budget concerns. We narrowed down our top picks based on budget and online reviews/customer service. Rosy's was the only place we ended up needing to go check out in person, but almost booked before we even saw it since fall dates were booking up fast. Good luck!!

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I love Brenna! She does a lot of the flowers for different events at the country club I work at part-time. She such a sweetheart & her arrangements are gorgeous! Good luck fellow October Bride!

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Yay!! Thank you!! She has been great to work with so far! Looking forward to October

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Hi Brandi! Thanks so much for your tips. We're getting married in NOLA in January 2020. Wondering if you might be able to share the list of Black vendors you mention, particularly DJs? Thank you!

Anyone getting married in NOLA the weekend of March 27 - 29?

Lauren

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Do you know of any venues that are nice but not all inclusive? I would prefer to provide my own alcohol and catering.

View Quoted Comment Gretna Cultural Center for the Arts is where we’re having our reception. The only things included are security (required) & the tables/chairs. They also base the price on the amount of hours you book. We spent just under $1500, and $250 of that is coming back to us when it’s all over.
There’s also Marigny Opera House (where Solange got married) & Felicity Church (it was an actual church pre-Katrina, but now is just a space). Last time I checked w/ those they allow you to bring in your own stuff, but that might have changed.
I didn’t run across a lot of places here that allow you to bring in your own food & bar, but if you look at more non-traditional places you might get lucky.

View Quoted Comment Seraphim House is beautiful & they just opened this year for weddings. So, it’s not “overused” and it’s different. They allow you to bring in all of your own vendors. We considered it, but we wanted to be in the French Quarter.