Friday, November 15, 2013

We've Been Blogged !

The title of the email was " Coming Soon" I opened it up and to my delight found the following message.....





I have been trying my best to be patient with our vendors (photographer and videographer) since the wedding, because I don't want to rush them. We want them to take their time and do a great job right ? LOL 

But I was super excited to see this little clip on their website. It's pretty short but we are happy with it & can't wait to see the final product.




They were literally the LAST vendor we hired- about 4 weeks before the wedding & it seems as though we picked a great company. Honestly, we were running out of money in the budget & I had to put my sad eyes on the hubs to express how important this would be in the future & I am soooo glad I did ! I am very impressed with the editing, especially the vintage black & white effect in the courtyard. I am so glad that my hubby was willing to stretch the budget in the final weeks &  after seeing this clip, he admitted to me that he was glad I put the squeeze on him too ! LOL


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Beautifully Complex





Thursday, November 14, 2013

Our Wedding Second Line !

One of the most exciting elements of our wedding was something that we had both been very much looking forward to..... a Second Line. This is a New Orleans Wedding Tradition & we always knew we would have one from the day we decided where we were going to get married.

My husband and I are music fanatics. He is a huge jazz fan, more-so than me, and has exposed me to so much music that is new to me since we have been together. The love of music is one of many things we have in common. I have been traveling to New Orleans, at least once a year for the last 15 years and since we have been together, we have been numerous times. We love the city, the culture, the food, the music, the people. We just can't get enough of it.

Our wedding was 100% destination. None of our wedding guests live in New Orleans & everyone had to travel there. Now we did have about 5 guests that are Louisiana natives, but the large majority of our 130 guests just weren't  aware of this tradition.  They came from all over.... Charleston, New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, Oklahoma & Texas. We decided months ago to keep it a surprise. What that meant was that we did not tell anyone other than the wedding party & they did not find out until the day before the wedding at the rehearsal. We didn't put anything about it on our wedding website & I knew that waiting until the day before the wedding was the best time to tell the bridal party was the right call. I did tell my sister about 2 months before, but only her & I swore her to secrecy. I still remember the look on their faces at rehearsal when our wedding planner explained it to them & what was going to happen. Everyone was so excited ! We told them that people in the Quarter would join in the parade, take pictures, etc, but honestly, they were not ready for response we got on wedding day LOL.

Our ceremony & reception were both in the heart of the  French Quarter just six blocks apart. After the ceremony the planner passed out flip flops for the ladies  and our monogrammed handkerchiefs to waive in the air. The hubby & I grabbed our umbrellas, white for me and black for him. When the Smitty Dee's Brass Band showed up it was on ! They started out with one of our favorite Second Line songs " Feel Like Funkin' it Up" . If you have ever watched the HBO show Treme, then you are probably familiar with the song. Here it is on You Tube...



When I tell you we had a ball, we did that !  I wish I could post the videos my cousin put on his facebook page to the blog, but because they are not public, FB won't let me embed the link here.  Me & my hubby were jamming in the French Quarter, ya heard ? LOL When we arrived at the reception venue, they closed it out with " Do What You Wanna" another favorite Second Line song of ours. It was perfection ! Our families and friends were sooooo hyped & excited, having a ball, while people on the street were taking their pictures, filming them & even joining in the parade & dancing in the street with us !  We had a police escort and the traffic was blocked off just for us. This is just what they do in New Orleans.

**** Small world story
About 5 days after the wedding my husbands dad gets a call from a friend who lives in Atlanta, who he doesn't talk to often(My husbands dad & aunts went to college there & have lifelong friends who live there). Someone had filmed footage from our Second Line Parade & was showing it to some friends, just to say, " Hey we were in New Orleans this weekend, look at this cool wedding parade we saw" type of thing.  The person that they were showing the video to (a friend of my husbands dad) recognized my husbands Aunt's who were dancing in the second line & called his dad to say, hey did someone in your family get married in New Orleans, I saw your sisters on a video & his dad said yes, my son just last weekend. LOL .....

Then a week after that one of my bridesmaids sends me this link that her husband found on You Tube, I have no idea HOW he found this but it is random footage filmed by an unknown person of OUR ACTUAL WEDDING SECOND LINE ! It seems as though they were filming it from their car.

The clip is very short, but if you look closely you can see me and my husband coming around the corner, jammin ! You can hear our guests screaming ! LOL  I love it. This just made me smile & relive the moment all over again.




I love NOLA !


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Beautifully Complex 

Monday, November 11, 2013

The Perfect Day !

They say when it rains on your wedding day, that it means good luck.....well, I don't know too much about luck but we were blessed to have the perfect wedding day. We were in New Orleans 5 days before the wedding & it did not pour down rain until the day of our wedding !  I woke up to the sound of rain, panicked for about 10 minutes, thinking of our outdoor ceremony in a French courtyard ARRRRGH ! Then I got down on my knees for some prayer time, took a deep breath, decided it was going to be a wonderful day  & suddenly had the peace that it would all be fine & it most certainly was.

I am still waiting on my professional photos to come back, but wanted to go ahead & share a few that I have now. I will try to blog about some of the pre-wedding festivities later this week, in the meantime. I don't want to bore you, but we are still super-excited about our big day so I will do my best to not drag these wedding posts out for too long, LOL

Here is a photo of me about 10 minutes before walking down the aisle. While the procession got started, they hid me out alone in an art gallery next door to our ceremony venue. It's called the Hemmerling Gallery of Southern Art & if you are ever in New Orleans please be sure to check it out.





Earlier in the week, I did a Bridal Shoot with a photographer that I met via Facebook. I actually entered & won a Valentine's Day Contest way back in February, that she had on her page to promote her business. She was super sweet and very talented with an artists eye. She was very generous with her time &  spent about and hour & half with me and my sister & even helped my sister figure out how to get me in my wedding dress, which was good practice for the big day.  Here are some of the photos she took....


I love the New Orleans Gas Lamps and the Ivy....





















This was taken in the kitchen under the spotlight.






We actually did the photo shoot at the house we rented for our wedding week in New Orleans. We initially had plans to go to City Park, but when the Photographer saw the back yard & the house, we decided to save some time & shoot right there. I had such a fun time. You only get to wear your dress for just a few hours on your wedding day, so it was fun to do a pre-wedding trial run. If you know someone looking for photography in New Orleans,  her website is Renaissance Photo NOLA.



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Beautifully Complex