New Orleans

The French Quarter of New Orleans is world renown for its parties and jazz, fun and gourmet food. If you see your reception as a sensational party, then a destination wedding to an elegant hotel on Bourbon Street may be the answer to your dreams. When the doors close on the nightly party revelers outside, quiet and elegance reign inside amidst private courtyards filled with rare tropical plants, swimming pools, flowing fountains, crystal chandeliers, antique furniture, marble flours, trompe l’eoil wall and ceiling treatments and 15 feet high ceilings.

"No one expects to come to a wedding reception in New Orleans and eat a full dinner," Jeannine Landry, Director of Public Relations at the Royal Sonesta Hotel explained. The New Orleans style reception begins in the early evening and features an open bar, dance music and "heavy hors d’oeuvres" served at food stations or passed by wait staff. Hors d’oeuvres may be Creole style featuring lots of seafood such as raw oysters, fried catfish strips, boiled shrimp, gumbo and jambalaya or they may include pasta and carving stations. Everywhere, food from all cuisines is excellently prepared and served.

New Orleans and southern traditions add special elements to the wedding. While northerners associate "second lining" with jazz funerals, it is also a popular wedding tradition. A jazz trio lead the processional dance followed by the bride and groom carrying parasols. Guests wave souvenir cloth napkins printed with the couple’s names and the wedding date and place. The procession may lead from the church to the reception or just around the reception site.

Two cakes sit on the reception table representing the bride and groom. While the bride’s cake is traditional in design, the groom’s cake is completely whimsical. The cake pull is a tradition throughout the south as important as cutting the cake. Small silver charms are attached to the outside edge of the bride’s cake with frosting. Each charm is attached to a ribbon. The bridesmaids or unmarried women each take one ribbon and pull on signal. The charms signify who will marry (ring), have the next baby (baby carriage), be the old maid (button or thimble), fall in love (heart), travel (plane), have money (penny), have hope (fleur de lei) or just have good luck (four leaf clover).

The Royal Sonesta Hotel, a modern luxury hotel designed in the French chateau style, offers a great variety of interior sites for the wedding ceremony or reception. Its tropical courtyard with central flowing fountain is large enough to accommodate 50 to 75 guests. Lit with hurricane lamps, it provides a lush aisle for the wedding party. The ceremony is usually alongside the fountain or against a tropical paradise of rare plants. The Bienville suite lies directly off the courtyard and provides an indoor/outdoor location for food and beverage serving. March, April, October and November are the months most highly recommended for outdoor courtyard weddings. The grand ballroom may be used in sections if desired.

The Bourbon Orleans hotel in the shadow of St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square is a slice of American history predating the Civil War. Its beautiful 1817 ballroom reached by a double winding grand staircase features crown moldings, and marbleized wood and has been characterized as the most beautiful of its era. It was the site of the quadroon balls and Andrew Jackson’s declaration of his candidacy for president.

As the home of the First Order of Negro Catholic Nuns, it became for a time a convent, orphanage and school. The nuns nursed wounded soldiers of the Civil War. The Discovery Channel featured the hotel as haunted by the ghost of at least one of those soldiers. Brides choose between the pool courtyard and the grand ballroom as sites for their wedding reception and rehearsal dinner.

Other sites for weddings or rehearsal dinners include antebellum mansions such as Oak Alley, St. Elizabeth Orphanage, one of Anne Rice’s many homes and a Mississippi steamboat. "Brunch was invented in New Orleans," Landry noted. World famous restaurants in the French Quarter such as Brennans and Antoines also feature Sunday brunch. The columns at the Museum of Art and the Pavillion of the Two Sisters in City Park are frequently used as a photographic background.

Both the Royal Sonesta and the Bourbon Orleans have staff experienced in working with brides at a distance and arranging all the details for a destination wedding. The Royal Sonesta can also arrange a separate party for young children as well as babysitting services. New Orleans offers entertainment for adults and children, including plantation tours, the wax museum, a planetarium, antique shops and art galleries.

While northerners see Mardi Gras as the day before Lent, it actually begins on twelfth night, in early January. The masked parades and balls of Mardi Gras give way to more traditional parades, the largest of which is the Easter parade. Festival season then begins including the world renown Jazz Festival, the French Quarter festival, All Saints Day and the fourth of July essence festival featuring black history and culture.