I’ve been dying to visit New Orleans + this wedding has me wanting to visit even more! I just love all the green bridesmaids dresses and the attention the couple put into their day. I’ll let Maria share more about their day…
When we are together, life is good, really good, so when we started planning our wedding we wanted it to reflect this goodness. We are a pretty down-to-earth, good ole’ southern couple and we’re always up for ANYTHING (when you are best friends for almost 4 years and then realize you’ve been in love the whole time, you sort of have to be up for anything). So we started there.
Every aspect of our wedding was planned from the heart. We wanted our friends & family to experience the best of New Orleans; everything from the food to the music to the pralines & sweet—tea mojitos had a N’awlin’s flair. We threw in some New Mexico (the brides home state) and Notre Dame (where we met) flavor as well. I (the bride) have a design business in New Orleans, Tupelo Honey Design, so all of the paper products and details were very important to me. I designed everything to be very meaningful, so that our guests felt special and we were able to show our appreciation to them.
I wanted to make life as easy as possible for my bridemaids, so I put together dress/shoe sample cards, inspired by Martha Stewart, and let them each choose a dress they felt comfortable & beautiful in! I also included a paint swatch card and reply envelope so they could send me a swatch of their dress color, which we used to find matching ties for the groomsmen.
Since 1840, Antoine’s Restaurant has been home to excellent French-Creole cuisine, service & atmosphere to create an unparalleled dining experience; we chose Antoine’s because we wanted our guests to get a fabulous New Orleans meal…the New Orleans way. We couldn’t have picked a more suitable establishment! Home to the famous Mardi Gras Krewe parties, memorabilia from its many notable guests line the walls to exhibit its living history; a perfect way to introduce our guests to some N’awlins fame.
Another fun detail were the question journals on each table, inspired by Martha Stewart Weddings. Inside the brown paper bag dinner menus, along with New Orleans Pralines, we included pencils for people to write in the journals. We really didn’t expect for people to go so crazy over them; by the end of dinner, guests were passing them from table to table, trying to write in as many journals as possible. We got fabulous answers & advice, to say the least!
We wanted to incorporate the New Orleans tradition of a Second Line into our wedding. The 2nd line tradition is based on New Orleans Jazz Funerals. A jazz band plays & parades during a funeral procession to honor the life of a deceased person, which is considered the 1st line. The 2nd line is a group of people following the band, dancing or walking, holding an umbrella or handkerchief to add |to the spirit of the procession. 2nd lines are also used in all types of celebrations, including weddings. For ‘our flair’ we searched high and low for vintage hankies and hand picked one for each of our guests.
It was the perfect day down to the last detail (though I do believe there is perfection in imperfection); things were just as they were meant to be.
Our vendors were amazing and made our wedding day exceptional.
Ceremony: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church Uptown
Reception: Antoine’s Restaurant
Photography: Austin Gros
Paper Products: Tupelo Honey Design
Styling: Maria Rolfsen & Mary Jourdan & MacKenzie Baldwin
Flowers: Rhonda Cooper with Whole Foods
Dress: Romona Keveza at Wedding Belles
Shoes: J. Crew & brooches from Fabulous Brooch
Suits: Tommy Hilfiger at Men’s Warehouse
Cupcakes: Janell Gaudin at Treats & Prizes (treatsandprizes[at]gmail[dot]com)
This wedding is awesome! SO attention to detail, wonderful colors, great photos! They look so happy!!
Dude..her dress and their invitations?! Beautiful. I love all the little details of this wedding..
What beautiful pictures! I love the mismatched green bridesmaids dresses.
Beautiful wedding. Love all the details that capture the couples personality..especially love the pics with the red balloon..congrats!
Such a gorgeous wedding! I love the French Quarter shots — especially the red balloon and band ones. All the handmade touches really personalize the day… and make for beautiful photographs!
Are you kidding me? What an incredible “N’awlins” wedding. I adore the use of sample cards for the bridesmaids. Then, using a paint swatch to coordinate the groomsmen’s ties. Ahhhmazing idea!
Love, love, love this wedding! Every detail was so thoughtful and beautiful. Incredible photography as well..
Maria!
I have been trying to figure out how to pull off the un-matched (yet still go together) bridesmaid style. All of my friends live across the globe, so your Martha inspired idea and inspired me! Thank you so much!
I love the varying shades of green for the bridesmaid’s dresses and the groomsmen’s ties! The bride looks lovely!
Love, love, love these! Green is one of our colors, but we’ve been having trouble finding ties in shades of green we like – any chance we could find out where she scored the ties for the groomsmen?
So many amazing details! Love the green and purple palette and the old jazzy N’awlins feel
love the short wedding gown!
This is one of the most beautiful weddings i’ve seen on here. I love all the fun Martha Stewart-inspired projects, the beautiful picture with the red balloons, and the gorgeous N’awlins flair. Congratulations!
That bridesmaid dress/shoe card idea is perfect. i think I might use it myself!! Beautiful wedding!
It is so refreshing to see a bride being this considerate of her bridesmaids! The dress/shoe sample cards and the paint swatch cards…brilliantly thoughtful! Your letting them “each choose a dress they felt comfortable & beautiful i” just warms my heart. A very admirable bride indeed. (And it all came together beautifully, btw.)
Do you have a template and/or website for the bridesmaid dress/shoe color cards? They are too cute:)
Wow. This is brilliant. I loved visiting New Orleans and this wedding brings back happy memories. Such gorgeous details and I love the question journals! This might be my new favorite wedding…
Beautiful wedding. Austin is such a rad photographer, worked with him before and he is a-mazing!!
I am in LOVE with all these creative details!!
Fantastic photos! Your style is so fresh in comparison to most other wedding photographers. I will be sure to bookmark your blog.
Everyone looked great, but I particularly loved the green bridesmaids’ dresses!
I’m a huge fan of the green bridesmaid dresses, they look so great and fresh together.
Love the idea of wedding question journals. Please tell me where I can get some for my wedding in April. Thank you!
This entire wedding is so perfect, but I absolutely love your whimsical invitation suite! You’re “get booked here” and “bee in the know” pieces are so adorable and perfectly mis-matched! I am just dying to know, what are the other components of your welcome packet?
Love the bridesmaids dresses!
OK WOW…she is so beautiful and I just want her dress!! Just to have fun in it and twirl in it! What a beautiful dress. Love her hair, the style of the wedding, the colors, the bridesmaids, love this! :)
This is so random! I follow this blog because of all the unique ideas….anyhow, I went to high school with Maria!
Wow. How amazing was that cerimony!!!
I loved to “fell” the mood of people: sweet, happy and lovely!!
The bride and gromm was awesomeeeee!!!
Congrats dear..may God bless your marriage!!!
This is amazing! Makes me long for the South. Love that pic that shows the architectural details of New Orleans.
this wedding is absolutely amazing. i LOVE her dress and their colors and the flowers, and the RECEPTION VENUE is to DIE for!
So sweet to see this! My daughter steers me to this site for unusual ideas. I met Maria at her darling store this summer when I was in town from Toronto to visit family in July. We spoke of her upcoming wedding so it’s delightful to see photographs of the big day. This young woman has loads of talent, ya’ll! I wish her the best of luck–in marriage and business!
What a great wedding! Love the photographs!
I love your wedding so much. My bridesmaids will be in mismatched green and I have been trying to decide on suit color. (gray or tan) I love the color you choose! Did you buy the suits or rent? I love all of your details like wedding questions on tables. How did you order those little books?
That is a lovely weeding indeed. I love scenes and the settings. The foods in New Orleans really stand out from their cuisine up to their delectable desserts.
ok….I’m a little late to the party, but I just featured this as our FB wedding of the day.
Beautiful bride, dress, day and scenery!
Incredible photography!
Thanks for sharing!
These photos are stunning, very nice collection, thanks.
WOW!Beautiful bride!Nice collection.I LOVE these photographs.
Amazing wedding indeed. Both couple are looking gorgeous…