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I had a wonderful time with this couple for their engagement portrait earlier this year, and knowing their wedding would be truly an extravagant blowout of an event, had really been looking forward to it! Karl is from Canada, while Michelle’s family lives here in New Orleans, and the couple resides in New York now. The parents of the bride have a great office building that made for a perfect spot for the girls to get ready (with Heather and her Flawless Bride team), and it also had a nice courtyard area that was ideal for the couple’s first look (but not before the bride and her father did one last rehearsal of their dance). After the first look, we headed to Audubon Park to do the formal group photographs, where a bit of a wrench was thrown into our plans when we arrived to find a charity event going on in the spot where we had intended to shoot. However, we were able to improvise and find another area nearby in the park to do these pictures, and the charity event provided the beneficial side-effect of providing a source for ample refreshments for the bridal party.

We then headed to the French Quarter, where the wedding ceremony was to take place in the lovely courtyard of Brennan’s Restaurant. NOLA Flora provided the beautiful flowers, New Orleans Candlelight Weddings did the gorgeous candles and other decor, and Bridefilm was on hand to video the event. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the wedding coordinator staff of Unique Weddings in New Orleans expertly organized what was undoubtedly the longest sparkler send-off line I’ve ever seen, stretching from Brennan’s all the way down the sidewalk to the entrance of Latrobe’s, where the reception was to take place.  There, the band Mojeaux provided the entertainment and were amazing as usual. Royal Cakery created the delicious wedding cake as well as the groom’s cake, which was a perfectly rendered wooden wine barrel (Karl is in the wine business).

After the bride and groom’s first dance and the groom and his mother, the bride and her father had their dance, which innocently started out with How Sweet It Is for a minute or two, before the band suddenly broke into Love Shack as, to the delight of the crowd, the two donned sunglasses and changed up their dance accordingly.

At the end of the night, the celebration was capped off by the fabulous Kinfolk Brass Band showing up to lead everyone on a festive Second Line parade through the French Quarter to Napoleon House, where the party was to continue.