This post is long overdue but I’ve been really burnt out this year between wedding planning (and postponing), buying a house, dealing with my dog’s cancer diagnosis and working full time. Today, for the first time in a very long time, I had the urge to blog so here we go!
On July 24, 2021, Javi and I got legally married in New Orleans in the presence of our closest family and friends. It was the most perfect summer day.
2 weddings? What?!
Where I’m from (Guatemala), everyone gets two wedding celebrations: the civil wedding and the religious wedding.
At civil weddings, a lawyer who is a family friend is who usually officiates. Thankfully in the States you don’t need a law degree to perform one and my brother was able to officiate our civil wedding.
Getting him ordained was super easy by the way! Although requirements vary by state, generally you can simply,
- Get ordained with the Universal Life Church
- Then you’ll register with the state where the ceremony is taking place
- The couple will then get their marriage license
- You perform the ceremony + sign
- Mail back the marriage license and voila…you’re legally married
Planning two weddings that involve travel is not for the faint of heart. I planned the whole New Orleans wedding without a planner but had some help from the most amazing people (more on that below).
New Orleans Civil Wedding
I’ve always wanted to get married in Antigua Guatemala, but having met in New Orleans, we wanted to include NOLA in our plans as well. At the time, I was doing freelance social media for Auction House Market and knew that this was the perfect place to have our civil wedding.
Below is a list of vendors who helped make this event so special,
Commander’s Palace: Our families flew in on a Friday morning and we had to kick off the celebration with a Friday Lunch at Commander’s Garden Room, of course!
Hotel Fontenot: This is THE hotel to stay in New Orleans right now. It’s perfectly located in the Warehouse District, just steps away from the French Quarter, walking distance to the venue and a short Uber ride to the Garden District. Ubers in New Orleans are very expensive right now, so if you’re planning an event in NOLA make sure you and your guests don’t have to Uber a lot or too far.
Tujague’s: We had a pre wedding brunch with both of our families and their semi-private room by the balcony was the best place to have a small brunch party. The food was amazing (and not too pricey) and we were able to get some great photos while brunching.
Paris Parker: If you need to get glammed up in NOLA, there’s no other place I would go to than Paris Parker. The Carondelet team was so great and they perfectly understood my vision of a boho chic look.
Auction House Market: The Green Room is a fabulous venue to have a small event with great food and cocktails. Their team has changed quite a bit since my event, but I have to thank Amy Chan and Kasey Weisnicht for being so amazing and bringing our event to life.
Rouses Markets: I tried hiring all the “it” bakers for a cake for the occasion, unfortunately, all of them were on break in the summer. Then I remembered, Rouses Markets has my favorite cake in the whole world and I didn’t need to look elsewhere: The Gentilly Cake. Additionally, I ordered some custom petit fours, macarons, turtles, cookies and brownies.
Decor: Flowers are expensive y’all, and I didn’t want to spend our budget in flowers that would be discarded after the event. I’m so glad I wound Wedding Flowers For Rent – not only did they looked real but they were so much cheaper, and so easy to set up. I also went to Etsy for the table runners and Amazon for the votive candles.
All For One Brass Band: You can’t have a NOLA wedding and not get a brass band. My budget wasn’t huge for this wedding (going all out for the Guatemala wedding), thankfully I found this band on Gig Salad and they were amazing and affordable. The wedding would have not been this fun without them.
Kat Kimball Photo: Kat has taken photos for us for the blog and she’s so fun to work with, she’s so creative and delivers photos soooo fast y’all!
Our Outfits
- My Dress: My dress was only $78! Shop for it here.
- My Shoes: Although I would love some Loeffler Randall shoes, they’re just a bit too expensive. These were the perfect dupes, only $38!
- Earrings: My earrings are from Jimbo Jewelry, an Austin-based brand. They appear to be sold out but shop for similar pieces here.
- Javi’s Linen Suit: His exact suit is sold out but linking to a similar one (currently on sale) here: shop the jacket + shop the pants.
- Javi’s Shoes: They’re on sale for $54 right now! Shop for them here.
You’ll have to wait one more year for the religious destination wedding details but can’t wait to share more wedding content with y’all! Next up: A Playa del Carmen Bachelorette.
xo,
Alessandra
