Wedding Wednesday - Do your research

When Gabe and I first decided to get married in New Orleans, there was one detail I demanded. We will be doing a second line parade after the ceremony, leading us and our wedding guests to the reception.

Second line is a tradition in New Orleans - a brass band parade; the "main line" or "first line" is the main section of the parade - in our case, the bride & groom in front followed by the band - and the "second line" is us everyone one else following and dancing behind. We will both have a feathered parasol and our guests will have handkerchiefs, dancing and twirling around. The parade typically is also the walk from the church to the wedding reception venue.



After doing a little research, I found the permit for the parade is $50.25 and the fee for a police escort is $100 per officer. I was initially working with a company, who shall remain nameless, to assist with parts of the wedding I didn't want to stress over. After having an initial conversation with this group, they mentioned that they would coordinate the second line for us. Sounds like a plan! Then I received a price quote: "The second line starts at $1800.00"

Wait just one second.....$1800 for a parade that is less than 30 minutes? That is more than the band we were looking at for the entire night. So I took it upon myself to find some brass bands who specialize in second lines, to receive multiple price quotes under $700 for the parade.

Basically the lesson I learned last week is to do your research. Five minutes of looking online saved us nearly $1,000. If I didn't know it was only $50 to get the permit, I would have probably decided against the second line, one of the key components of our wedding.

Here are some photos of a second line parade I found on pinterest! How much fun is this going to be!!