Reception walk-thru and new stuff to stress over #WeddingWednesday

THREE MONTHS. We only have three months left before the wedding. I get reminders from The Knot telling me what is left - luckily, there are only a few minor details left. Right now, I am thankful for my type-A personality when it comes to event planning.

Our remaining to-do's through the end of July:
Dance Lessons (my worst nightmare!!)
Purchase wedding bands
Arrange transportation for the wedding party
Decide if we will have a videographer

While we were in New Orleans last weekend, we had the opportunity to sit down with our event manager at Hotel Mazarin. There was a wedding taking place inside of La Louisiane that evening so we got a first hand look at what the set up will actually look like. Upon walking into the front doors, the first room will have our buffet stations lined up featuring gumbo, baked oysters, shrimp and grits, chicken cordon bleu, slow roasted top round of beef and a bananas foster station.

The cake will also be displayed in this area along with a giant Canvas from one of our engagement photos. I was excited to see an actual Haydels Bakery cake in person vs. the demo's we saw at the store.

This room also has the bar and cocktail tables. To be honest, not having everything in one giant room had me stressed out but seeing it in person helped my nerves. The giant French doors behind Gabe is where the main dining area and dancing will take place.

One thing about weddings in New Orleans is they utilize cocktail tables for seating with a smaller  amount of large tables mixed in. We do not want that. So the setup will be similar to what you see below but with more 8 tops. The table in the middle is where this couple chose to have their DJ, but that will be our Sweetheart table (using one of the cocktail tables in the above photo).

This is another view of the room. Where the open brick wall and false door meet is usually where the cake table goes but we opted to keep it in the other room so we could fit everyone in one room and have more room to dance. I must say how much we LOVE the brick walls and decor of Hotel Mazarin.

Now that the stress level has diminished some regarding the reception, a new wave of stress has come into play. We are getting married in Jackson Square. To get a permit from the state, you pay $500. Then you pay for chair rentals (about $250). Our preacher was around $300. When it is all said and done with, it was over $1,000 to have our ceremony here. On the contract, it states that we cannot close down the park since it is state property. No biggie right?

Wrong. We also saw a beautiful wedding taking place inside of Jackson Square while in town. Everything was how I imagined it. HOWEVER.....there were 100 people standing outside the gates watching everything go down. We were one of those people until the bride walked down the aisle, then we moved on. There were also about 20 people who actually walked inside of the gate, standing directly behind the wedding party. That is not OK. The photo below is from another couple who were married in Jackson Square. Looking at their wedding photos, they also had a ton of people looking outside the gates. When we picked this location, we knew there would be onlookers due to it being a public place. I never thought people would think it's alright to stand on top of a wedding, watching people they don't know get married.

I now have 3 months to become OK with the idea that everything may not go as perfectly planned it. We were going to have our Second Line band do our ceremony music down the aisle. After seeing the wedding last weekend, we need to hire audio for the ceremony since it is so loud in this area.