Caroline wore the same dress her late mother was married in over 40 years ago, and she had her and her mother’s initials and wedding dates monogrammed to the inside of the dress.

The ceremony took place at beautiful St. John the Baptist Church in New Orleans, one of my favorite churches to shoot at!

The reception took place at The Foundry in the warehouse district, a fabulous venue.  Harvey Jesus & Fire entertained, and performed a huge variety of music!

Cutting the cake…

Cutting the cupcake!

When I photographed Caroline’s sister Ashley’s wedding two years ago, the family put together a cowboy skit (complete with costumes and props) to welcome Ashley’s husband Zach to the family.  The family carried on that tradition for Caroline’s wedding, this time donning hazmat suits and posing as a BP oil spill cleanup crew.  Caroline & Keith were suited up as well, and were presented with a few essential items… a bottle of Dawn detergent for cleaning up, and an official BP claims form.  The oil spill is an absolutely awful situation for everyone down here, but we can still maintain good spirits in the face of such adversity!

Afterward, we hopped on buses for a quick ride to The Foundry for the reception.  Cool Bones started things off with some jazz, and then Rockin’ Dopsie Jr. and his incredible band took the stage and kept everyone dancing the whole night, including a hilarious extended musical introduction of the bride and groom and the bridesmaids.  The beautiful (and delicious) cake was crafted by Royal Cakery.

Near the end of the night, Cool Bones prepared to wrap it up with a Second Line around the block, but before doing so a few of the members joined Rockin’ Dopsie’s band for a wonderful impromptu jam session.  We’ve got the most talented musicians in the world down here!

The Foundry was beautifully decorated by Glenda Ivy, and the event was expertly designed and coordinated by Unique Weddings in New Orleans.

Melissa & Matt’s wedding had quite a few unconventional aspects.  An abundance of desserts were available… chocolate covered strawberries, king cake, and a huge candy buffet… even snowcones!  Several baskets of designer flip-flops offered guests the option of trading in their uncomfortable high-heels for dancing.  And, the couple had a ping-pong table brought in for the reception (because they had played ping-pong on their first date).

They also went with a different selection of music than most weddings.  Groovy 7 provided the entertainment, starting out with some light jazz and then some modern and classic dance songs as well as some New Orleans favorites, before (at the bride’s request) really cutting loose later in the night with a great assortment of 80′s rock songs (I’ve never heard a band play Guns and Roses, Whitesnake, Journey, and AC/DC at a wedding!).  Impressively, the band sounded right at home with all of these genres, and did a great job.

At the end of the night, the guests gave the couple a fabulous sparkler exit!  These can be quite difficult to coordinate, but the Unique Weddings team nailed it.