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intimate wedding new orleans

The Advantages of Having an Intimate Wedding

The perfect setting, a warm cozy atmosphere, and the most important people in your life gathered together to celebrate your wedding without any hassles or problems. Sound like a dream scenario? Rather than stick with a large traditional-style wedding, more and more couples are opting to scale down in favor of intimate weddings that feature smaller venues, fewer guests, and best of all, more focus on the bride and groom and less on the pageantry. What exactly is an Intimate Wedding? They go by many names; including small wedding, micro wedding and private elopements, but regardless of the name in question, they all share some commonalities that make them extremely desirable for couples seeking an alternative to the stress and complexity that typically comes with many classic kinds of wedding ceremonies. An intimate wedding ceremony is often a more personal celebration, featuring only a handful of important guests and less focus on decorations and a hundred other distractions. With much less to plan and worry about, these wedding ceremonies seem casual, lighthearted, and fun compared to the potential stuffiness and formal nature of traditional ceremonies. What’s also important to note is that the smaller wedding size allows for more flexibility with venue and overall location. Many couples choose to have a destination elopement in a somewhat exotic location for this very reason. It would be a pain to have to coordinate a full-scale wedding on the other side of the country, but if you’re only talking about a dozen guests and a few simple services, it’s a brand new scenario. Couples love the idea of intimate style ceremonies because rather than get caught up in all of the planning and family politics that can accompany a traditional wedding, these ceremonies flip the script and put the focus back on the couple. These ceremonies often come across as lively, intimate, and romantic because there’s more room for the couples to be themselves and less pressure put on them by family and the gravity of the ceremony. What are the advantages to a Smaller Ceremony? If you are deliberating as to what kind of ceremony to have, and you aren’t looking forward to trying to cater to dozens of people on your special day, an intimate wedding might be just what you want. However, this isn’t the only reason why these smaller ceremonies are becoming so popular. Consider the following points: Much more affordable. The scaled-down size means far fewer costs all around the board. Less on catering, less on decorations, smaller venue. Most of the time, these kinds of ceremonies are only a fraction of the cost of a traditional wedding, which is great for couples who want to start off their marriage with a smart investment, such as a down payment on a new house, or paying off student loans. These days, being frivolous with money for any reason isn’t exactly a smart idea, so this kind of ceremony makes sense. More freedom to make your ceremony unique. Due to the smaller guest list and less pressure to conform to the expectations of a traditional wedding, you can truly own your wedding ceremony by holding it wherever and however you want and then concentrating on your new life with your spouse. In New Orleans for instance, it’s popular to have wedding ceremonies in the beautiful gardens, parks, and aesthetic alleyways that the city features. From luxurious hotel balconies to picturesque park settings, you can easily plan for a ceremony in these kinds of spots because you don’t have to worry about cramming 60 people there. Focus on each other before the “honeymoon.” Rather than make your wedding this formal event that feels stressful and stuffy, you can hold a small, lighthearted ceremony and begin having fun right away. You don’t necessarily have to fly away to a honeymoon location if you hold your wedding in the same location that you want to “escape” to. That’s the great part about destination elopements that more couples are discovering. Why wait for the romance and fun to begin when you can incorporate your wedding and elopement into the same place? Much less stressful in general. It’s a fact that large weddings can be extremely taxing to plan and carry out. There are counseling services that specifically cater to couples about to get married. Between conflicting family personalities, the staggering cost, and trying to arrange a dozen different services so that they all come through for you on that one special day all at the right time, without any hiccups, is certainly cause for some stress. Rather than bother with this kind of aggravation, more couples are beginning to see the value in a smaller, scaled down event that removes a lot of the hassle. With far fewer people to worry about, less services to arrange, and fewer things to think about in general, intimate weddings become fun instead of frustrating. As you can see, there’s many reasons why you would want to have an intimate style ceremony. Whether you are trying to save a little money or if you would simply prefer to only invite your closest friends and family to your wedding, this is the best way of going about doing it. Are there any drawbacks to a Smaller Wedding? You could say that there are potential drawbacks depending on your preferences and the limitation of your venue. For instance, maybe you always had your heart set on a beautiful wedding in New Orleans, but you realize it wouldn’t be practical to invite your entire extended family due to the logistics involved, and because you want to get married in a small, cozy courtyard or alley. For the most part though, there aren’t any real drawbacks to having a small or intimate wedding. Part of the reason for this is because they are so customizable. Since you have so much more freedom to do what you want with the ceremony, there isn’t much room for disappointment. Plus, whatever events or festivities you can’t cram into

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What to do on elopement day

What do Couples Actually do on Their Elopement Day?

One of the best parts of an elopement is the sense of truly being able to own your ceremony and make it yours. This can leave couples asking however, what in the world do you actually do on your elopement day? Bucking the traditional wedding format means you can pretty much do whatever you want, but this is where confusion can set in. When do you have the ceremony? Can we squeeze in a romantic photo shoot in the park beforehand? Do we have to have a reception at a hall on the same day? What about entertaining our guests? The freedom that elopement offers can seem daunting when it actually comes time to plan everything, but that’s why I put together this handy guide. An elopement doesn’t have to follow the typical structure of a classic wedding. In fact, part of the appeal is in mixing it up and adding activities and events that you wouldn’t normally be able to cram into a traditional wedding day, such as viewing a parade, a night on the town, or a whimsical garden photo shoot. The possibilities are truly limitless and that’s why it’s important to plan your elopement day well beforehand to get the most out of it. Sure, the idea of spontaneity is probably one of the things that attracted you to the idea of getting eloped in the first place, but too much of it will just lead to a mass of confusion and headaches you don’t want. Maximize the excitement, fun, and carefree feel of your elopement by structuring your day with some of these popular ideas. Private Photo Session Pre-Ceremony Isn’t it bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the actual ceremony? Not when you’re eloping! In fact, a rising trend that couples love involves having your own private scheduled photo shoot before the ceremony even begins. Not unlike an engagement shoot or something similar, couples work with their elopement planner or photographer to pick a romantic location such as a garden, public park, or hotel balcony just to have some personal time together before everything gets rolling. Couples claim that pre-ceremony photoshoots (also known as “first looks”) ease tension and can be extremely romantic. Even during an elopement, things can get busy, leaving little to no private time for the couple. Sometimes a little quiet intimacy goes a long way. You can even incorporate the photo shoot location into the ceremony itself if you want. Just make sure to work it out with your elopement planner. Museums and Tours Why not see the sights while you’re getting married? It’s popular to get eloped in cities that are rich in history and culture. Sure, you could wait a couple days to take advantage of these attractions, but nothing’s stopping you from incorporating them right into your special day. If your ceremony is scheduled for the morning, why not spend the afternoon touring a famous museum or spending it exploring the historic streets of places like the French Quarter? These are the kinds of perks couples love about eloping that you simply can’t get with a traditional wedding. If you really want to go all out, you could schedule a tour or witness a parade before your actual ceremony. Embrace everything your location of choice has to offer! Add in Some Adventure Nothing says you can’t add some real spice to the day of your elopement ceremony. Just remember to dress for the occasion and plan accordingly. Want to say your vows on a carriage ride or hop on a steam boat? Or maybe you want to visit an historic cemetery or have a picnic in the park? The choice is yours! An elopement doesn’t have to mimic a traditional wedding at all, if that’s not your thing. How about a Spa Treatment? You’re saving time by not having to deal with a drawn out wedding ceremony, and you’re also saving a ton of money by getting eloped in the first place. Don’t be afraid to treat yourself! Take a slice out of the day to splurge on your hair and nails at the finest place in town. Coordinate with your elopement planner and dedicate a solid block of time for a good pampering. Not only will you look and feel great before the ceremony, this can also act as a stress-reliever. Because you’re not going to be bogged down trying to corral 100 people at a wedding reception, eloping leaves more time open for you to unwind and enjoy life! Romantic Dinner for Two! Yes, you can cap off the night with a classic candlelit dinner. In New Orleans, great food comes with the territory. There are no shortages of five star restaurants and romantic locations to choose from. Because you’re not flying out to your honeymoon destination right after you get married (since you’re already there!), the night of your ceremony is open for you to do what you want with. This means less headaches and more romance. After the ceremony is over, feel free to trot back to your hotel (or ride there in style with a rented limo or horse drawn carriage), get changed into something more comfy, and live it up with a night on the town. What about the Actual Ceremony? This is all up to you as well! Exchange your vows and rings, play some music of your choosing, share a kiss, or mix it up. The beauty of an elopement is that there is no one right way to do anything. Include religious content or don’t. Include traditions like throwing the bouquet or don’t. Or go all out with a unique theme and invent traditions of your own. What’s important is that your elopement speaks to you and that you fill the day with purposeful and meaningful activities. Don’t include anything just because it’s tradition or you think you’re expected to. Own your elopement! Grab our 5 secrets to a successful (and stress-free) elopement and receive a FREE checklist!

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How to Get Married at Audubon Park in New Orleans Louisiana

How to Get Married at Audubon Park in New Orleans Louisiana

How to Get Married at Audubon Park in New Orleans? This gorgeous world-renown park in the heart of New Orleans has in recent years been attracting more and more couples looking for the perfect elopement spot. It’s no wonder: Audubon Park as an elopement venue has it all. Amazing scenery, picturesque photography opportunities at every turn, picnic areas, riding stables, a lagoon, a planetarium, a zoo, and more. There is a ton of history, culture, and fun packed into its modest 350 acres. What couples love about Audubon Park is its rustic southern charm. Nothing flashy or out of place, just the perfect backdrop of ancient oak trees, luscious gardens, and still lakes to frame your special day. Add this to the fact that the park is located in the middle of one of the finest elopement-friendly cities in the entire country, and you have yourself a premiere elopement destination for any size or type of ceremony. How To Get Married At Audubon Park In The Heart Of New Orleans For couples looking forward to stunning photographs of their elopement, Audubon Park never disappoints in this area. There’s something about the park that brings fantasy to life. Its quaint gardens, stone footbridges, and massive trees are truly a sight to behold, and make photographing elopements there a delight! Ceremony Location Options So the first step to getting eloped at Audubon Park is deciding where in the park you want your ceremony. Keep in mind that depending on where in the park you choose, you may have to get permission and pay a permit fee from the Audubon Institute. In terms of elopement or wedding fees, they are typically very small, but it is something you want to be aware of beforehand. Tree of Life The famous, massive, gnarly oak of New Orleans is right here in Audubon Park. This majestic treasure of the city has become one of the most famous local backdrops for eloping couples. There’s nowhere else quite like it, if you’re looking for a that natural rustic vibe to your ceremony. Audubon Park Fountain at St. Charles The entrance pavilion to the park sports one of its most iconic attractions, the Fountain at St. Charles. Also known as the Gumbel Memorial Fountain, this gorgeous fountain sits amid a cultivated garden and makes a perfect location for an elopement ceremony. The Labyrinth Another amazing natural location to host an elopement, the Labyrinth is a series of stone walkways that are actually mandalas meant to help facilitate you on a meditative journey. They are also commonly used as simply a beautiful setting for ceremonies and gatherings. There are other areas in the Park that make great ceremony locations, but these three are probably the most obvious and natural. The best part about getting eloped in Audubon Park is that before or after the actual ceremony, you have the rest of the park to explore and experience. Who Will Marry Us? Audubon Park is after all a public park open to anyone, so you will need to bring your own officiant to conduct the ceremony. We can help you secure a knowledgeable and personable officiant who is licensed in Orleans Parish, and this is a service we offer in our elopement packages. What Times Are Available For A Ceremony? Audubon Park is open basically all day every day, making it an east choice for couples looking for flexible options. Their official open hours are from 5am to 10pm all week long. If you want our advice for an optimal time to hold an elopement ceremony for your photos to come out their best, you should think about holding your ceremony just after sunrise, or around 2 hours before sunset. This way the lighting will be just right. Do I Need Anything To Elope At Audubon Park – New Orleans? You will most likely need a permit. Just contact the city at 504-212-5420 or by email: bcs@auduboninstitute.org (best method for contact). Getting a permit for park events is far easier than booking a hotel or some other indoor venue, so don’t worry about it. Just call and tell them your plans! How Much Does A Ceremony Cost? If it’s just you and your significant other, nothing at all. For a ceremony with any guests involved, a $150-$175 (fees may change, call the city to get an accurate quote)  permit will be required. One of the best parts about getting married in the Park as opposed to other venues and indoor locations, is that the costs are very minimal. Take this into consideration when you are planning your elopement! Is There A Limit To How Many Guests Can Witness? Generally speaking, as many as you want! The great thing about outdoor ceremonies is that you pretty much have a lot more room to work with. Just remember that the park doesn’t provide seating, so you will have to take this into account when planning. One of the appeals of getting eloped is that “less is more,” so you may want to think hard about inviting a hundred people just because you can! How Do We Get To New Orleans Audubon Park? Many out-of-town couples who plan on getting married at Audubon Park don’t realize that they need directions. Audubon Park spans a whopping 350 acres, but if you are unfamiliar with New Orleans, that doesn’t mean much! If you don’t know where you’re going in the park, you’ll be wandering for quite some time. The good news is that, with directions, the park isn’t at all difficult to find. Here are some general directions for anyone unfamiliar with the area. I hope that you found this guide to eloping in Audubon Park helpful! If you are getting married anywhere in the New Orleans area, I would be honored to photograph your wedding. Please don’t hesitate to email me at: info@elopetonola.com or schedule a call to learn more about my process and the packages available. Grab our 5 secrets to a successful (and stress-free) elopement and

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City Park Wedding

How to Get Married at City Park – New Orleans

How to Get Married at City Park? A scenic, storied locale that began as a mishmash of plantation grounds and even a dueling spot for noblemen, City Park has since been transformed into one of New Orleans’s most beloved public recreation and cultural centers. What makes City Park so extravagant is its lush natural beauty and historic attractions, including a full-fledged botanical garden, a sculpture garden, and the New Orleans Museum of Art, as well as any number of natural and manmade wonders, like the famous “Dueling Oak” tree and aesthetic stone footbridges. How To Get Married At New Orleans City Park Wedding This natural beauty and accessible location in the heart of New Orleans makes it an ideal hotspot for elopements and weddings. What could be more romantic? To that end, City Park is also an ideal destination for photographers. There are so many gorgeous and unique photo opportunities here that it’s no wonder so many couples decide to not only have their elopement photos taken in the Park, but choose to hold their entire ceremony here as well! Certainly, between the many expansive lakes, streams, variety of trees and bushes, winding paths and sprawling vistas, there are plenty of places within the park that are not only a dream for couples looking to elope, but a gift for photographers as well! Who will marry us? Since City Park is open to the public, you will need to bring your own officiant to perform the ceremony. We can help you secure an officiant to meet all of your needs, who is licensed in Orleans Parish. We also include officiants’ services with our elopement package. Where can I marry in City Park? City Park is open all year ‘round, each day starting 30 minutes before sunrise and closing 30 minutes after sunset, barring special events. This is perfect for most wedding and elopement needs, because we recommend holding your ceremony or photoshoots just after sunrise or within two hours of sunset, for the best possible lighting. Post covid-19, the park is issuing permits to marry at Butler Fountain with a permit fee of $250. What is required to marry in City Park? Besides an excellent wedding or elopement planner (which is one of our specialties!), all you’re really going to need is any required permit. Your planner will help you take care of this, or you can contact the Director of Special Events. What is the cost? Please call City Park Sales at (504) 488-2896 for information on any permits required. There are certain areas of the park that may be rented for larger private ceremonies and will allow you to bring chairs.  Any public areas of the park will not allow chairs to be setup. Alternatively, your wedding or elopement planner can handle much of these kinds of details so you don’t get bogged down. Often City Park will work alongside wedding planners to facilitate on-site catering and other services, but this will of course add to the cost. Your planner can put together a package for you that saves you the most money while giving you the ceremony of a lifetime. How many guests can we invite? Up to 20 guests. If larger than 20 guests, City Park will require one of their larger spaces to be rented, rates vary. There are many large open areas in City Park that are perfect for photography backdrops.  The oak trees, cobblestone bridges, fountain areas are all amazing locations for additional photography opportunities. How do we get to City Park, New Orleans?  It’s truly hard to miss City Park, it’s a massive attraction in the heart of New Orleans – even larger than Central Park! That being said, it might be hard to find for anyone who is not familiar with the city and needs just a bit of guidance getting there. Probably the easiest way to get there from the French Quarter, is to travel north from Louis Armstrong Park until you hit Esplanade Avenue, which is a main street running through the bulk of the city. If you turn left on Esplanade Avenue and head Northwest, you will wind up right in the middle of City Park. New Orleans is an extremely easy to travel city, so keep on the lookout for signage that will point you in the right direction. To Sum Up Hopefully you found this information on City Park useful for your upcoming elopement or wedding. Feel free to contact us anytime if you want to talk about a package deal just for you, so you can experience the magic of City Park for yourself! Grab our 5 secrets to a successful (and stress-free) elopement and receive a FREE checklist!

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elopement wedding

How to Pick Flowers for a New Orleans Elopement Wedding

The bouquet is certainly one of the most iconic parts of any elopement wedding or ceremony. It’s a tradition spanning hundreds of years and can make for some perfect and elegant photographic moments as well. When it comes to New Orleans elopements, seasonal flowers are typically what work best and that’s why Elope to Nola specializes in them. It’s important to know beforehand exactly what kind of bouquet you can expect in order to help you plan for the perfect elopement. Seasonal Flowers means better Quality! While the selection may be less broad, this will work in your favor to not have any additional stresses of flower details. With ElopeToNola bouquets, you simply need to select a color theme! The reason we have simplified the flower selection is that some flowers just don’t work because they have to shipped from far away, which is expensive and also tends to damage the flowers in the process. Other flowers wilt fast shortly after they are cut, like the magnolia, and are not ideal for most elopement bouquets. Some simply don’t do well outside in Louisiana’s humid climate, like the lily. Some couples may want certain flowers from a faraway state or even exotic ones like the Hawaiian plumeria, which are quite popular in wedding ceremonies in certain parts of the country. However, it would be extremely expensive and impractical to import such flowers to Louisiana. Remember that elopements rarely take place in the controlled confines of a church, where flowers can be preserved and tend to remain in air conditioned surroundings. Most New Orleans elopements take place in parks, outdoor courtyards or beautiful streets of the city itself; often in less than ideal conditions for certain flowers. Many of the classic pictures of bouquets you can find on Instagram and Pinterest were designed with either church halls or a lot of money in mind. That’s not practical for an elopement, which should be focused more on romance, affordability, and spontaneity. Here’s some of the best seasonal flowers you can expect from one of our elopement package bouquets that ensure top quality. Roses, Peruvian Lilly, Gerbera Daisy, Hydrangeas, Lisianthus and many fillers like baby’s breath are generally readily available.  Our florist on our team will generally ask for a color scheme and then will make recommendations on what will be available during your wedding month. Visit our Pinterest page and view all past bouquets created by our talented florist. You can always ask our florist if a specific flower you want may be available on hand, and she will do her best to make it happen if there is a supplier that can get them (premium flower upgrade fees may apply). Keep in mind if you asked florist for pink roses and that week of your wedding only ivory roses were available, she will incorporate pink color to your bouquet in some other way either by adding another pink flower or using pink ribbon tied around the stems. Because we focus on seasonal, fresh flowers, sometimes substitution is necessary! You can be sure that whatever our florist comes up with, it will be absolutely stunning, and perfectly fit the theme of your elopement. If you have any questions about what kind of bouquet you can expect, or help planning and putting everything together, get in touch with us. Sometimes it takes that expert touch to make everything fit, and creating gorgeous bouquets for our couples is one of our specialties! Grab our 5 secrets to a successful (and stress-free) elopement and receive a FREE checklist!

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