Wedding Week

I'm going to take you back in time! To January, in fact!! I want to tell you the story of my wedding. Of course, like any good story, it has lots of parts, so I'm going to tell it in multiple parts. Starting with the wedding week!!

Adam and I flew out to New Orleans 8 days early. We wanted to be sure we had enough time to get everything done. Our research showed that New Orleans Parish has a 72 hour hold on marriage licenses, meaning you have to wait 3 days in-between when you apply and your wedding day. We were married on January 18th. That meant we had to apply by the 15th. But that was a Holiday and the 14th was a Sunday, so government buildings would be closed then as well.

We arrived late on January 10th, with plans to go first thing to the courthouse on January 11th (a Thursday) to get it out of the way so that we were good to go on the 18th after waiting our 72 hour window.

We woke up, got all dressed and called an Uber to the courthouse at Old Algiers Point (If you haven't been, you should really pay Old Algiers a visit, it's super cute and there's a bar right there by the ferry that has a Tardis and really good beer!) I felt so cute and bridal in my shimmery pink dress that I asked Adam to take my picture. I'm so glad I did! Little did I know this would be the last day (besides my wedding day) that I would wear ANY of my intended wedding week wardrobe.

We arrived at the courthouse bright and early! Excitedly, I took lots of picture outside. After all, we chose this courthouse because it's absolutely beautiful! My boots thudded against the wooden staircase as we prepared ourselves to fill out the paperwork that would set us on the course of marriage for the rest of our lives! Time to make it official!

At the top of the stairs, we see a couple sitting on a bench, worried looks crossed their faces as someone explained that they will not be able to get married on their intended date because they have to wait 72 hours. Adam and I looked at each other and smiled reassuringly. We nervously entered room 201, and were greeted by a less-then-friendly voice.

"You here for a marriage certificate?" asked a lady behind the desk who refused to look up from her phone/paperwork/computer/whatever happened to be on the desk in front of her.

"Yes! We're so excited, we got here early because it's a destination wedding and we know about the 72 hour window and we know you'll be closed Sunday and Monday and we plan to wed on Thursday! We brought our checkbooks too because we know you don't take card or cash!" We felt so confident of our planning, so pleased with our research.

"system's down" She said without looking up from her...whatever.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what that means..." I replied hesitantly, I really didn't want to offend, as I could tell she was already pretty done with us, but I also genuinely did not understand what that meant at the moment.

She went on to explain that the marriage license system was down in New Orleans Parish, for all of the courthouses. There was no guarantee when it would be back up. We could try a different parish today or come back tomorrow.

Our excitement turned to anxiousness as we realized that our carefully laid plans were crumbling and there was nothing we could do. Our window was about to close!

So we put the wedding binder back into Adam's backpack and took the ferry across the Mississippi River to the French Quarter to plan our next move.

We decided that while we were in town, we'd get some wedding work done, we still needed parasols, after all. Initially, we planned to order them on Amazon to save some money, but the closer we got the wedding, the more we felt like we just really wanted something locally made. New Orleans has such a special flare and a specific way of doing things, and we wanted that way to be our way too.

So we stopped in to Stella Umbrella Parasols on Decatur in the French Quarter. When we arrived, the shop was closed, but the hours on their door indicated that they should be open, so I called. Once I did, the owner opened the door for us and what we found was a tiny little shop, no bigger then a freight elevator, with parasols and umbrellas hanging from the walls and ceilings. Our parasols had to be in here somewhere.

It was important to me that they match. And it was important to me that they not be white or black (if you google second line wedding, that's all you see. I wanted something more unique that really emphasized and epitomized the Golden Afternoon second line I was imaging in my head.)

We found a pretty blue one for Adam, and luckily the owner had matching peach/pinky fabric for mine. We chose a lace trim to be sewn to the ends of each one and put down our deposit.

After that, we were pretty tired from a roller-coaster of a day so we went back to Jane's and had a quite night in stuffing welcome bags. After all, our guests would be here in less than a week and there was still tea to stuff into jars and nametags to write out.

After our lack of success submitting our paperwork on Thursday, we knew our window was about to close on our marriage certificate, so we knew we had to get it done the very next day.

Once again, we woke up and got ready to visit the courthouse. But we had no idea what the weather would have in store for us. Luckily I got my photos in the day before because this day was FREEZING!! Thankfully the system was back up and we were able to submit our paperwork. While there, we saw another couple have an adorable, small courthouse wedding. We overheard their plans to meet the rest of their wedding guests for their reception across the Mississippi in the French Quarter. I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if the system was down that day or if their wedding were the day before when we first tried, although maybe that's why they have the 72 hour window?

We rode the ferry with them and enjoyed overhearing their excitement and watching with our own excitement as their photographer and videographer went to work. This would be US in just a matter of DAYS! It was all so exciting! But as the stinging, icy wind whipped against our faces as we crossed the river, we realized that perhaps we weren't as prepared as we thought. Perhaps the last 6 months we had spent telling friends and family that "no, it won't be THAT cold, weather in New Orleans in January is about the same as it is in Los Angeles" was our way of jinxing it and challenging Mother Nature. We were afraid it might be a little cold at our wedding. We had no idea what was in store.