Marche | New Orleans Wedding Photography

How did you two meet?
We met through mutual friends while I was in grad school at Auburn. Taylor says I’m a cougar; we’re only 9 months apart – ha! His best man and my brother are very good friends so we can thank them!

“It was so beautiful! There was a ton of snow everywhere and there is a river that runs along the property. After awhile, Taylor got down on one knee and proposed!”

Tell us about the proposal!
Our first big trip together was to Big Sky, Montana, in 2015. Fast forward to two years later we planned another trip to Big Sky. This time with my brother, Taylor’s sister, and some of our very close friends. A couple of days into the trip after skiing all day, Taylor asked if I wanted to go snow shoeing. I said yes because he had brought it up a few times on the trip. That day was exhausting! All I wanted to do was get in the hot tub and drink red wine lol!

I later found out that everyone was in on it! So Taylor and I put on snow shoes and headed out on our walk. It was so beautiful! There was a ton of snow everywhere and there is a river that runs along the property. We walked and talked for a awhile, then Taylor got down on one knee and proposed! Once we walked into the house, everyone was waiting for us with champagne and cake. It was such a special moment for us! I was so happy that we could have close friends and family there with us to celebrate.

That train was in-credible! How was your shopping experience looking for “the dress”?
This is a funny story but would also give most brides a heart attack – ha! My first dress purchase was in Atlanta and I began to have second thoughts. So I starting looking online at other dresses but nothing really caught my eye. I decided to go to Ivory & White in Birmingham, AL, because a few girls that I know got their dresses from there. While I was there, I did the big “no-no” and began to try on dresses by a designer that was very much outside of my price point. The dress I loved they were willing to sell the sample within my budget. I was in love!

Update for everyone still gasping about having two wedding dresses. After I bought the 2nd dress, the first dress that I bought came in 4 months before the wedding (a month late) and in the very wrong color. I was able to make a very small profit on the 1st dress and was thrilled to have the second dress secured before finding out about the 1st dress because I may have had an actual heart attack. This is not a typical scenario and I don’t recommend buying 2 dresses but it’s a neat story to tell!

What was your favorite part of the planning process?
My background is in accounting, so I love doing research and spreadsheets! Researching different vendors was something I genuinely loved. Updating my budget and spreadsheet was also something I enjoyed. I made this myself and have it where it populates your allocated percentage for your different line items based on your overall budget and populates your payment deadlines based on your wedding date – very nerdy stuff but very fun for me! Another thing I really enjoyed that I didn’t think I would care about were the paper products.

What made you think to do that and what was your family’s reaction?
I graduated from Alabama for undergrad and I love Big Al! The idea came from talking with a real estate agent one day and she mentioned that she attended a wedding where Clemson’s Tiger mascot was there so I ran home to research if it was possible to have Big Al and Aubie (Auburn’s mascot) attend our wedding since Taylor is a big Auburn fan. I got a pretty quick response back from Auburn that Aubie doesn’t do weddings and then I didn’t hear from Alabama until we were about 4 weeks out from the wedding.

The original idea was that we would have Big Al and Aubie do the Second Line with us but since we didn’t have Aubie, the next idea was to have Big Al jump in the dance with my brother and I. As we know, there is a father/daughter dance but my father passed away when I was in high school so I wanted to have a fun dance with my brother who I am very close with – adding Big Al to it made it even better! My family absolutely loved it because we are all Alabama fans; I can’t speak for the Auburn and Tennessee fans in the crowd – haha!

What drew you to New Orleans as your wedding destination and specifically Marche?
Taylor and I are from Tennessee and Alabama, respectively, and now we live in Atlanta. When Taylor and I started having a more serious relationship, we thought that New Orleans would be a cool place but I wasn’t sure if it was feasible or if it made sense to do a destination wedding. Then one of Taylor’s pledge brothers and his wife had their wedding in New Orleans and as soon as the Second Line Parade started, I knew we had to have our wedding in NOLA!

As far as Marche, we reviewed several event venues online but narrowed down our visits to 4 venues and Marche was by far the clear front runner. Taylor joked as we were leaving our 1st visit to Marche saying, “Ok, that was a nice place but we need to keep an open mind – what about _____ from this morning?” because he could see it in my face that Marche was “the one”.

If you had to narrow it down to your favorite memory from the wedding day, what would it be?
This is difficult because the whole day was a lot of fun! But because it’s what drew us to New Orleans and it’s such a different aspect compared to other weddings we’ve attended, I would say definitely the Second Line Parade. It was very bitter sweet because it signified that the wedding celebration was coming to an end but it was so much fun! In addition, we had some guests with us who had attended other weddings in New Orleans and they said that our Second Line was one of the most fun ones they’ve been a part of because there were so many people on the street videoing and singing along with our parade – it was a blast!!

What’s next for the new Mr. and Mrs.?
Taylor and I just came back home from our honeymoon in Thailand so we are getting our lives in order – haha! Between the honeymoon and the wedding, we had 3 weeks off, so with that and the 11-hour time difference from Thailand, we are still adjusting back to normal life. We are excited about the future and starting our lives as a married couple!

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