Wedding Info - Shreveport/Ruston/West Monroe (Breaux Bridge, Mansfield: rentals, hotel)

[CountryGrl_n_SBC]

Hi! I'm getting married next March and have decided to forego a wedding planner in order to save some money. Does anyone have experience with any vendors (catering, floral, cakes, photographers, dj, rentals, ceremony/reception venues, etc) in the Shreveport, Ruston, or West Monroe area? I haven't decided where I'm having it so that's the reason for the 3 locations. I've done a lot of research, but I'd really like to hear some first-hand stories. Any recommendations or even horror stories are welcome!! Any advice or tips would be appreciated also. Just trying to find the best quality for the lowest price since I'm more practical than girly and can't justify spending an outrageous amount of money for a single day. The knot will be just as tight and we will be just as happy. Thanks for any help!!

[kal0824]

For photography I would definately recommend Christi Martin. She lives in Ruston but would travel to either Shreveport or Monroe. I haven't used her for anything but I did talk to her for about 2 months about photographing my wedding. Come to find out she is booked on my wedding day but she is very sweet and does great work! I would highly recommend her. www.christimartin.com

Sparks rentals and Taylor Rental in Shreveport are awesome!

As for ceremony venues I mostly looked at churches and then moonlight and Lace in Mansfield. I did however go check out alot of reception venues.

The hilton downtown is nice.
Great location
Good size room
No room charge with $1500 food minimum
Built in speakers for music
No decorating restrictions

Sams town is amazing esp with their huge chandeliers but they require a $6000 minimum food purchase. East Ridge Country Club is newly remodeled and has a beautiful view overlooking the golf course but also has a $6000 minimum food purchase.

Stonebridge Country Club in bossier is beautiful. They only do inside weddings...in front of fireplace. Prices just went up though.

Artspace and Robinson Film Center in downtown Shreveport...
Friendly staff
Prices decent
Good food
Have the New York feel inside

[sailordave]

For our wedding, my wife and I had a harpist playing in the church. She played before and occasionally during the service. It wasn't expensive at all. My wife was the bargain hunter and called in favors. Her cousin was the DJ. Her brother did the catering. She bought her beautiful dress on clearance for a few hundred dollars. Her brother also provided a trolley bus. We used it to take the wedding party to the reception. It also made for some great wedding photos. I don't know if they have a trolley bus in the areas you listed. I'm just throwing out ideas from personal experience. We also made sure the children who walked down the aisle were old enough to behave and understand what was going on. Oh, and for the catering we had a separate table for fruits, berries, and vegetables. Several guest were on low sodium diet and this gave them something they could enjoy.

[urbanexplorer2009]

Originally Posted by sailordave

For our wedding, my wife and I had a harpist playing in the church. She played before and occasionally during the service. It wasn't expensive at all. My wife was the bargain hunter and called in favors. Her cousin was the DJ. Her brother did the catering. She bought her beautiful dress on clearance for a few hundred dollars. Her brother also provided a trolley bus. We used it to take the wedding party to the reception. It also made for some great wedding photos. I don't know if they have a trolley bus in the areas you listed. I'm just throwing out ideas from personal experience. We also made sure the children who walked down the aisle were old enough to behave and understand what was going on. Oh, and for the catering we had a separate table for fruits, berries, and vegetables. Several guest were on low sodium diet and this gave them something they could enjoy.

There is a limo company in Shreveport that has a trolley bus, and it is VERY busy! So to the OP, if you have in mind something like what sailordave mentioned, you will want to reserve the trolley bus as far in advance as possible. I'm glad you mentioned that, sailordave, I hadn't even thought about it.

[sailordave]

Our trolley played music to and from the wedding. The members of the wedding pary were singing and dancing along to the music. My wife and I stood on the outside walkway of the trolley which has brass rails. It made for a great wedding photo. Even have photos of us stepping onto and getting out of the trolley. One trolley can carry much of the wedding party. Plus it has the added benefit of not getting your dress caught in the limo door.

[CountryGrl_n_SBC]

kal - thanks so much for the tip on Christi. I checked out her site and she's got the best prices I've seen so far and takes beautiful pictures! We're thinking of having it at Creekwood Gardens in Arcadia so she wouldn't have too far to travel.

sailor - I love the trolley idea! I haven't seen that before so that would be cute and original.

[sailordave]

I'm attaching to this post a photo from our wedding on the trolley bus

[sailordave]

In other photos not uploaded on our computer, we included photos of the little girls in wedding dress and wedding party members standing in a group on the trolley or sitting in the trolley on the way to the reception. Honestly, the only thing that went wrong in the wedding was the weather. It was in the 30s that day. I picked the honeymoon location, San Antonio texas. San Antonio in February was fantastic and we weren't the only couple on our honeymoon. The Riverwalk and boat ride is nice. So was the missions (Spanish missions that were forts that included a church) and the Alamo. The closer the hotel to the Alamo, the more expensive it is. I selected a hotel about 8 miles from the Alamo. Luckily, our hotel was less than a half mile from an upscale family owned Mexican restaurant. It was fantastic. We signed up for an all day bus tour for $50 each. The bus picked us up from the hotel and took us to various locations around the city. At each location the bus stopped and we went to the location to see the sights. The lunch break came at the Alamo stop. Tour guides are not allowed in the Alamo so we were left on our own and to meet back at the bus across the street from the Alamo. We ate on the Riverwalk. The tour included a tour guided boat ride in the river. This tour gave us an idea of what is where. The bus took us back to our hotel. We then took a cab ($20) to the Alamo and did our own walking tour which included the mall that over looks the riverwalk. The weather was 50s in the morning and low to mid 70s in the afternoon. You can't get much better than that.

[LOUISIANA'SLEGEND]

Originally Posted by sailordave

I'm attaching to this post a photo from our wedding on the trolley bus

Aww how sweet, you guys needs to be jawpinched your so cute!! Congratulations, and have a beautiful wedding.

[sailordave]

My wife's family is from Breaux Bridge. We got married in the church there. Our reception was at a beautiful bed and breakfast built in the early 1900s. I proposed to her on her birthday. She scheduled the wedding on my birthday.