If you’ve ever been to New Orleans, you know what it has to offer, which is (for a photographer) inspiration from every angle, every street corner and amazing people, food, everything!!!!
Tara has been seeing our work for awhile, since Cristi’s Wedding in the Dominican Republic in 2007 (thanks Cristi:) ), and it was so great to be back in New Orleans for another amazing wedding!
Highlights of Tara and Curro’s wedding included incredible locations; Preparation at the lovely Windsor Court Hotel, A beautiful ceremony at Sacred Heart Academy, and a KILLER reception at The Race & Religious House. Signs of a great reception include hand crafted food, dancing on the walls, Cafe Du Monde beignets specially delivered during the reception and crazy dancing till 2am with the cops showing up 3 times…etc. It was awesome.

Hooray for another great New Orleans wedding!
Sofia and John really did it right – rehearsal dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant, ceremony at a GORGEOUS church, beautiful reception at the Ritz…does it get any better?
These two were so easy-going and although the wedding day itself didn’t have perfect weather, they didn’t let it affect their moods at all. It was easy to tell that their extensive wedding party was having a great time too The only thing I regret is that I never made it to Cafe Dumonde for some world famous beignets…

Jennifer and Kendall are officially Bauman Photographers family and we feel as though we are a part of theirs!!! We headed out for another awesome New Orleans wedding on a beautiful day and arrived in much cooler weather but in a very special area of New Orleans. Typically we are centered around the French Quarter so this was great to experience the Garden District fully. We were able to explore some different restaurants in the area and it had a very quiet, tree lined and residential feeling to the whole area. The street car near our hotel would drop us off right in the French Quarter if we ever did want to head out for some fun in the evenings.
The weekend started with an amazing rehearsal dinner at the Commanders Palace Restaurant which had a gorgeous courtyard, specialty appetizers and drinks including the French Quarter flaming café brûlot We got a couple casual shots of the fun and entertainment in the chilly night air of the courtyard after a delicious feast complete with some great toasts and singing.

The wedding day started in the late afternoon at Jennifer’s quintessential New Orleans suburban home and at twilight we headed to the ceremony – you may recognize the chapel – it is the Sacred Heart Academy chapel where Marianne and Kieran were married (our first New Orleans wedding)
After the twilight ceremony, we headed to the Audubon golf club for the reception and live music carried the night in a dancing frenzy including the ever-popular spontaneous second-line dance around the building. Fresh steamed clams, made-to-order quesadillas, mashed potato martini’s and tray-passed late night breakfast sandwiches were some of the great fare.
Our good friend and fellow photographer Jeff Youngren joined me for the trip which was a ton of fun. On the last day, we went for a swamp tour and headed to the Checkered Parrot to watch the Charger game and ended up having the best chicken wings I’ve ever had! Oh yes, my other recommendation..the Sugar Shack fried catfish sandwich was INCREDIBLE!!!

This time around, the wedding festivities were all held in or around the French Quarter which is the quintessential New Orleans experience. Melissa Mullen, a friend and fellow wedding photographer from Maine joined me for the experience and we were able to spend lots of quality time around the city.
The whole event began at Broussards where they had a cocktails and dinner – The next night was another awesome cocktail party complete with live music, dancing, and the upstairs of Arnaud’s all to ourselves. Everyone loved hanging out on the balcony above Bourbon St.

Tricia and Kevin made it so easy on us – they are such a fun couple and have such a quiet yet intense respect and patience for each other and those around them. The wedding prep kicked the day off at Waldorf Astoria’s Roosevelt hotel where the flower girls were having tons of fun getting dolled up and taking advantage of the props that would later make their way out to the dance floor that evening.

After that, Tricia and Kevin had their first sight right in front of the church where they had their ceremony – The Immaculate Conception Jesuit Parish basically it was a breathtaking cathedral the likes of which I’ve never seen in Southern California. That is the great thing about New Orleans…the history.
We made our way through a nearby hotel and then to the French Quarter for portraits where so much inspiration took place – and as Patricia put it, “it was worth the sweat” 90% humidity will do that…At one point, a few kids ran through the shot which was the best thing that could have happened! Couldn’t have been planned better…

After a beautiful ceremony, we headed to the Roosevelt for the reception. Heading to the reception is half the fun of the wedding – They call it a Second Line and it involves a Police escort, a marching street band, and dancing through the crowded streets. It. is. Awesome. I’ve found it to be typical with the New Orleans weddings and any wedding where there are Cubans, that the dancing is OFF THE HOOK! they have so much fun and really get into it. What a blast.
This is true on the dance floor at the reception too!

Check out a video of us in New Orleans at the famous Cafe Du Monde!

As you know, Bronson and Jared are in New Orleans shooting a wedding. I had the privilege of waking up at 5:30 to take them to the airport on Wednesday, and then headed into the studio a little early. Usually when the guys are out of town things run pretty smoothly. This time I think the studio manager gods were angry with me, because all hell broke loose about 30 minutes after Jared and Bronson got on the plane.

To document the madness that was the Bauman Photographers studio this week, I hired our wonderful Crew photographer John Yao.

Notice the large stack of things covering my desk…

Not joking – this is when I was on the phone with Jared taking down the information I needed to call the New Orleans Police Department (I won’t ruin the story – I am sure the guys will post on that later.)

Our dear intern Laura had to come in 2 extra days this week to finish a project because the computer freaked out on her! This is us ready to karate chop the computer and show it who’s boss.

All in all, a very eventful week. Thank goodness everyone will be back on Monday!

Time: only 12:30am toinght
The Mood at our hotel: a little peppier tonight, which is surprising considering we were up until 3am last night
The Mood one block away on Bourbon Street: still very loud . . .

We had an awesome day today! So far, we’ve had the perfect balance of photography and relaxing. We didn’t have any commitments today until 2:30pm, so we were able to sleep in and go grab some coffee at Cafe du Monde, a very historic french coffeeshop right next to the Mississippi River in the heart of the French Quarter. We had Jennifer’s bridal session this afternoon in and around New Orleans – what a fabulous session! While we are out here for Marianne and Kieran’s wedding photography tomorrow, we’re also shooting Jennifer and George’s wedding here in October. In essence, we killed several birds with one stone on this trip
Honestly, we are having the greatest time here. We stopped in at Marianne and Kieran’s rehearsal dinner and cocktail party, and had a great time meeting their family and friends. Both Marianne and Kieran are so nice and welcoming – they have gone out of their way to make sure we feel welcomed here. Here are some shots from their rehearsal and cocktail party.
And Jennifer looked amazing today for her bridal session. For those of you who are from the west coast (like myself), bridal sessions are very common here in the south and are kind of like a west coast substitute for an engagement session (I just learned this myself).
Bronson and I were talking tonight over dinner – we feel so blessed to be doing destination wedding photography for a living! More to come – some highlight images from the wedding!

I must say that it has been a long day – after getting up at 5:30 for our flight to New Orleans this morning. However, I feel rewarded to be here for this wedding! New Orleans has struck me as a city full of rich history, a focus on freedom and creativity, and overall populated by very friendly people.
We were able to hang out with our awesome couple today – Marianne and Kieran who hosted a poolside party this afternoon at the historic Monteleone Hotel (more photos of the monteleone to come…).
Afterward, we headed to a place called Lola’s (recommended by our friend Eric) and he was spot on. The seafood paella was great and the atmosphere felt very local, very artistic, very…granola.




I was surprised although I shouldn’t have been to see the cemetaries here – they reminded me of the ones that are spread throughout Paris and I’ve not seen many like them in the states – here is one at night!

I was also a little surprised to find on e of the guests wearing essentially the same thing I was..what a fashion faux pas!