New Orleans House of Blues Wedding | Sarah & Travis » Southeast Texas Wedding and Family Photographers

A few weeks ago we loaded up the truck, put on some tunes and hit the road East. Our destination: New Orleans. Sarah and Travis are from the South East Texas area, but because they have family all over the south they decided to have their wedding day somewhere unique and fun. Sign me up!

We’ve gotten to know Sarah and Travis over the last year and knowing we were heading off to such a cool place to shoot a wedding had us counting down the days. Louisiana is a second home for us because we lived in Lake Charles for ten years! Believe it or not, we had only stopped very briefly in New Orleans, but never spent any real time there. I must say we are not usually ones who travel to larger cities for our own vacations. We usually find places that are quiet and out of the way to contrast our usually very busy lives so navigating around the French Quarter was quite the experience in our not-so-tight-street-friendly-truck. However we managed not to drive off in the lake and made it to the venue!

We started the day at a small loft apartment just a few blocks away from The House of Blues. The loft was actually on the top floor of an art museum so it had lots of old architecture features like exposed brick and really neat décor. It also didn’t have an elevator so we got a good workout climbing what seemed like twenty stories of stairs with bags of heavy gear.

The burning calf muscles were well worth it however. The little apartment was cozy, private, and my favorite, allowed plenty of natural light to flow through the room. I always find that when brides have an inviting space to get ready in they enjoy their day so much more. This time is kind of the calm the before the storm where you spend time with your closest friends and family before hosting a much larger crowd.

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The guys always get ready in 2.4 seconds so they spent time hanging out in the restaurant section of the House of Blues. Speaking of The House of Blues, this is an awesome place. I had heard of the House of Blues as a concert venue, but I had no idea that it was so expansive and accommodating of many other types of events as well. The ‘in House’ (see what I did there?) coordinator we worked with was Britt and you could not ask for a more professional, awesome person to work with. Her staff was great and she went above and beyond to make sure that every little thing we needed throughout the day was 100% taken care of. Yes! From something as small as letting us get a coke from the bar to taking us around the venue to accommodate photos, and even temporarily roping off a usually public place in the alley to give Sarah and Travis a private place for their first look Britt just blew us away!

The alley led near the main restaurant and was a great location for Sarah and Travis to have their first look. I really loved the big mural. Although we had a bit of rainy weather the location itself gave us plenty of pop and interesting looks for photography. Our heads were spinning with how many cool areas there were to work with. So cool!

After the First Look, Britt gave us some time in the iconic Foundation Room to work with Sarah and Travis. This place is nice. I wish we could have spent an hour up there, but we took advantage of the couple of minutes we had and were able to get some really spectacular images in this unique location. Every wedding day is great, but there are usually a few moments where something clicks and we get our favorite shots. This was it.

Behind the House of Blues was a small courtyard that was simple and intimate. Friends and family gathered for this special moment and Sarah and Travis became husband and wife! Yay!

We even had a couple of onlookers from the adjacent building’s balcony. Only in The Big Easy.

When the hugs and kisses are done, group shots finished and everyone is plenty famished from a long day, we get to eat! Receptions always naturally have a small release of tension. We can always sense that in the couple, the family and honestly from us as well. It is here that all of the anxiety and nerves of the day disappear and we all just celebrate this remarkable time. This often results in a lot of great emotion in photography. Being with people who are having fun and really soaking in the moment never gets old. Being a wedding photographer is all about building relationships with your clients. By the time we’re all packed in for the reception I feel like we’re there to celebrate with them and more than just hired help.

Of course they didn’t have traditional wedding cake! This is New Orleans! They had King Cake and a stacked ‘cake’ of Oreo cookies. They even made sure to have cups of milk for the guests. Way to up your dessert game guys. Very nice.