New Orleans Wedding Inspired by Dutch Paintings: Heather & Adam

Jennifer White Photography

July 14, 2014

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Heather and Adam had their wedding at Race and Religious, a old house in New Orleans which is now rented out as a vacation house and quirky event space. Living quite far away from all their family, the wedding was always going to be a semi-destination wedding, and they picked New Orleans because they both just love it so much!

“During the planning process the location of the wedding was the most troublesome since we had to account for both of our families that are scattered all over the country”, explained the bride. “I have always loved New Orleans. For me, it’s a place that can feel so familiar even if you’re not from there. It’s close enough for a lot of our guests to drive to, which was SUPER helpful when carting all of our DIY items, and it’s almost impossible not to have the time of your life in that city.”

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“To keep it intimate and laid back we decided to have the wedding and reception in a vacation rental. We wanted a place our guests could feel at home and let loose in. While searching for vacation rentals I stumbled across Race and Religious. One look at this place and you feel the mystery and whimsy the property embodies. To borrow from Race and Religious, the home ‘is a love song to New Orleans’. And at the risk of sounding extremely sappy that’s exactly what we wanted! We wanted our wedding to be a love song to each other, to our loved ones, and to the city we are forever connected to. ”

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“Our wedding theme was ‘Mystical New Orleans meets Dutch still life'”, Heather continued. “We really took inspiration from intimate DIY gatherings. We decided to do away with as much pomp and circumstance that typically goes hand in hand with weddings. We wanted to share this special moment with our family and friends and have blast while doing it!”

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“The day of was such a blur. Having spent so much time and effort planning a wedding with friends and family in several different states; it felt so exciting yet calm when the day finally came. We wanted our ceremony short and sweet. Our friend Ciarra officiated with a few words she had written and our simple vows. The rest of our night was spent eating, drinking, and being merry with all of our guests (which was our main goal)! When Adam and I think back on it now we’re still blown away by the fact that so many of our friends and family came from all four corners of the country to watch us get hitched and spend one fun filled night with us in New Orleans.”

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“I spent about a year of my engagement avoiding any wedding stuff”, she replied when I asked her about DIY projects. “I really wasn’t into the idea of marriage so when it was finally happening to me I spent a lot of time in denial and procrastinating. My friends started gently pushing me out of my overwhelmed state and created a Pinterest board for me, it just snowballed from there. I decided that I would really love to have a wedding that felt laid back and magical. An event where the people we care about can come together and talk and dance and have a blast! For our overall decorating theme we pulled inspiration from Dutch still lifes – we’re both really drawn to images of ordinary objects that feel like treasures.”

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“There was a team of family in Florida painting the tips of black feathers gold for the feather garland and collecting thrifted trinkets for my tables. A friend, Courtney, designed my wedding invitation and my logo. I then silk screened the invitations and RSVPs from her designs and Adam and I put all of it together while watching a marathon on Netflix. Friends and family from Florida, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas came to New Orleans early to help put together the last of our DIY projects. My friend Hope collected Spanish moss, palm leaves, and other assorted flowers from around the Garden District to make the backdrop, the floral arrangements that sat on top of the A-frame signs, the boutonnières for the boys, and both mine and my maid of honor’s bouquets.”

“I hired a caterer for the dinner but I have a lot of avid bakers in my family so they were in charge of the desserts. My sister, Elinor, made almost all of the desserts with help from my nieces. My younger brother’s fiancé, Tosha, made our wedding cake.”

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