Friday, May 4, Part II– Pre-Welcome Party and The Rooftop Party at the JW

After the Tea, we hung out in the bridal suite and had quality time. We did spend some time making phone calls to set up the photo locations for wedding day. As we discussed in the #6 of this blog, we had four different transportation plans to use at a moments notice.

As we received the weather report, we knew it would be too hot to take pictures outside with the parents. Everyone started calling their connections to see what we could find for indoor photos in the French Quarter. After quite some time of working out ideas, Courtney proposed we take the family photos in Muriel’s as her mom was (and is) dear friends with the GM. I was thrilled with the option! We reached out to Muriel’s and they we willing to have us use their private dining for photos. HUGE problem solved! Thank you Ms. Gay and Courtney!

Sarah (the transportation tyrant) had called and confirmed with all of the drivers and all of the new plans were in place. It was amazing to see what a wonderful team was there supporting me!

As the time approached for the welcome shindig, I primped a bit and headed down to the 8th floor. For some reason all of the bridesmaids were slow to arrive…:)
When I arrived in the reserved room, it was not clean. Kenny and I rearranged the room, stripped the tables and fixed the place up a bit. The hotel staff came in to help and were very apologetic as the room setup had been overlooked. I was not that upset as we were just hanging out, but the event manager sent up a bucket of beer and water to apologize for the inconvenience. As you can imagine, the guests did not mind that at all!

Doug had spent the day at Jazz Fest  and had a great time.

Kenny doing his beer tricks!

General Fun:

My new favorite picture of Ashley and Andrew:

Boudoir Face:

work it Alex.

We really had blast hanging with everyone. It was another moment where we got to actually visit with people we love as we knew it would be insane the following day.

I love seeing all the people from different aspects of my life in one place all becoming friends! Thank you to everyone who came out to see us!

As it got close to 8:00 pm, I grabbed Doug and took him out on the balcony to say goodnight. My goal was to be in my suite at 8:00 pm and in bed for 10:00 am. We chatted for a bit and were able to enjoy each other one last time before the wedding. My friend, Katie, sneaked up and grabbed some pictures of us on her iPhone.


Thanks Katie!

After we said our goodbyes, I headed up to the suite with all the girls and Doug rode his back to The Shack. My plan was working! I was in my room by 8:15 pm.

What happened next? I will tell you tomorrow :)

Love and Hugs, Lizzie