Lauren DeFraites and Etienne Estorage: March 1, 2009
Lauren describes meeting Etienne as a magical experience. Introduced at a party in 2007, the couple spent that evening talking on the phone until 6:00 am the following morning. After several long nightly phone calls, Etienne asked Lauren when he could see her again. “From that moment on,” Lauren sums up their story as “the rest is history.”
After a few months of dating, Etienne proposed to Lauren in April 2008 while having dinner at Vincent’s Restaurant Uptown.
The wedding ceremony was set to take place at the beautiful St. John the Baptist Catholic Church with a reception following at the Plimsoll Club.
Lauren and her bridesmaids prepared for the wedding at Le Pavillon Hotel. The hotel made a beautiful backdrop for their pre-wedding preparations.
To create a unifying theme for the wedding, Lauren chose the colors fuchsia and black and incorporated these colors into every aspect of the wedding.
Lauren selected black as the primary color for the bridesmaids dresses and added a vivid fuchsia sash. The groomsmen were dressed by John’s Tuxedo’s in Metairie in solid black tuxedos paired with fuchsia ties to match the color theme.
For her own gown, Lauren selected a beautiful ivory and champagne dress with a satin mermaid silhouette. The dress had a sweetheart neckline and was double banded in champagne satin. It had a chapel length train with beaded metallic embroidery embellishment scattered throughout the dress.
The flowers, designed by Grow With Us florist,were exactly what Lauren wanted for her wedding. Lauren gave the florist the theme of her wedding, and they “designed everything from there.” Lauren walked down the aisle with bright pink peonies surrounded by black feathers. The bridesmaids’ bouquets were fuchsia and black anemones surrounded by black feathers. For the reception tables, Grow With Us designed beautifully crafted balls of fuchsia roses and placed them atop tall, black vases.
Lauren chose Shirelle of Royal Cakery to design her black and white four tier wedding cake accented with fuchsia flowers.
Event Rental provided the black and white table linens for the reception. The special linens Lauren selected added an elegant touch and helped unify her theme.
Lauren selected Doug Keese of Artisan Style Photojournalism as her photographer. Doug captured the wedding as the memories unfolded. Lauren commented, “He was so laid back and easy to work with and his shots came out great.”
Knowing that her guests were “children at heart”, Lauren decided that a candy buffet was the perfect dessert. In order to keep with her theme, Lauren specifically chose black and pink candy including giant pink lemonade gumballs, black and white lollipops, pink and white lollipops, pink gummy bears, black licorice wheels, and fuchsia Hershey kisses. “I’m still hearing how excited guests were over the candy!” Lauren said.
At the end of the night, Lauren couldn’t have been happier at the outcome, commenting that, “I only wish I could have been a guest.”
Video By: Studio Vieux Carre
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