Jessica and Derrick's Destination Wedding and Louisiana reception.

Welcome to Jessica & Derrick's oceanfront Paradisse Island Wedding! I first met Jessica via an online  request early in 2010. At the time, she and Derrick were having to rearrange their current wedding plans due to the Gulf Coast oil spill. We stayed in touch by email and Facebook, talking back and forth about wedding & photography wishes, coastal and political situations and our life stories. Jessica and I became good friends while planning their photography coverage for their destination wedding cruise trip and New Orleans area reception the following week.

Jessica is a very hands-on bride. She planned every detail of the cruise, designed her own invitations, and came up with ideas for the decor for the reception- flower arrangements and table display at the entrance that included an LSU groom's cake, photo display of their ceremony and sampling of taffy from The Roman Candy Company.

They decided on a guys and girls excursion the morning of the ceremony. The guys took a snorkeling trip and the ladies shopping and lunch at the ocean front Senior Frog's in Nassau, Bahamas and picking up the flowers from the Nassau Police Dept (thats another funny story all in itself). Midday everyone returned to prepare for the wedding. A limo was provided for the bride's family and attendants to take them to ceremony location, Paradise Island. A lovely sunset wedding, with family and friends  taking part in creating the Unity Sand jar made for lovely memories (and even more memories trying to get it back home to the US). The wedding party had a great reception dinner aboard the Carnival Imagination, with wonderful service from the staff. They also had a special magician show tableside for the bride and groom.

The reception was the following week in Mandeville, La at the Lake Pontchartrain Yacht Club, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. The site was carefully prepared by Jaime with LPYC. We set up a display of their Bahama trip photos in the corner of the room for everyone to see their wedding events.

And DJ Johnny Ice created a jubliant mood all evening with finding the perfect music, calling events and leading dances when necessary. Which wasn't often, as this group of family and friends know their way around the dance floor! The beautiful cake was created by Mandeville Bake Shop and decorated by the bride herself with blue and teal crystals and the food, provided by Chef Chad's Catering was to die for. The Crawfish Cheesecake was particularly yummy.
Near the end of the reception everyone joined in on a Second Line (style of traditional dance in which participants walk and sometimes twirl a parasol or handkerchief in the air) to celebrate the Bride and Groom.
It was our honor to work with Jessica and Derrick, and when I had a few family setbacks during the latter part of the year, they were very understanding. I definitely wanted to ensure that their wedding day photography was everything they wanted, as you can see it was beautiful ceremony and reception!
We love and appreciate you guys and look forward to seeing you and your families again.