Normally we would be spending the day out on the neutral ground catching beads, eating Popeye's and king cake, and drinking some daiquiris (strawberry-colada, please!), but it's disgusting, cold, and rainy over here. With a cold already coming on for me, and plenty of parades already under our belt, we'll be sitting this one out.
Last night was the Orpheuscapade, where we got dressed up in formalwear to catch beads and party down in the Convention Center.
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| BM Dino and I racked up |
On Saturday, we hit the streets for the Krewe of Endymion parade - and at least the weather was beautiful for that one!
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| It was actually hot on Saturday and freezing today. Go figure. Like my baby hat? |
Okay, that's enough of me trying to prove to you that we're not boring because we're staying in on Fat Tuesday. I figured it would be the perfect day to share with you some New Orleans wedding traditions, and letting you know what we'll be including in the Pyramid wedding.
Groom's Cake
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| The coolest groom's cake I've ever seen, from my college friend's wedding./Photo by Robert Faust Photography |
Groom's cakes are more of a Southern tradition, as opposed to specifically New Orleans, and they're gaining in popularity in the rest of the U.S. Apparently the tradition (as I just learned via Google), was to not serve the cake at the wedding, but to box it up and give to unmarried female guests, who would sleep with the cake under their pillow so she would dream of her future husband. Sounds sticky, sounds like a waste of cake, so no.
The design of our cake is still to be decided. Sphinx has so many interests and quirks that make him unique, and I just want to be able to shove all of that on a cake! We can definitely rule out the Steel Magnolias armadillo cake, even though it will be red velvet with cream cheese.
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| The most famous groom's cake ever./Photo via Imdb |
Cake pulls are one of my favorite NOLA traditions - they're like the bouquet toss mixed up with fortune cookies to create a fun moment with some of the ladies at the wedding. The bride will pick the girls to participate beforehand, and they are called up to the cake before the official cutting with the bride and groom. These are usually single women, and most often include guests as well as bridesmaids - so about 10 or so girls will participate. They each pull a charm from the cake, and each one has a meaning. The most popular include the ring which signifies the next to be married, the crab which stands for the crabby old maid, and the stork which goes to the next to have a baby. Others include a red bean for good luck coming soon, a key for a happy home, and a treasure chest meaning that hopes and dreams will come true.
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| The pulls are inserted in the back of the bottom tier of the cake./Photo from Bayou Accents on Etsy |
Shown above, a recent trend in the cake pulls has been to put them on bead bracelets, and I'll be doing that too. I have one from a wedding and the beads are silver with a silver Eiffel Tower charm (meaning I will lead a life of travel! Exciting!), and I wear it pretty often since it's so cute.
Another NOLA Bee, Mrs. Ballet Flat (we actually went to the same high school!) showed off her cake pulls, and I think I might follow her lead and not include an old maid charm - who wants to pull that one? And since the girls pulling will only be unmarried women, I don't know of too many who would be excited to get the stork charm, so I'll be leaving that one off too.
Second Line
Something unmistakably New Orleans is the jazz second line. The term comes from the locals who would dance behind the parade or the band - the first line - down the street. Now it's a more organized event, and you can hire a brass band and get a permit and have your own parade. (Have you seen this Hannibal Buress sketch on second lines from last week on Jimmy Fallon? He describes it perfectly and it's hilarious.)
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| Taking over the street for a second line./Photo by Heirloom Collective Photography |
A great way to incorporate the second line is to parade from the ceremony to the reception space. It's a little awkward, if you're taking photos in the church after the reception, because guests have to wait outside, but I suppose it works out. Another option is to second line from the reception to the after party or hotel, which means you might end up with a smaller crowd, if people don't stick around all the way to the end of the reception.
It pains me severely to say we won't be doing this! Our church and reception are nowhere within walking distance from each other, so that option is out. And I don't know if we'd want to count on enough people staying til the very end to make it worth it, especially since we need to hire an extra band and get a permit. I've never actually been a part of a second line through the streets, but I've always seen it as a parade around the reception hall while some jazz music plays, so that's what we'll be doing.
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| An indoor second line parade, complete with umbrellas./Photo by Amelia Strauss Photography |
Even with an indoor parade, the bride and groom must have decorated umbrellas, and the guests need napkins to wave as they dance. I've got some ideas to DIY our umbrellas, so I'll be sharing that with you whenever I get around to doing it.
Money Dance
There's endless rounds of forum debates out there trying to come to decide if the money dance is rude or expected, and I think it all comes down to what is customary in your circle. While I think the money dance is pretty common in our area, it's just not something we're interested in doing so we'll be skipping it.
And that's pretty much it for New Orleans traditions, I'll have to share the list of what we're doing and what we're skipping concerning other wedding traditions sometime soon.
What's your opinion, should we just go for the second line after the reception no matter how many people are left? Were there any local traditions that you just had to incorporate for your wedding?
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