Bliss in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — When it was obvious Hurricane Katrina had laid waste to New Orleans, bride-to-be Lauren Francingues told her wedding planner, “It’s not going to happen.”

It was a call received by wedding planners, florists, cake makers, calligraphers, dress designers and horse-carriage handlers who saw their industry all but disappear after last year’s storm turned New Orleans — the country’s No. 3 wedding destination, according to one poll — into a debris heap.

Yet a month later Francingues called the planner back, saying: “Reschedule it — in the spring.”

While many parts of the local economy continue to sputter, weddings are at a fever pitch. Not only are venues being booked by the regular wave of nuptials, but those forced to cancel ceremonies last fall have rescheduled to this spring and summer, multiplying the load.

There were almost 1,500 wedding announcements in the latest quarterly issue of Bob Walker’s New Orleans Wedding Guide, the city’s oldest and most established, compared to 1,200 for the same period a year ago. And every month since January, roughly 35 couples have attended the Catholic Archdiocese’s mandatory prenuptial seminar, up from 25 a year ago. And at the state marriage license office, clerks are staying late to accommodate the wave of couples.

“It reminds me of Valentine’s Day. Except it’s like Valentine’s Day all the time,” said Brenda Hurst, a director in the marriage license division of the state’s Vital Records Office.

That’s translating into a booked calendar at reception venues throughout the city.

Francingues, 27, who’d been due to marry six weeks after Katrina, became so frustrated she considered eloping to Las Vegas.

“All I heard was, ‘No, it’s booked. No, it’s booked.’ It was roadblock after roadblock,” she said.

She had to compromise on a Sunday wedding, less desirable than Saturday because out-of-town guests will likely need to stay over beyond the weekend.

Throughout the city, reception hall managers and church administrators say they’re even booking weddings for Thursdays and Fridays, more unusual still, at churches like St. Louis Cathedral.

Founded in 1721, the city’s 286-year-old mother church is one of the most recognizable symbols of New Orleans, and securing a wedding date has never been easy, although usually it could be done within one calendar year. Now, wedding coordinator Kevin Charpentier warns brides that if they want a Saturday evening ceremony, they’ll likely have to wait two years.

To be sure, part of the crunch is the result of dozens of churches and venues being destroyed. St. Louis Cathedral, says Charpentier, has made room for many weddings originally scheduled at other churches.

Yet venues are so booked that some brides-to-be find themselves unable to marry at all.

“Every time I try to schedule something, either my photographer can’t do it, or I can’t get the place I want. Then I get really upset and decide to put it off for a while,” said Tara Williams, who was to have 250 people at her wedding last September.

The 29-year-old, who got engaged a year and a half ago, said she came home from saying “Yes” and immediately sat down at her computer, opened a spreadsheet and began planning her Perfect Day. It was all laid out: Her maids’ silken dresses, the bow-tied invitations, the orchid and heather bouquet.

After Katrina, she went ahead and had a civil ceremony in order to formalize her relationship, but she’s been unable to find a date for her formal wedding. Now, she says she’s living in limbo, unable to move on until she has a proper ceremony.

“I cried more after the storm about my wedding than about my house getting flooded,” she said.

That type of angst is turning into sales for those who emboss invitations and inscribe wedding cakes, those who set diamonds and arrange Calla lilies into tightly wound bouquets.

Before the storm, pastry chef David Haydel Sr. turned out 35 to 38 wedding cakes each week in the bakery his father founded in the 1950s. Now, Haydel’s Bakery is averaging 45 to 50 wedding cakes per week, and he’s fielding calls for as many as 70.

Others are also turning away future brides, like wedding planner Jennie Keller, who plans upscale weddings costing upward of $100,000. She’s booked through the fall of next year.

And it’s not just the young getting married. Brenda Hurst says she sees a number of older faces come into the marriage license office every day, explaining they’ve lived together unmarried for years.

“Hurricane Katrina was like a wake-up call,” she said. “They say to themselves, ‘It’s time to do this.”’