Recenly, New Orleans florist Fat Cat Flowers posted a video featuring gorgeous bouquets, but it was what was in the background that caught our eye.
Part of the video was a table setup with a vase of flowers and a book with a few pens next to it. The book, we realized, was a Renaissance Publishing original – our “Essential Louisiana Seafood Cookbook.”
Traditional wedding guestbooks are a thing of the past. For years, local couples have been using their creativity to come up with new ways to remember their wedding guests.
Our favorite includes things that can be displayed – like a Simon sign with the couple’s last name – and enhance a couple’s home for years to come.
One popular way to switch up a guestbook is, like the couple featured in the video, a book!
Unfortunately, the “Essential Louisiana Seafood Cookbook” is sold out, but we have a few other local book options we love that would look great on your coffee table and act perfectly as a wedding guestbook.
“The Essential New Orleans Cookbook” is a great substitute cookbook for the Renaissance Publishing seafood cookbook.
About
“This book offers recipes from the kitchen of Dale Curry, the city’s senior culinary writer, who has served as food editor for The Times-Picayune and then New Orleans Magazine. Adding spice to the mix is the splendid work of veteran photographer Eugenie Uhl, who captures the colors and textures of grand meals. Enjoy the experience with a book that is good for cookin’ and great for lookin’.”
Keeping with the cookbook theme, but with a twist befitting of the author, is Poppy Tooker’s “Drag Queen Brunch.”
About
“Tag along with Poppy’s bevy of rollicking drag queens for an unforgettable time. Stunning photos of glamorous divas vie with world-famous brunch dishes bringing a surprise with every turn of the page. A portion of the proceeds to benefit CrescentCare.”
Because New Orleans is a foodie town that likes to host the greatest free show on earth (Mardi Gras), “The Big Book of King Cake” is great for that Carnival-loving couple.
About
“’You can imagine how amazed I was to learn there has never been a book dedicated to king cakes,’ said author Matt Haines. The Big Book of King Cake changes that with 368 pages of beautiful photography featuring more than one hundred and fifty unique king cakes, as well as stories from the diverse and talented bakers who make them.”
Keeping with Carnival, but highlighting the women of New Orleans is Cheryl Gerber’s “Cherchez la Femme: New Orleans Women.”
About
“New Orleans native Cheryl Gerber captures the vibrancy and diversity of New Orleans women in ‘Cherchez la Femme: New Orleans Women.’ Inspired by the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, D.C., Gerber’s book includes over two hundred photographs of the city’s most well-known women and the everyday women who make New Orleans so rich and diverse. Drawing from her own archives as well as new works, Gerber’s selection of photographs in ‘Cherchez la Femme’ highlights the contributions of women to the city, making it one of the only photographic histories of modern New Orleans women. Alongside Gerber’s photographs are 12 essays written by female writers about such women as Leah Chase, Irma Thomas, Mignon Faget, and Trixie Minx. Also featured are prominent groups of women that have made their mark on the city, like the Mardi Gras Indians, Baby Dolls, and the Krewe of Muses, among others.”
And finally, though not the end of the list of books about New Orleans history and culture, is Renaissance Publishing’s “Essential New Orleans: 15 Places We Love.”
About
“In celebration of New Orleans Magazine’s 50th anniversary, the publication presented its first-ever hardcover book. With beautiful photography and thoughtful words, the book honors 15 of the magazine’s favorite places throughout the city.”
(Disclosure: LTEC and New Orleans Bride editor Melanie Warner Spencer contributed one of the essays in “Cherchez la Femme” and in “Essential New Orleans: 15 Places We Love.)
