Dawson – Farris Wedding
— by Judi Russell
photos: Oscar Rajo
Lindsay & Joe
The setting was historically romantic when Lindsay Taylor Farris married Joseph Edwin Dawson on Oct. 14, 2006. The couple said their vows under the magnificent oak trees at Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, and then entertained kith and kin at an outdoor reception on the plantation’s beautiful grounds. Lindsay is the daughter of Dr. Patricia Kokoshis Farris and Dr. Philip Randall Farris. Joe is the son of Mary Francis Hand Dawson and Edwin Rocco Dawson, who live in Atlanta, Ga.
The couple met on a blind date when they were students at the University of Kentucky, and Joe proposed while the two were revisiting the campus. He popped the question on the same spot where they had met, then as a surprise for Lindsay, the duo went to go meet family and friends at a nearby restaurant.
Lindsay attended Metairie Park Country Day School and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky in the field of International Economics. Joe graduated from Kentucky in marketing and management. They chose Oak Alley for their wedding because Lindsay is a friend and former schoolmate of Zeb Mayhew III, whose father is the proprietor of the plantation, and she had many fond memories of visits there. The bride says one of her most special moments came when she and Joe took a few quiet moments to walk down the famous alley of oak trees to the Mississippi River.
For her wedding, Lindsay selected a strapless, ivory Christo gown with a lace bodice and train, which she purchased at Town and Country. She wore the pearls her father gave to her mother when they were married, as well as a blue University of Kentucky garter. Her bridesmaids wore black crepe, floor-length gowns by Vera Wang. Her bridal attendants wore strapless, champagne-colored Vera Wang dresses with black satin sashes. The bride’s bouquet was made up of antique ivory roses, while her attendants all carried bouquets of antique pink roses. Jill Mercer arranged the flowers.
After Rev. Daniel Duke performed the ceremony, guests were treated to such Louisiana delicacies as oysters on the half shell, crawfish beignets and freshly fried shrimp along with filet mignon. The wedding cake was a traditional three-tiered confection ornamented with white roses. Joe’s cake was blue and white checks in honor of the bride and groom’s alma mater. Rockin’ Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters provided the music, which kept everybody on their feet to the band’s Cajun beat.
Rockin’ Dopsie played his washboard as Lindsay, Joe and their guests second-lined to the limousine that took the newlyweds to the Omni Royal Orleans. They honeymooned in St. Lucia and now live in Washington, D.C., where Lindsay is a contract specialist for the U.S. Agency for International Development and Joe is a sales specialist for Ferguson Industries.
Front row: Ring bearer Blake Bruno, flower girl Katherine Solomon, ring bearer Chase Bruno with (second row) Jared Marcum, Patrick Flynn, Julia Buerger, Jessica Farris, Ashley Peterson, Jennifer Farris, Lindsay and Joe, Kelley Farris, Lauren Vosbein, Savanna Farris, Ashley Angelico, Greg Dawson and Ryan Whelan.
Jennifer Farris, Dr. Patricia K. Farris, Lindsay and Joe, and Kelley Farris
Savanna Farris, Jennifer Farris, Lindsay, Dr. Philip Farris, Kelley Farris and Jessica Farris
Edwin Dawson, Mary Francis Dawson, Lindsay and Joe, and Gregory Dawson
Rockin’ Dopsie Jr., Lindsay and Joe second-line guests back to the buses for their departure.
Brown – Rodriguez Wedding
— by Judi Russell
photos: Trisha Hardin
Proposals don’t get more original than the one Clifford Villere Brown used to ask Eleanor (Ellie) Legier Rodriguez to marry him. Ellie had recently bought a house, and Clifford gave her a big box of towels with had what would be her married initials on them. The next day, he gave her a ring.
Ellie and Clifford married on Aug. 26, 2006, at Trinity Episcopal Church. Their reception was held at New Orleans Country Club. Ellie is a daughter of Elizabeth and Edwin “Rod” Rodriguez; Clifford’s parents are Teeta Gsell Brown and the late William E. Brown.
For her big day, Ellie wore a strapless, ivory, form-fitting gown decorated with horizontal rows of Alencon lace. Her bridesmaids wore ice-blue strapless gowns. The dresses were ordered in Washington, D.C., when Ellie was there visiting her sister, Betsy, who was her matron of honor.
The country club was decorated in a summer garden theme, with lots of pink and white flowers. Rohm’s Floral Designs did the honors; Ellie’s mother is a good friend of Rohm’s owners, Annie and Cricket Heumann. In fact, friendship was another theme of the wedding—many of the people who participated in the event were good friends of the family. “Everyone had a connection for me,” Ellie’s mother Elizabeth says. For example, the ceremony was performed by Michael Kuhn, headmaster at Trinity Episcopal School, who was Ellie’s eighth grade math teacher when she attended Trinity. Another family friend, Claudia Kelleher, helped with the wedding and designed personalized umbrellas that were used when the wedding party second-lined out of the door. At the ceremony, Kathy Kvet, music director at Metairie Park Country Day School, played the trumpet. The band Jubilation—another Country Day connection—provided the music, while Trisha Hardin did the photography. Trisha’s parents, Patsy and Simms Hardin, are longtime friends of the bride’s family.
Ellie is a graduate of Metairie Park Country Day School and Tulane University. Clifford attended Jesuit High School and the University of Alabama. The two knew each other for years—their mothers went to high school together and at one point dated brothers. Clifford and Ellie began dating when he was a senior at Jesuit and she had entered Tulane.
To reflect Clifford’s alma mater, the couple had red and white M&M candies emblazoned with “Roll Tide” at the reception. Other delights included the cakes made by Maurice’s French Bakery. Ellie’s cake was a traditional wedding cake with almond and buttercream icing, while Clifford’s chocolate confection resembled a duck in a marsh because he is an avid hunter.
The newlyweds enjoyed a honeymoon in Maui, Hawaii, and now live in Metairie, where they renovated a Katrina-damaged house. They own and operate a business in Elmwood.
The wedding party: top row: Chappell Williams, Mary Kostmayer, Liz Landry, Casey Westguard, Leslie Meyers, Gordon Brown, Scott Geary, Ashton Laborde, William Brown, Trey Lanaux and Miller Phillips; second row: Anna Thompson, Mary McIlhenny, Abby Foley, Kristin Weidner, Betsy Jaeger, Ellie and Clifford, Richard Rodriguez, Justin Bullen, George Gilly, Charlie Brown and BJ Conrad; third row: Matt Jaeger, Totty Kostmayer, Al Navarro and Richard Marshall; fourth row: Clay Koenig and Brent Keith Children in front: Nicole Gsell, Jack Merritt and Emily Johnson
Matt Jaeger, Betsy Jaeger, Richard Rodriguez, Ellie and Clifford, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Rod Rodriguez
Ellie and her dad Rod Rodriguez
William Brown, Anne Gsell, Ellie and Clifford, Teeta Brown and Gordon Brown
Jack Merritt, Emily Johnson, Ellie, and Nicole Gsell
Church – Conway Wedding
photos: Barbara Greaney/Dennis Greaney Photography
Jessica & Ford
Bayou State friends and family were happy to make the trip to Michigan when New Orleans native Ford Reese Church and his bride, Jessica Marie Conway, tied the knot in Detroit at St. Mary’s Chapel, Marygrove College, on Oct. 21, 2006. The wedding was followed by a reception at historic Lovett Hall, part of the Henry Ford Museum. Ford is the son of Beverly and Dr. John Church, Jr. Jessica is a native of Birmingham, Mich., and her parents are Susan and Dr. William Conway, Jr.
Ford and Jessica met at a wedding in Crested Butte, Colo., and dated for
several years before he proposed in Colorado. He had planned a mountain proposal during a day of skiing, but the weather intervened and he popped the question
at a restaurant instead.
The wedding was a family affair—Jessica’s four sisters were her maid of honor and bridesmaids, while Ford’s best man was his older brother, John Mark Church III.
For the wedding, Jessica chose a silk organza strapless dress by Mikaella, with a dropped waist and silk ribbon detail around the middle and along the bottom. Because fall is one of the couple’s favorite seasons, the wedding colors were deep reds, bronzes, browns and bits of lime accented with golds and oranges. Her bridesmaids wore brick-red dresses. The wedding flowers were done by a Conway family friend, Molly Robinson, and included roses in fall colors, green berries and white hydrangeas. The bridal bouquet was red berries, greenery, white roses and hydrangeas, and every third pew in the church was decorated with fall-colored roses and sheer red bows.
Jessica says one of the highlights of the wedding was the band, a Detroit Motown group called The Sun Messengers. “Ford and I never left the dance floor,” she says. A friend of hers from college played the bagpipes outside of the church as people entered and left the ceremony.
Jessica’s cake was four square layers, alternating white and chocolate cake with either chocolate mousse or Bavarian crème fillings. The top layer had a monogram with the letter “C,” and other layers had ribbon detail to match her dress.
For a unique way to show people the numbers of the tables at the reception, the couple created “table number” cards by using photographs of themselves in various places during various seasons. In lieu of wedding favors, Jessica and Ford made a donation to a nonprofit organization in New Orleans, KIDsmART, and at each place setting they placed cards—festooned with mini-pralines—explaining the organization. The honeymoon was in Kauai, Hawaii.
Jessica received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Boston College and a master’s of science in pediatric nursing from the University of Michigan. Ford is a graduate of St. Martin’s Episcopal School. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Denver and a master’s from Prescott College in Arizona. The couple lives in Denver, where she is a pediatric nurse practitioner in cardiology at the Children’s Hospital and Ford is the founder and executive director of an educational nonprofit organization called the Cottonwood Institute.
Shane Conway, Colleen Conway Grace, William Conway, Jessica, Susan Conway, Kerry Conway and Caitlin Conway
John Mark Church, Dottie Church, Jessica and Ford, Beverly Church and Dr. John Church
Jessica and Ford
Scott Grace, Michael Jospe, Scott Beckett, Ford, John Mark Church, Byrne Reese and Brent Beaulieu
Thomason – Guilloud Wedding
— by Judi Russell
Renée& John
When Houston native Anna Renée Guilloud married New Orleanian John Reily Thomason, she lent a touch of the Crescent City to the Texas ceremony. The Oct. 28, 2006, wedding was held at the Petroleum Club in Houston—the same place Renée’s parents were married—and as the couple went from the ceremony to the reception, a New Orleans jazz band led the way.
Renée is the daughter of Garry Lee Guilloud and Nancy Britton Guilloud. John Reily’s parents are Herndon Joseph (Chuck) Thomason and Cathy Reily Thomason. John Reily attended St. Martin’s Episcopal School and Louisiana State University, while Renée is a graduate of Episcopal High School in Houston, the University of Texas and South Texas College of Law. The couple met in that time-tested way: through friends.
For her wedding, Renée chose a form-fitting, straight, white gown by Watters. The dress had a halter-top and two layers of material to give a silky effect. Her attendants wore black dresses of their own choosing. “They looked beautiful,” she says. The flowers had an Asian theme, with birds of paradise and other tropicals, and there were red flowers in between the layers of her wedding cake.
Many family ties and traditions were observed at the wedding. John Reily’s sister, Sara McIlhenny Thomason, passed away in 2003, and the couple toasted the cake-cutting ceremony with Sara’s silver goblet, which had been a gift from her godmother, Sally Hewitt of Calgary, Alberta. Instead of a bouquet, Reneé carried a pearl-encrusted Bible from the Holy Land that her father had given to her grandmother. And John Reily’s wedding band was his grandfather’s, Charles S. Reily Jr. It was his grandfather’s before him, Dr. Jose Murray Quin. Dr. Quin gave it to John Reily’s grandfather when he married his grandmother, Anne Brown Reily in 1945. They were both in attendance and, John Reily says, danced more than all the younger people that night.
Renée says her favorite memory of the wedding was the fact that so many relatives and friends were there. “Everywhere we looked were people we cared about,” she says. She is also learning to love New Orleans, and looks forward to visiting here many times as John Reily’s wife.
The couple honeymooned in Bora Bora and now live in Houston, where Renée is a partner with the law firm of Simoneaux, Frey and Thomason, and John Reily is director of development for D.R. Horton.
The wedding party: Front row: Sarah Holdey, Nicole Chamberlain, Cassie Bale, Shannon McElvoy, Anna Verhami, Katie Mullins, Carrye Gilliland, Katie Williams, Ellen Burns, Rachel Hopson, Kelly Ahrens and Cara Alexander with (second row) Tommy Gamard, Sam Guilloud, Jason Conway, Jonathan Schenk, Dominick Bartolotta, Taylor Nobles, Foster Schlosser, Ben Prevost, Renée and John Reily, Duke Kerrigan, Dudley Simmons, Matthew Moeller, Charles Labouisse, Chris Dozier, Porter Holden, Bradford Sutherlin and Carson Green
Garry Guilloud, Nancy Guilloud, Renée and John Reily, Stephanie Guilloud and Sam Guilloud
Charles S. Reily Jr., Anne Reily, Renée and John Reily, Cathy Thomason and Chuck Thomason
Charles S. Reily Jr. and Renée
Deutcsh – Adams Wedding
by Judi Russell
photos: Grevy Photography
Leigh & Arthur
When Leigh Gardner Adams married Arthur Vincent Deutcsh II, tradition and spontaneity combined to make for a memorable evening. Leigh, the daughter of Judy and Ted Adams, and Arthur, whose parents are Elaine and Arthur Deutcsh, tied the knot on Sept. 30, 2006, at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. A reception followed at the Orléans Club.
Tradition came in several forms. Arthur’s father was his best man, and Leigh held a
handkerchief her mother had carried in her wedding. Leigh also wore a necklace featuring her grandmother’s engagement diamond. Her mother had it made into a necklace especially for the wedding. Her wedding cake from Zoe’s Bakery was a replica of her parents’ wedding cake. The bakery used pictures to duplicate the four-tiered confection decorated with cascading cream and blush roses and lilies of the valley made of frosting. The couple honeymooned at the Cloisters on Sea Island, Ga., where her grandparents went on their honeymoon in 1944, before going on to La Palmilla Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico.
A lot of the fun came from the 10-piece band, Hotwire, from Mobile, Ala., which kept the crowd on their feet. “We danced all night long,” Leigh says. At one point, Arthur joined the band to play “Sweet Home Alabama,” which was particularly appropriate because he and Leigh attended the University of Alabama.
Arthur is a native of Birmingham, Ala., while Leigh is a local who graduated from St. Martin’s Episcopal School. The couple originally met in college and began dating more than three years ago. They became engaged in February 2006.
For her walk down the aisle, Leigh wore a Priscilla of Boston-designed A-line, ivory, strapless gown made of Duchess satin. Her only attendant was her sister, who wore a Priscilla of Boston gown as well. “We kept it simple,” Leigh says. Meade Wenzel coordinated the flowers, which included blush, white and light pink roses, and pale-green hydrangeas. Fresh flowers also adorned the top of the wedding cake.
Arthur’s groom’s cake showed him on a surfboard, catching a wave. “He loves surfing,” Leigh says. Wedding favors from Blue Frog Chocolates were a chocolate bride and groom on a Popsicle stick.
Leigh and Arthur live in Old Metairie and own Fairway Development Corp., a construction company.
Perrien – Hunley Wedding
by Judi Russell
photos: Trisha Hardin
Elizabeth & James
Invitations help set the tone for a wedding, and when Elizabeth-Anne Hunley, daughter of Betty and Patrick Hunley, married Dr. James Louis Perrien Jr., son of Mimsy and Jim Perrien, in April, that was especially true. Elizabeth’s mother owns Betty Hunley Designs, and she says her invitations were “the most amazing part of the whole wedding.” The Crane invitations included a gold bevel-edge card and envelopes lined in gold feather-tissue paper. Betty Hunley did the calligraphy for all of the envelopes, while Maria-Helena did the calligraphy for the invitations, which were engraved in gold ink.
Elizabeth and James were married on April 28, 2007, at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, her alma mater. The reception was held at the Orléans Club. The couple met at the University of Alabama, where they both attended college. James also is a
graduate of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, Ala., and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical School.
Elizabeth chose a Vera Wang gown from Mimi for her wedding. The dress was a simple, strapless design with a large knot at the back that created a long train. She wore her great-grandmother’s engagement ring on her right hand as her “borrowed” item, and with her bouquet she carried a monogrammed handkerchief that came from a family friend of the Perriens.
In keeping with the wedding colors of creams and golds, the bridesmaids wore long, strapless gowns in a creamy yellow color. Three of James’s cousins served as ring bearer and flower girls. Mimsy Perrien made the flower girls’ dresses and the pillow carried by the ring bearer from antique lace she had in her family. “The dresses were gorgeous,” Elizabeth says. Audubon Flowers did the floral arrangements and bouquets. The bride carried tulips, lily of the valley and lilies, and the bridesmaids carried lilies and blue-tipped hydrangeas. The flower girls wore wreaths of spray roses.
Zoe’s Bakery provided the bride’s and groom’s cakes. The bride’s cake was decorated after a variety of eyelet patterns, while James’s cake was chocolate mousse ornamented with mosaic chips of chocolate.
One special moment at the reception occurred when the band ELS called James
up to serenade his new wife to “My Girl,” with both fathers singing backup. The
couple’s first dance was to Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love.”
The couple honeymooned in Italy for two and a half weeks, in such romantic spots as Positano, Lake Como and the Amalfi Coast. They recently moved to St. Louis, Mo., where James is beginning his internal medicine residency at Barnes Jewish Hospital and Elizabeth is an interior designer.
Jim and Mimsy Perrien, James and Elizabeth, and Betty and Patrick Hunley
Clockwise from bride: Elizabeth, Nicole Laan, Clare Colton, Claire Meunier, Meredith Vulevich, Elisabeth Laborde, Meg Stewart, Annie Tompkins, Courtney Trufant, Ginger Logan, Janelle Ball, Megan Perrien, C’Airey Parker, Kelly Keel and Kit Perrien.
First row: Richard Marshall, Jeff Bolt, Stephen Quinlivan, Todd Crowley and Matt Quinn; second row: Patrick Hunley, Sammy Zoghby, James, Nathan Dunn and Andy Webb; third row: Joe Gonzales, Pat Hammes, Jim Perrien, Brett Wilborn and David Patton
Elizabeth, Audrey Mann, Louise Ory, James and Jack Mann