NEW ORLEANS — The evacuation zone surrounding the Hard Rock Hotel collapse is affecting tourism, traffic, businesses, residents, and now even weddings. This weekend, the disaster is sending brides into a panic because as many as six wedding venues are now off-limits for Saturday.
Some planners are scrambling to find new venues and organize new contracts with just hours notice, during the busiest month of the year for weddings in New Orleans.
Washington, D.C. bride Desiree Cormier, arrived Friday for her Sunday wedding. She saw her new wedding venue for the first time, just two days before the big day.
"I woke up around midnight and saw a text from Becky, our wedding planner, and she asked if I could talk," Cormier said. "I figured something was wrong if she was calling that late."
Cormier and her fiancé, Joel Smith, had planned a courtyard wedding at the New Orleans Athletic Club for Sunday. That venue is now stranded behind ribbons of police tape, one block from the Hard Rock Hotel collapse site.
Cormier said, while on the phone with her planner, "I think she realized I didn't realize the severity of it, so she said 'you might not be able to use that venue. We're going to have to find you a new venue,' and that was about a week before our wedding."
The planner, Becky Lampp, of Spanish Oak Events, got to work immediately. Within hours, Lampp had negotiated and relocated the venue, caterer, flowers, second line parade, and everything else to the Gallery Venue at Tomas Bistro.
"We made it happen," Lampp said. "New Orleans is so small to begin with, but then the wedding industry is even smaller. Everyone's just so supportive of each other, and everyone came together. I told my client, 'give people the opportunity and they will rise up,' and that's exactly what happened."
Vendors, including the Athletic Club, gave back some or all of the couples' deposits. Businesses and vendors like The Gallery offered their help.
"It's somebody that's going through a little bit of a challenge, and we pulled it together — all of us — and made it happen," said Zeid Ammari, one of the co-owners of The Gallery.
Now, Cormier will still become a Smith, despite the tragedy just down the street; a happy ending, as the Smiths begin their happily ever after.
"I knew it would all work out. I just had faith in God that it would work out and faith in Becky that it would work out!" she said.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.