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Where to celebrate?
From fancy to funky, modern to historic, venues offer a range of settings to personalize by Lee J. Green
Ritz-Carlton New Orleans
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events@workplay.com • (205) 879-4773 ext 4001 Check our concert calendar at workplay.com 36 Southern Jewish Life • May/June 2018
How can one tell that the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans won over members of the Jewish community who hosting weddings and receptions there? They also were asked to host one-year anniversary parties. “We were so happy with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel New Orleans,” said New Orleans Jewish Community Center Executive Director Leslie Fischman, whose daughter, Annie, married Jon Mizrahi there last June. “They really bent over backwards to accommodate us and the spaces were perfect for everything we needed.” They started the festivities with a Shabbat dinner at the hotel. Since the groom’s family keeps kosher, the hotel was able to specially accommodate. Saturday night, Touro Synagogue hosted the rehearsal dinner, but there was an after-party at the hotel’s Davenport Lounge. Then they had a Second Line, along with some Zulu krewe members, marching through the hotel with the wedding guests. The wedding, attended by 250 people on that Sunday, was “very memorable and everything went so smoothly. We didn’t have to worry about a thing.” They also had 70 guests stay at the hotel during the weekend. The festivities concluded with a nice Monday brunch at the Ritz-Carlton. The hotel also hosted the Maggie Glaser-Jeffrey Wolfson wedding reception in October 2016, also attended by 250 people. The wedding was at Touro, and Oscar Rajo was the photographer. Menu items included Portobello mushroom, beef sliders and beignets, which took on special meaning. “Their Pomeranian, Beignet, was a big part of the weekend, so he had to be incorporated into all parts,” said Ritz-Carlton Hotel New Orleans Communications Director Annie Jones. “We did a Beignet Bubbly Cocktail for this wedding, as well as Beignet Cones with miniature beignets and photos of the dog.” She said Beignet was there with his parents for their one-year anPhoto by Oscar Rajo niversary celebration one year later Jeffrey Wolfson, Maggie Glaser and was given a VIP experience. He and Beignet even has his own Instagram page. Also coming back to the Ritz Carlton to have their one-year anniversary celebration was the couple of Lenger/Silverman. The bride owns her own luxury travel agency and hosted all of their vendors to a special dinner. For the wedding, Jones said, “the food was very extensive. It was the heaviest cocktail hour I have seen in my 13-year career with the Ritz-Carlton. We spent months prior working on this menu until it was perfect and kosher-style.” They made the challah loaves in-house and there was an extensive dessert bar. A family heirloom was incorporated into the elaborate chuppah,