Race & Religious Wedding Photographer

Race & Religious takes its name from the two streets its corner sits on, in the Lower Garden District. Nearly two centuries of buildings behind one gate.

It isn't a venue in the usual sense. It's a compound. Three structures around a courtyard: a three-story Greek Revival rowhouse and a pair of Creole cottages, with balconies looking down into the middle of it all. Bougainvillea along the walls. A pool lit by gas lamps after dark.

Inside, almost nothing has been smoothed over. Original moldings. Unvarnished staircases worn down by two hundred years of feet. Most New Orleans venues have been restored until they photograph like a set. This one still photographs like a place.

Getting ready

Everyone gets ready on site, and both sides get their own building. That alone puts it ahead of most of the city, where the morning happens in a hotel across town and the day starts with a car ride.

The bridal suite is on the second floor. Massive windows, light soft enough to shape however you want it, and furniture curated well enough that the still lifes almost make themselves. Room for a large wedding party without anyone backed into a corner. The third floor has the same window light and a layout odd enough to keep handing you something different.

All of it indoors. All of it in air conditioning. In New Orleans that is not a small thing.

The groom's building is separate, and it has its own character. A little more masculine. Recessed windows throwing isolated pockets of light. Lounge furniture, so a large group of groomsmen can actually sit down.

A bride being helped into her lehenga in the second-floor bridal suite at Race & Religious in New Orleans

THE COURTYARD

Once everyone's ready, the outside is where this place earns it.

Patina on the walls with vines running over them. Passageways connecting the buildings. A pool throwing reflections back up. There are compositions in every direction, which is rarer than it sounds.

The afternoon light falls where you want it. The ceremony usually happens under the balcony with guests lined around the pool, and that's the hour the courtyard is at its best.