WEDDING DESIGN DIRECTION IN NEW ORLEANSA Beautiful Wedding Doesn’t Just Happen — It’s Designed
Soigné Styling offers wedding design direction for couples who have already secured planning support, because an exceptional wedding is equal parts logistics and design.
Featured by Loverly, The Avenue, Southern Bride, InRegister Weddings, Perfête and New Orleans Bride.
Every design decision, made in harmony.
Every wedding requires countless design decisions, made on cascading timelines, in concert with multiple vendors. But for many couples, it can be challenging to see how these decisions fit together to create an overall aesthetic.
For others, the challenge lies in defining what their aesthetic vision even is.
That’s the role Soigné Styling plays as your wedding designer: we work in partnership with you and your planner.
They handle the logistics and production.
We clarify how you want your wedding to look and feel, then design in service of your vision.
Wedding design direction is a complement to your planner’s work.
As you may already know, most venues in New Orleans require couples to work with a planner or coordinator. But their work may not begin until 90 days out—long after your design direction needs to be set (and your vendors hired).
Many planners focus on logistics by choice. The strongest teams pair a planner with a designer. They excel at vendor management, contracts and timelines. We spend our time on how the day looks and feels.
The gap between having talented vendors and having a wedding that feels intentional and designed is real.
That’s the gap Soigné exists to bridge.
As your wedding designer, we ensure your wedding feels cohesive and composed, the result of decisions made with intention.
What it means to hire a wedding designer.
Our work considers the mood you want to evoke, the architectural character of your venue, and the guest experience you have in mind.
We ensure that every hour of your wedding day—from your guests' first steps into the venue to the ceremony, the bar, the table and the last toast—speaks the same visual language.
At the same time, we also assess how these design decisions will translate to photo and video.
The end result is a detailed, cohesive visual plan that your vendor team can execute, with on-site support from Soigné as needed.
OUR PRACTICEWedding design direction with Soigné, in practice
Once we’ve established your desired aesthetic and story, we translate it into palette, texture, proportion, lighting, balance, and atmosphere.
The reception is always ours: it’s where your guests spend the longest and where the majority of design decisions live.
Within that space, you choose the moments that matter most to you.
Some couples want to focus on the bar and the arrival. Others care about bringing elements of the ceremony into the evening, or the table where the cake sits.
We would rather direct four things you have thought about than eight you haven't.
OUR WORK TYPICALLY INCLUDES
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We think in terms of both guest experience and aesthetics, designing interactive tablescapes and vignettes that cultivate a specific ambiance.
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Your bar should be beautifully integrated into the reception design, with thoughtful styling and personal touches.
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Your ceremony and reception aren’t discrete events—they’re part of a whole. We use design to connect the two so the palette, tone, and overall aesthetic of your reception is aligned with your ceremony.
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The best-planned events balance surprise and delight with subtle direction, so guests are never guessing where to go or what to do. We’ll provide creative direction for signage, seating displays, and gifting moments.
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Your florals interact with every element of your ceremony and reception: the venue’s architecture, the tablescapes, and the bars. We establish a framework so that your florist’s work is in harmony with other décor choices we’ve made.
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The hour between ceremony and reception is often the least considered—and the most photographed. We give it somewhere to sit: lounges, a secondary bar, a path that moves your guests along effortlessly.
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Small in footprint, large in the photographs. We design the table your baker's work will sit on, and the light it will be seen in.
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Composed corners that give your guests somewhere to land, and your photographer something to find.
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The welcome party, the rehearsal dinner, the farewell brunch. Each designed as its own chapter and all in the same visual language, so your guests feel the story build across the weekend rather than begin on the day.
Some rooms arrive nearly finished, and the work is restrained — a historic parlor asks only to be answered well. Others arrive as possibilities: a tent, a courtyard, a warehouse, a ballroom with no particular opinion. Those are the rooms where design is most visible, because everything a guest sees is a decision someone made. We are glad of either.
How hiring a wedding designer transforms the entire planning process.
You’re no longer overwhelmed by the number of design decisions before you, because you have support.
Your vendors—florist, photographer, planner—are working toward a single creative vision, rather than their own interpretation.
Your photographs showcase a cohesive story, not a collection of standalone moments, however beautiful.
Each phase of your wedding day flows beautifully into the next, from the moment your guests arrive to the ceremony to the last minutes of your reception.
Your celebration has a true sense of place, tied to the history and architectural character of your venue.
You’re no longer making every design decision alone—from the chairs to the color of the linens—because we make them with you.
The Design Direction Experience
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On this short call, you share about your wedding and we share how we work. It tells us both quickly whether this is the right fit. If it is, your agreement arrives by email. Sign and place your retainer in one place, and your date is reserved.
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Sent once your date is reserved and completed before we speak at length. We begin with the essentials and move to emotional tone, color and material, your venues and their light, the vendors you’ve already booked, the references you return to. It also asks what you have set aside for florals, rentals and lighting, so the design direction is written for the wedding you are actually having.
We’ll also ask for your design boundaries: the must-haves, the must-nots, and the cultural or personal traditions you want to include.
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With your intake in hand, we spend this unhurried working session outlining the day: how your guests arrive, where they spend the reception, the moments that matter most to you, and the ones you prefer to invest less in. The intake has already laid the groundwork; this is where creative direction truly begins.
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What comes out of that conversation: one idea that every visual decision in the wedding answers to.
We name the palette and its values, the materials and textures, proportion and scale, and the intent for light,. Then we explain what that means for each space and moment you have chosen, from the reception room to the bar to the cake. We will want to know the rooms first—the venue's rules, its floor plan, where the light falls at the hour your guests walk in.
The design direction is presented to you and refined together, over up to three rounds, until every choice has a reason.
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The design direction establishes the vision. The guide translates it into action items. Your guide is organized vendor by vendor: palette with its values, materials and textures, proportion and scale, lighting intent, then the direction for each space. For each of your vendors, we identify the pages that belong to them, with sourcing named and where it comes from. The piece, the color, the finish, the quantity.
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We walk your florist, rental partners, stationer and bakery through the guide, so each is working from our shared vision, rather than their own interpretation of the guide. As their proposals and orders come in, we review them against the aesthetic direction before you confirm anything. This is the last point at which a change is simple, and it’s also the difference between a mere plan and a plan that is followed.
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The guide is mapped to your coordinator's timeline and floor plan, so the person running the day knows the look of it too. They direct the timeline, the vendors and the day. We direct the atmosphere.
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If you have chosen to have us in the room, we arrive as the install begins. We review each space against the guide, make adjustments while there is still time, carefully compose vignettes, and take a last look before your guests walk in.
If not, the guide is written so your team can bring it to life faithfully without us. Either way, what your guests find is one story, told the whole way through.
Your role is simply to walk in and recognize it as yours.
Investment
Wedding Design Direction begins at $4,500 for intimate weddings under 50 guests, and $6,500 for larger celebrations or events that span two venues. Most engagements fall between $6,000 and $12,000, depending on the number of spaces we direct, and whether we join your vendor team on the wedding day.
Every commission begins with a short discovery call. Your agreement and retainer reserve your date, and the design work opens with your Private Design Consultation.
SET UP A DISCOVERY CONVERSATION
How the vendor relationships work
Your florist, rentals, lighting, and stationer contract with you directly and invoice you directly, so you see exactly what each element costs. We direct their work; we don't mark it up. We take no commission and no referral fee from any vendor we recommend—our only fee is the one you see here.
Please note that Wedding Design Direction is not a substitute for wedding planning. Our creative direction guides your vendors’ work, but you will still need a planner or coordinator to manage contracts, timelines and production logistics.
HOW WE WORK WITH PLANNERSConsider us the micro to your macro.
While you’re managing teams, timelines, and relationships, we shape and refine the visual narrative that the vendor team will execute.
We’re an ideal complement to your services, especially if your client wants to have their wedding published. We see design through an editorial lens, aiming for a cohesive aesthetic and story punctuated with eye-catching vignettes.
Our wedding design services are best suited for couples who:
✓ Have hired a planner or month-of coordinator whose services do not include holistic design
✓ Have been offered design as part of a planning package, but it leans toward a moodboard rather than a design plan
✓ Have plenty of inspiration saved, but struggle to translate it into a cohesive design plan
✓ Are planning from outside New Orleans, and you want your wedding to have a true sense of place
✓ Have set publication as a goal, and want to carefully curate each frame of their wedding with an editorial eye
✓ Are marrying in a room that asks for transformation—a tent, a courtyard, a warehouse, a ballroom with no particular opinion
On the other hand, you may not need a wedding designer if:
– You’re working with a full-service planner who includes design as part of their packages.
– You’re extremely hands-on, already have a clear vision, and relish the idea of making design decisions for your wedding.
OUR PORTFOLIO
A FRENCH ATELIER / NEW ORLEANS
Hotel Peter and Paul
BEAUTY OF RITUAL/ NEW ORLEANS
The Celestine
Questions About Wedding Design Direction
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Your wedding planner manages logistics, timelines, and production, as well as overseeing vendors. In a given week, they might help you vet photographers, negotiate a catering contract, or create a day-of timeline for the wedding party.
We’re focused on visual storytelling, ensuring that each element of your celebration feels like one chapter of a single story, rather than a series of lovely but unrelated events.
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Yes. We’ve structured our wedding design services so they fit seamlessly into your planner’s workflows.
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We specify them—the piece, the color, the finish, the quantity—and we review the order against your design direction before it's confirmed. The order itself is placed by you or your coordinator, directly with the rental house, so the contract and the relationship stay yours.
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In an ideal timeline, a wedding designer is most helpful before you’ve signed contracts with key vendors, like a florist or a rentals company. When we establish design direction first, we can choose vendors with that in mind.
That said, many couples come to us later in the planning stage, when they realize how many design decisions need to be made.
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As much as we’d love to, there are many factors at play when you seek to have your wedding published, so we can’t make any guarantees.
However, if you’re interested in publication, please let us know when you hire us as your wedding designer. We’ll let our knowledge of editorial currents and publication-worthy moments guide the design.
Your Wedding Should Be a Work of Art
INQUIRE WITH US
You bring the story. We bring the eye and a design plan your vendors can build from.