“It’s completely crazy, classy and trashy,” said Dana Abbott, describing the French Quarter Wedding Chapel. The new WE TV series, Big Easy Brides, shows the weddings that take place at the 24/7 chapel as well as the lives of the employees who work there. Abbott has been working at the chapel for the past two years playing everything from “Here Comes the Bride” to whatever the happy couple wants. As the chapel musician, she prepares the music for the chapel; sings; and plays guitar, piano and an array of instruments for wedding ceremonies.
Originally from Vermont and Chicago, Abbott has been living in New Orleans for six and a half years. “I started working for the chapel two years ago because I needed the extra cash on the side,” says Abbott. “I was playing with my band, the seven-piece Dana Abbott Band. We play a lot of R&B and Motown.”
Abbott added that she loves the chapel because she can still have her band while playing for Reverend Tony and Lou Ann Talavera. “I love it because I get to showcase what I do and what my band does,” she says. Abbott works whenever there’s a wedding, which she said is about five to six days a week. “My favorite memory with the band [on the show] is we had a Cajun wedding. We never played zydeco and we learned a few songs on the fly. It was fun.
“I love, love, love working for Tony and Lou Ann,” says Abbott. “There are a lot of gay weddings. It may not be legal, but at least they have a ceremony. My favorite thing about the show is that it’s about good people and what they do. The owners are beautiful people.”
Because the French Quarter Wedding Chapel is one of a kind in New Orleans, many of the couple who frequent it are unconventional brides and grooms, she says. “I’d say that the weddings that we do are about 40 percent expected to be traditional brides, but they are punk. The other 60 percent is brides that you’d think would be punk, but they want a traditional wedding. You need a good sense of humor and you need to be down to earth to work in this business. If you have those two things, the wedding will go well.”
Patience can be tested, said Abbott, especially at 3 a.m. when drunk couples want to get married, says Abbott. Those couples aren’t always allowed to get married, but if they’re thought to be sober enough, their weddings tend to be spontaneous. “There are a lot of traditional weddings with Pachelbel’s [Canon in D], but I prefer the fun, off-the-cuff weddings.” Off the cuff would be right. In the first episode, the weddings included a pub crawl wedding and a trailer park-themed wedding. “My most memorable wedding was a vampire wedding,” Abbott says. “It was at a mortuary. It was gorgeous, with a voodoo cleanse. They were so in love and I don’t really believe in vampires, but I think it was cool.”
WE TV’s Big Easy Brides will air Sundays at 10 p.m. CDT.
