REAL WEDDING:: Amelie Gelpi + Chuck Lyles {BIG LOVE IN THE BIG EASY}

::AS SEEN IN THE SPRING+SUMMER 2025 DIGITAL ISSUE OF NOW WEDDINGS MAGAZINE::

Photography by Creel & Co.

amelie + chuck’s story

“We met in college,” says Amelie, a born and raised New Orleans girl, of the start of her love story with Chuck who she describes as a “southern Gem” from Thibodaux, LA. The two spent their 20s growing together, bonding over their love of music and life.

“The proposal was amazing,” says Amelie…”everything I wanted!”

In June of 2023, under the guise of grabbing a drink before “meeting our friends to watch the LSU baseball game,” Chuck brought Amelie to the New Orleans hot spot, Hot Tin, known for its magnificent view of the city.

“We got a table outside and hung out for a minute until he popped the question!” shares Amelie. “Little did I know he’d hired a photographer to capture the moment. so we took some pictures and then went back to my moms house where all of our friends met us for a fun little party at home.”

The wedding weekend events began with a rehearsal dinner at Broussard’s Restaurant in the French Quarter. Amelie wore a very special gown the night of the rehearsal – her mother-in-law’s 1989 Princess Diana-inspired wedding dress, which he had altered into a mini dress for the occasion.

“I’ve always loved when I saw girls do this with their moms’ dresses,” says Amelie. “It makes the love story transcend time and adds such a unique and vintage feel to the whole weekend.” With her own mother’s dress unable to be altered, she turned to her mother-in-law. “My mother in law…is a mom of 3 boys who had no intention of ever opening her dress box again. She had a beautiful marriage to Chuck’s dad who passed away in 2018. When she showed me her dress she apologized for its extravagance and told me not to judge it. ‘Princess Diana was really big at the time,’ she confessed without realizing that was the exact style I had dreamed of wearing. Ms. Jane was elated to share her dress with me and I loved getting to feel like I had the chance to honor their marriage on the night she planned for us.”

The wedding day began with the bridal party getting ready at Hotel Monteleone.

Amelie and Chuck choose to have a First Look before heading to the church to say their vows.

“For me, at that point of the day I was just so excited to finally get to see each other,” Amelie shares. “Everything had felt so busy and every moment felt fleeting. When we finally got to see each other, it felt like time slowed down and I was reminded of the true magic and beauty of the wedding day.”

For Chuck, this moment was the first time the seriousness of the day really hit him. “He was taken back by how beautiful I looked and was left completely speechless!” says Amelie.

The Saint Louis Cathedral was what Amelie calls “the obvious choice” for their wedding ceremony. “We both grew up Catholic and always knew we wanted to get married in a big New Orleans church that would accommodate both of our large families and all of our friends. The Cathedral kind of felt like a “go big or go home” scenario that was too good to pass up.”

“After such a grandiose formal ceremony, we knew we wanted the reception to just feel FUN,” says Amelie. “It also needed to be close enough to the church that we could Second Line there. House of Blues checked every box!”

For the Second Line, Amelie and Chuck had a Kinfolk Brass Band to lead the celebration and “a cart full of drinks waiting for our guests after the ceremony” – the cart, along with other details like personalized match box favors – featured a caricature of bride and groom illustrated by the bride.

“I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember,” says Amelie. In 2020, I started my own creative business, Cleo Creative Co., where I design brands, illustrate children’s books, sell prints, and more! I knew I wanted to incorporate this into my wedding.

Amelie drew inspiration from old Hollywood for the style for the wedding, conscious of making sure it wouldn’t look too dated when she looked back. “As the big day approached, I was feeling like I needed to flex my creative muscle a bit more,” she says. “I wanted to show people that I was more than just a bride!” Amelie created posters from their engagement photos for the band poster frames in the entryway into the venue and created a personalized logo that she placed on the posters and over a disco ball background on loop to make a video to play on all of the TVs at the venue during the reception. “I wanted something so unique to us and a way to really
showcase my talent in a way no one would forget.”

Amelie called on the Uncommon Camellia team for assistance with planning the wedding, noting that she loved working with them. “They turned every snag along the way into an afterthought within seconds,” she says.

Amelie says that the reception at House of Blues “felt like more of a concert than a reception and everyone said they’d never had more fun at a wedding before.” D-Play performed and Amelie joined them on stage to sing her favorite karaoke song – “Party in the USA.”

“I’ve been told I look and talk just like Miley [Cyrus] my entire life, and I really embraced this as a tween,” she shares. “This song has been my karaoke song since the day it came out. When I was singing it on stage, I just naturally started doing the dance I made up for it in my room when I was probably 13. Such a cool full circle moment and so grateful to our band for making it happen!”

Amelie chose a traditional wedding cake with Swiss Confectionery’s signature lemon filling. “The design featured three tiers of intricate white-on-white piping in a vintage Lambeth style, creating an elegant and timeless fee,” she shares. “The red cherries (which were faux to avoid them bleeding into the icing) add a playful, retro twist.”

Chuck’s cake was a combination of LSU’s stadium and a pot of crawfish, which Amelie describes as “the perfect homage to our roots as individuals and a couple.”

After the reception, Amelie and Chuck hired pedicabs to bring their wedding party to the Goldmine. “I think all of our guests managed to follow us there! No one wanted the night to end, it was great!”