Most Lafayette anniversaries end up at one of about a dozen tables, which makes the logistics unusually predictable and the timing unusually unforgiving. Café Vermilionville on West Pinhook Road occupies a building that has been an inn since the early 1800s and is the default choice for a round-numbered anniversary in this city. Charley G's on Ambassador Caffery is the other long-standing one, with the mesquite grill and a bar that fills before the dining room does. Downtown, Jolie's Louisiana Bistro and Pamplona on Jefferson Street take the couples who want to walk somewhere afterward, and Don's Seafood on East Vermilion Street takes the ones who have been going since before the kids. Blue Dog Café on West Pinhook hangs George Rodrigue's work on the walls, which makes it a sentimental pick for Lafayette natives. Ruffino's on the River sits on the Vermilion at River Ranch, and Prejean's out on the Northeast Evangeline Thruway is where a family books when there will be twelve people and live music. The Petroleum Club in the Oil Center still hosts a share of the fiftieth-anniversary receptions. Flowers on a restaurant table need to reach the host stand before the reservation, not during it.
Home delivery for an anniversary has its own Lafayette wrinkles. River Ranch along Camellia Boulevard and Settlers Trace was built on the New Urbanist pattern, with garages off rear alleys and front doors that face the street, so nobody hears a car pull up and the piece does need a front-door knock. Bendel Gardens off Pinhook and Sterling Grove downtown have older houses with long drives and deep shade, which is the kindest environment for cut flowers in August. The Saint Streets between Johnston and Pinhook are close-set and easy. Sugar Mill Pond in Youngsville, Greenbriar, Broadmoor and the newer subdivisions off Verot School Road toward Broussard and Milton are straightforward but spread out, so an afternoon run there is one stop rather than three. A worthwhile piece of local color for a winter anniversary: Camellia Boulevard is named for a flower that actually blooms here in December and January, when camellia hedges all over the older neighborhoods are in flower and almost nothing else is — ask for camellia foliage in the design and a Lafayette native will notice.
Milestone anniversaries in Acadiana are often marked in church before they are marked at a restaurant, and that changes what you send. A golden or diamond anniversary here commonly means a Mass at the couple's own parish — the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist on St. John Street, Our Lady of Fatima on Johnston, St. Pius X off East Bayou Parkway, St. Mary, Mother of the Church, Sacred Heart of Jesus in Broussard, St. Peter in Carencro, St. Bernard in Breaux Bridge, or St. Martin de Tours in St. Martinville, where couples still get married in a parish founded in 1765 — followed by a reception in a hall, a family home, or a venue like Vermilionville on Fisher Road or Acadian Village on Greenleaf. For those, ask the parish first about anything intended for the altar, and send the arrangement to the reception address instead if the answer is no. Reception pieces need a delivery window tied to setup, not to the ceremony, and they need the event name as the venue has it on the books.