Anyone who was married after Hurricane Katrina at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church – the gold-domed church visible from the I-10 across from the Superdome – collaborated with Mary Ann Ciravolo.
Ciravolo was the volunteer wedding coordinator for the downtown church until just before her death in 2011. Ciravolo handled more than 150 weddings (and rehearsals) and a dozen or so funerals with assistance from her husband John who performed security and parking duties; sister Mae Webb who assisted priests; son Leighton who handled the lighting and sound system; and daughter Lisa as her go-to person.
Every wedding was an adventure, John Ciravolo said, with brides making last-minute changes on the wedding day. Yet, Mary Ann Ciravolo knew how to adjust and please brides within the confines of a Catholic Church wedding.
“Mary Ann devoted herself to making each bride’s wedding day as perfect as possible,” John Ciravolo said. “My wife, God love her, would try to accommodate them as best she could. People have different ideas, and we had to emphasize to them that this is a church.”