Mardi Gras, like Jazz Fest, is an important tradition for both. Ms. Turkmen, who grew up in Gretna, a suburb east of New Orleans, started attending with her parents as a preschooler. Love of family and the city kept her close through college at the University of New Orleans, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies. She is now a business development manager at American Environmental and Industrial Services, a local company.
Mr. Milligan grew up just west of the city in Metairie and holds a bachelor’s degree in general studies from Southeastern Louisiana University. His parents also brought him to his first Mardi Gras as a child.
Now, both ride in “krewes,” the private social groups that put on parades and orchestrate parties for Mardi Gras.
At 2019’s installment, in February, love followed them into the French Quarter. “Taylor and I rode in a parade together, and then I had taken the kids to a parade with their mom,” said Mr. Milligan, whose divorce was final in August of that year. The brief separation from Ms. Turkmen left both bereft. “As I left Taylor, I realized in that moment that I wished she could be with me. I missed her.”
In August 2021, the couple bought a house in Metairie. That marked a corner turned on what Mr. Milligan said was “round two of life.” Covid and divorce had complicated his finances. “I had to save money to either purchase a house or a ring,” he said. Once the house was secured, the ring followed. He proposed in July 2023, during a vacation in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.
Before they decided on a Jazz Fest wedding, the couple kicked around some other ideas, Ms. Turkmen said. But “we always tell people that aren’t from New Orleans, if there’s a time to visit, it’s during Jazz Fest,” Mr. Milligan said. Ms. Turkmen said she had long been a fan of the “church vibes” under the gospel tent.
