Many engaged couples are opting for elegant celebrations held
at home.
By PAULINE GREENBERG
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Cape Cod Times
May 2, 1999
(Reprint with permission, Cliff Schechtman, Editor)
BRIDES AND BRIDEGROOMS are drawn to Cape Cod.
Weddings are as much a part of the summer and fall season
here as steamers and corn on the cob. Engaged couples cross the bridge,
bringing family and friends, and Pitch a reception tent as close to the
shore as they can - sometimes on a neighborhood beach or on a boat,
sometimes in the family yard or at a private estate.
The couple wants to taste the sea in their champagne
toast. The bride wants to slip from her white wedding shoes and splash in
the surf. The bridegroom, pant legs rolled around his calves and an
unbuttoned blazer blowing behind him, will scoop the bride from the sand
with ease. And the photographer must capture it all.
Getting to that day, however, and that free-spirited "the
world is ours" moment takes preparation. Moreover, most ‘90s couples must
follow a carefully drawn budget for their wedding, which often requires
creative planning.
Today’s engaged couples are usually older, more
established in their careers and are planning weddings with the future in
mind, says Elisa Gaye Wagoner in her book "Bringing Home the Wedding: A
Do-it-Yourself Handbook for Home and Out-of-door Weddings" (Ammons
Communications Ltd., 1998). These couples want to create a special,
memorable day -without amassing a pile of debt. Wagoner says that there are
as many ways to create a dream home wedding within reasonable budget limits.
Wagoner became involved in wedding planning for clientele
of her clothing-design business. "Creating the book came about at the
insistence of brides and grooms saying, ‘write it down, write it down,’" she
adds. "So I wrote it down."
What she produced was a guidebook that sets out priority
lists, sample menus, recipes, budgets, patterns and directions for creating
everything from bridal attire to home decorations. Wagoner insists that a
couple can orchestrate their dream wedding for between $2,000 and $5,000.
The key, she says, is knowing what you want, how much you can spend and how
much time and labor you can put in to the day.
Budget-conscious couples
If there is any trend in weddings for the turn of the
century, bridal experts say it’s in the return to home and outdoor parties
that are elegant, but smaller and less elaborate than formal weddings. And
nowhere is that more evident than here on Cape Cod, says Dorothy Knight,
owner of Tiffany’s Bridal Showcase in Centerville. People are looking for a
unique, intimate day, she says. They want to be married at the shore, on a
boat or at one of the many private "home away from home" seaside Inns.
In the eight years that Knight has operated her shop, she
has learned that 70 percent of her brides live off-Cape or out-of-state. She
has also discovered that wedding gowns that might be in demand in Boston,
Fall River or Rhode Island, do not sell as well locally. "We sell more
informal and relaxed gowns," Knight says. "Cape brides don’t want a lot of
embellishment on their dresses, or long trains. They’re looking for
something they can run on the beach in." Knight, who provides a wedding
consultation service through her salon, agrees with Wagoner that couples are
much more budget-conscious. About 60 percent of Knight’s customers are
either paying for the wedding themselves, or helping with the bill. They are
very involved in planning all the stages and willing to do more work to save
money. Knight however, doesn’t believe a Cape wedding could happen using
Wagoner’s budget. The average wedding held locally costs about $20,000,
Knight says. Many of Knight’s customers are busy professionals who tackle
their wedding plans as if it was a business project. Since their time is
limited, they delegate jobs. "Yes, you could do it yourself," Knight says.
"But where are you going to find the time?"
This is when a couple should draw on the talents of
family and friends, suggests Wagoner. Perhaps your roommate is a gourmet
cook, or your aunt is a talented floral designer or tailor. Getting everyone
involved adds to the atmosphere, she says.
The reception.
The major expenditure for most any wedding is the
reception. Wagoner includes sample menus for the reception in her book,
which can be put together by a professional caterer or by the couple. She
includes budget worksheets, which allow a couple to calculate and compare
the expense of a self-prepared reception to one that is catered.
Wicker Tree Catering of North Falmouth handles about 80
weddings a year throughout the New England area and will help coordinate the
whole day for a family. "People come to us for those special Cape Cod
weddings," says executive chef Avelino R. Miranda III. To cater to special
requests, Miranda has worked family recipes into a reception menu. He’s
prepared elegant hors d’oeuvre receptions and receptions for 350 people with
elaborate buffets and parquet dance floors under huge tents.
If you decide to host the reception in your backyard it
can be a very elegant affair, says Bob Oldsman of White Caterers of Cape
Cod. Oldsman does from one to three weddings each weekend throughout the
four-month season. "People are not spending as much on weddings," he says.
"By doing the reception at home they can save some money."
Oldsman’s firm provides a full package for couples-from
calculating yard dimensions for tent rentals to setting up tables and linens
and shuttling guests from the church to the reception. He also helps decide
where the head table, dance floor and buffet table should be placed. "We
become very, very involved in the planning," he adds. "We take the burden
off the bride and groom." Whether a couple chooses to create their own
wedding with handmade decorations and homemade food, or hire a caterer and a
private Cape estate, the experts agree that planning must begin early.
Both Knight and Wagoner recommend six months to one year
in advance. "Anything is possible," Wagoner says. "As long as you use
creative planning."
Sidebar: Wedding sites on the web
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