Portland, Oregon
THE OREGONIAN
March 21, 2004
THE LOOK/WEDDINGS
AISLE STYLE
Author: VIVIAN MCINERNY - The Oregonian
Edition: SUNRISE Section: LIVING Page: L07
Summary: Bridal shows help couples tame the tangle of choices, options
and decisions
WEDINGS AISLE
STYLE
The flower girl plops down on a sofa in the corner. Her dress poufs
up around her in a cloud of tulle. Across the room, a young couple
share a thin slice of layered cake between sips of champagne in tall
flutes. A photographer, violinist and wedding planner look on and
smile. Everyone agrees the bride looks beautiful.
It could be a swank wedding reception. It is, in fact, a swank wedding
show at Tiffany & Co. Wedding shows are like temporary shopping
malls in which every vendor sells wedding-related products and services.
On the first Sunday in March, at least three wedding shows took place
in Portland, drawing hundreds of brides-to-be. More than 8,000 attended
the two-day Portland Bridal Show at the Oregon Convention Center in
January. Another is planned for May.
Brides are big business.
"I've been to a couple shows" in the past! couple of months,
said bride-to-be Tracy Holland of Tigard. "The last one was too
big to talk to vendors." She used it as an opportunity to gather
information from the many caterers, florists, photographers, dress
makers, DJs, hairstylists and other businesses that cater to wedding
couples.
Holland also put her name on the mailing list of a wedding planner
and ended up with an invitation to Tiffany's exclusive wedding show,
which featured only 12 noncompeting businesses. She and fiance Jon
Rutten of West Linn wandered through the downtown store sipping complimentary
champagne, sampling wedding cakes and looking over the pearl necklace
that matched the Tiffany pearl bracelet Holland plans to wear on her
wedding day.
Calligraphy companies, invitation printers, caterers, tuxedo rental
businesses, makeup artists and event planners all offer services to
brides-to-be to form a $40 billion -a-year industry in the United
States. Getting married, it seems, is a compli! cated affair. "I
thought this would be easy," Johanna McCloskey of Portland said
with a laugh. When she and Michael Lopes got engaged last year, McCloskey
started tearing out pictures and articles from magazines for ideas,
and gathering business cards and brochures.
"I've filled a binder this big," she said, indicating the
size of a big-city telephone book.
So much to think about
The details can be overwhelming. "You have 50 different things
all happening on one day," McCloskey said. "It's a lot."
McCloskey, a college student, and Lopes, principal of Prescott Elementary
School, scoped out scores of wedding Web sites. "The Internet
allows you to research more. It makes you more aware as a consumer,"
Lopes said. "You can see what (rental) places look like, you
can look at photographers' work . . . but you still need to meet the
person, you have to make sure you can get along with them."
Lopes and McCloskey spend most weekends making plans for their wedding
day. "Sometimes I think, 'L! et's just take the $10,000 and run,'
" McCloskey joked. "We could elope." "You have
to enjoy the process," Lopes said. "It goes by so fast."
The other direction
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, about 150 brides-to-be, and
a few grooms, gathered at Acadian Ballroom in Northeast Portland for
an alternative wedding show. While Tiffany & Co. offers tradition
and global name recognition, Frill offers the exact opposite. The
Frill bridal dress collection by Kara Larson and Sarah Mansfield took
off after Larson's wedding was featured in an August 2002 spread in
Country Living magazine. "I got hundreds of calls and e-mails
from people," Larson said.
Women wanted to buy her dress, her shoes, her everything. Larson,
who owns Tumbleweed dress shop in Portland and designs a clothing
line called Kara-line, collaborated with dressmaker Mansfield to create
20 one-of-a-kind dresses priced from $400 to $700. The styles are
simple. "W! ho wants to look like a giant cupcake?" Larson
asked.
She knows that 20 percent of brides in the United States buy from
one chain of bridal stores. "I think it's sad," she said,
"It's your time to be beautiful and creative."
Supporting local companies
Kelly Hartl and fiance Sukho Gomes sat in the front for the fashion
show that also included bridesmaids dresses by local companies Embellish
by Terri Spaeth-Merrick, Christa Michelle Clothing and Elizabeth
Dye.
"Our life philosophy is to support small business when we can,"
Hartl said, "to support people who have creative vision without
the financial backing." They checked out the booths set up around
the ballroom that offered information on catering, photography, garters,
bags and jewelry by small, independent companies. Cheryl Walberg was
looking at alternative wedding dresses. "I bought a dress, and
it's not working out," she said. "I had four fittings, and
every time it looked worse." She was tearful and feeling frantic.
Her fianc! e suggested she write it off and start over. "My advice?
Never, ever buy a dress that doesn't fit," she said.
Vivian McInerny;
503-294-4076; vmcinerny@news.oregonian.com
By the numbers
$15,000 to $20,000 -- The average cost of a wedding in the United
States.
$40 billion -- Amount spent on weddings in the United States each
year.
$800 -- How much the average American bride spends on her dress.
10 percent to 20 percent -- Percent of the total cost of the wedding
that is the wedding planner's fee.
150 -- The average number of wedding guests.
20 percent -- Percentage of American brides who buy dresses at David's
Bridal chain stores.
* This is how wedding costs break down: 37 percent on reception, 23
percent on two wedding bands and one engagement ring, 14 percent on
wedding planner, 6 percent on gown, 6 percent on photography, 5 percent
on flowers, 5 percent on music, 3 percent on video, 1 percent on groom's
outfit.
Source! s: Conde Nast Bridal Group, National Bridal Service, Association
of Ce rtified Professional Wedding Consultants, Toledo Weddings
(LIBRARY NOTE: To view complete text see the bound volume, Oregonian
microfilm or graphics notebook located in The Oregonian Library.)
Copyright (c) 2004 Oregonian Publishing Co.
Record Number: 0403180204
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Embellish,
a bridal design studio in Portland, Oregon.
Specializing in custom wedding gowns and bridesmaids dresses.
