Getting Married
No matter how times keep changing, people keep getting married.
Bay Weekly went to two last weekend, for a total of six so far this year. July also brought the news that our junior reporter from two decades ago, Ariel Brumbaugh, got engaged, so I’m anticipating an invitation for a date yet to be determined. Were I to count the number of love stories touching Bay Weekly over our 24-plus years, I’d run out of fingers and maybe even toes. I haven’t heard of any second-generation weddings yet, but I know some children-of getting close to eligibility.
There may be other businesses that have a more reliable stream of customers than the wedding business, but writing — or reading — about them wouldn’t be as much fun.
Modern weddings are dreams come true. Brides and grooms nowadays become producers of a show as complex as a Golden Age Broadway musical — with smart and well-stocked entrepreneurs cooperating to make it just right.
As to the stage itself — well, the whole world is, potentially, your wedding chapel. Church, courthouse and family back yard are forever fashionable, but they’re no longer inevitable. Here in Chesapeake Country, many a charmed vista has sights on your wedding. Crab house to hotel, park to winery, marina to historic mansion — even the Town of North Beach courts you. Pastoral scenery, historic halls, the maritime music of sails in the wind, spectacular sunsets: All are included in the package. Imagine the field trips you can have checking them all out.
Good as Chesapeake Country is the world can be your altar. The honeymoon often begins with the wedding nowadays, sweeping not only bride and groom but also family and many friends off to exotic destinations for days of fun in the sun or urban adventuring. Travel agents you’ll read about in these pages pledge to help you plan your wedding just about anywhere on the seven seas or continents. Locations you used to have to be an explorer to see, now host your wedding. Places you used to have to be privileged to enter, now invite you in. If the Sistine Chapel isn’t open to weddings yet, maybe yours can be the first.
Exotic or close at hand, the stage must be set. Did you know that a whole class of businesses exists just to furnish your set in any way you want it? You can hire not only tables and chairs but also entire themed rooms of furnishings. You can have linens in any style, and not only for tables but also for flourishes. Tableware, glasses and dishes are all matters you can dictate on your one special day.
What to put on those plates? Whatever you like best.
Cakes are a category all their own in taste and appearance.
Then, of course, there’s entertainiment …
Yet we haven’t even touched on the actors, especially the starring roles, whose dress and pampering is nowadays what used to be reserved for queenly courts.
Yes, weddings are a production, and this issue is here to help you make yours the best you can imagine.
But we’re not writing for just you brides and grooms. Bay Weekly’s Wedding Guide makes good reading no matter what your stage. It’s good luck to see a bride, so all those brides and grooms who’ve sent us their wedding photos will more than cheer your heart. If you’ve been one yourself, their images will bring back memories. If being a bride or groom is in your future, this Guide will help you (you, too, Ariel and Patrick) make memories.
Sandra Olivetti Martin
Editor and publisher
email [email protected], www.sandraolivettimartin.com