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by Susan Hart Hellman contributing writer he year 2010 ushers in a new decade, and new trends in weddings. To help with your planning, three prestigious event planners, below, have provided you with their insights and suggestions.
Frank J. Andonoplas, owner of the Chicagobased Frank Event Design, is a frequent guest on such programs as 20/20 News Magazine, CBS Evening News and Early Show, Fox News, ABC News, and he has been featured in Modern Bride, Special Events Magazine, and Brides. Bernadette Coveney Smith is the President of 14 Stories and It’s About Time Events, working with weddings in Massachusetts and New England and destination weddings. She is the author of Gay Wedding Confidential: Adventures and Advice from America’s #1 Gay Wedding Planner. Marcinho Savant, Senior Event Coordinator at savvyplanners of Manhattan, Key West, Hawaii, San Francisco, and Beverly Hills, and a Travel Agent for Savvy Travel™, is also a course developer and instructor for Lovegevity’s Wedding Planning Institute. Their advice on trends, invitations to honeymoons, will be especially important in 2010 because one trend these professionals recognize is larger weddings. Marcinho, whose work has been lauded by Martha Stewart Weddings, says he’s noticing increases in guest lists, between 150 and 300+ invitees. “In years prior, we’ve designed weddings for as few people as the couple and one or two close friends, but the trend is now upward.” Frank, designer of social and corporate events nationwide since 1992, recommends using event size as a planning starting place. “I think guests are important, and couples should start
there and work their budget around their guest count. People make the party.” Bernadette, who also has a degree in Film and an MBA, says that although weddings have averaged 75 to 100 guests, for 2010 she also expects increased numbers, and for gay weddings to be more elaborate. “There is more momentum around this issue politically, so with more mainstream support, comes bigger and more elaborate weddings.”
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hemes and venues
For many couples, this also means more elaborate themes, and Bernadette recommends this as a starting place for your design. “Every wedding tells a story,” she advises, “and a wellplanned event tells that tale in delightful ways that you and your guests will remember forever.” Marcinho believes that anything can become a theme in 2010. “GLBTI couples will make the thematic choices that match their individual sense of style, their nature, and their likes.” He provides some examples. “I’m inspired by creating subtle yet sumptuous elegance in every form from minimalist, impressionist, cubist forms, Viennese Royal Court lavishness or Japanese simplicity, Van Gogh, Seurat, and Rembrandt. There are so many inspiring sources for your 2010 wedding, including your venue’s architecture.” Those venues in 2010 will range from a backyard Weeping Willow canopy to the grandest ballroom, and Bernadette has noticed a trend toward boutique-type hotels. “Creative venues almost always attract LGBT couples. If couples are traveling to a state where it’s legal for them to marry, they are likely to stay in these properties such as Kimpton Hotels. Although this is often the case, each couple has different tastes, and an LGBT wedding may be in a hotel, historical home, country inn or somewhere else entirely.”
Wedding Trends And what’s blue (or red, or yellow, or green or any other color of the rainbow we’ll be using this year)
Vol. 5 Issue 1 2010 LGBT Planning Resource Guide 27