06/17/96 DO YOU TAKE THIS RESORT FOR YOUR WEDDING?

DO YOU TAKE THIS RESORT FOR YOUR WEDDING?

You're starting to plan a wedding, and already you've got a headache. Who gets invited? Is it at his church or her synagogue? Where do the divorced parents sit? You're ready to flee to some faraway place, perhaps take a few family members and close friends, and simply exchange vows there. But the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas isn't your style. Where do you go?
In fact, you've got a lot of options. More than 50,000 couples left home to get married last year, up from 23,000 in 1991, according to a survey of Modern Bride magazine's readers. Responding to the increased demand for getaway weddings, resorts in Hawaii, the Caribbean, and New England have built a business around combination wedding/honeymoons. What's more, some governments are laying out the red carpet for U.S. couples who want to tie the knot on foreign soil. In Antigua and Barbuda, the law now allows visitors to get hitched the day they arrive, instead of requiring a three-day wait, as they used to.
PARE DOWN. For marrying couples who choose the escape route, the idea is to regain control over an event that can become more of an ordeal than a celebration. They're also looking to save money. A full-scale wedding--complete with the typical guest list of about 200--can easily cost $30,000. But paring down the roster can save thousands of dollars, even when the location is a remote island. That's because it's not unusual to ask guests to pay their own way. After all, it's going to be a vacation for them, too.
Most of Andrea Rotondo-Hospidor's 32 guests agreed to foot their own bill when they attended her wedding at Disney World in Orlando almost two years ago. The 26-year-old Teaneck (N.J.) resident and her husband spent just $6,200 for their ceremony, reception, and 14-day stay. Not surprisingly, Mickey & Co. are trying hard to become big-time wedding hosts. Last summer, Disney World opened a wedding pavilion on an island in a man-made lake. In 1995, the theme resort staged 1,100 ceremonies, from simple affairs next to the water to Cinderella fantasies in which the bride arrives in a glass coach pulled by six white ponies.
Other resorts don't offer affairs as fanciful as Disney's. But many now have a staff person dedicated to planning weddings. At the Westin Maui in Hawaii, which is something of a meeting spot for couples with family in North America and Asia, Patricia Gleason is the aptly titled director of romance. Her job is to help couples pick a spot to say their vows, choose a photographer, decide who will perform the ceremony, plan a menu, and apply for a license. The ceremony runs $1,000 to $2,000, and a hotel room costs $230 to $2,500 a night.
A number of places offer packages that leave virtually none of the organizing to the bride and groom. Sandals Resorts--which has a trademark on the term ``weddingmoon''--has been hosting nuptials on various Caribbean islands since 1981, when it opened in Jamaica. Sandals charges $750 for the basic package, which includes a justice of the peace, a bouquet, video, champagne, dinner, announcements, and breakfast in bed. That's in addition to an average $1,700 per person for a week's stay.
Executives at all-inclusive resorts insist there's nothing impersonal about their ceremonies. But some people want a more unusual wedding. On St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, an outfit called Weddings the Island Way chauffeurs the bride and groom from their hotel to a helicopter that flies them, the officiant, and up to two guests to a beach on an uninhabited island. Dom Perignon, a photographer, and a wedding video all come with the package. The price: $2,800.
FIJI CALLS. If you're prepared to spend even bigger bucks, many resorts will allow you to custom-design the events. South Pacific islands, such as Fiji, are favorites for these more ornate ceremonies, says Geri Bain, Modern Bride's travel editor. Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, chose the Hawaiian island of Lanai as the site of their 1994 New Year's Day nuptials. They reserved all 250 rooms at the local hotel and had private security forces patrol the beaches.
Such an event is way beyond most budgets. But for less money than you might think, getaway wedding planners can make the big day more exotic--and help keep those wedding-hell blues at bay.
By David Leonhardt