The students are four brides-to-be, one groom-to-be, and a transvestite named Billy. They are in a little banquet room at the Sheraton Plaza, taking notes on how to have a perfect wedding. Except for Billy, who says he is at the seminar “just kind of getting information,” all the attendees are getting married within the next ten months. The teachers–wedding consultants Melissa Henz and Nancy Sarlo–furl their brows; a lot of banquet halls and florists and photographers are already booked through 1992, they say. But they’ll do the best they can.
The groom-to-be is mainly interested in one thing: a polite way to let people know on the wedding invitation that their children are not invited. When a calligrapher visits the class later in the evening (along with a florist, a photographer, and a representative from Tiffany’s with some booklets on how to buy a diamond), she admits that she’s never penned such a warning. But she does explain how to address envelopes to married couples who are both doctors, or to couples who are not married. Then she describes all the print styles in which she is proficient and demonstrates a style of place card that can accommodate a last-minute change in table number if the seating is rearranged.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“Another woman who had had a spiritual rebirth in northern Italy had busts all over the room at her wedding at Spiaggia. It had her personal signature.”
Like their predecessor, the two wedding consultants attack some of the most solid myths about weddings. For example, they claim the Drake Hotel is not the swellest place in Chicago to say “I do.” “There are so many cookie-cutter weddings at the Drake going on at the same time, guests can be at the wrong wedding and not know the difference,” says Henz.
