No-nonsense nuptuals

By Wade Buckland

On the day of her wedding, Kathleen Barrera-Quiazon walked down the aisle of Mission Santa Clara in a bridal gown that her mother sewed by hand. The dress had a 7-foot train, an Italian satin body and a neckline covered in white beading. It cost her mother, who is a seamstress, $100.

"The dream gown I tried on was $4,500," said Barrera Quiazon. "I put it on only to get ideas."

In response to the current wartime economy, brides and grooms are looking for creative ideas to avoid the huge price tag often associated with the biggest day of their lives.

Although the charge to reserve the Mission Church for its basic two-hour weekend ceremony is only $750, this fee only begins the list of charges associated with a Bay Area wedding. The final bill for a weekend celebration can easily add up to over $40,000. With expenses including musicians and hotels, it's no shock that Santa Clara grads like Barrera-Quiazon are having their wedding dresses homemade.

"Couples are doing more themselves," said professional wedding consultant Marcia Coleman-Joyner, who has worked out of San Jose for 14 years. "They're doing potluck dinners, potted plants and computer printout invitations. They're making their guest list more intimate and making their cost cheaper."

Barrera-Quiazon and her husband Martin, who began dating each other as undergraduates in 1997, studied prices for their wedding even prior to becoming engaged in December of 2001.

"Martin called [Mission Santa Clara] before he proposed because a wedding in the Silicon Valley costs so much that we knew that money was going to be an extra consideration for us," she said.

Surprisingly, the cost that the university incurs for the actual wedding rite is relatively small. If a couple can live without candle lighting, which adds another $75 to the ceremony bill, the only other costs above the $750 reservation fee is $125 for a wedding preparation workshop ran through Campus Ministry and $20 for the Natural Family Planning Session that only Catholic couples are asked to attend.

Although not required, it is also customary for families to donate $100 to $200 to the priest or minister who has been asked by the couple to preside over the ceremony.

The "extras" are where the wedding bills begin to explode and consequently where creative ideas for economical substitutes on the part of the wedding party are most needed.

The Quiazon's avoided the typical $125-$175 for an organist by asking some friends they met through their undergraduate involvement with Music Ministry to play the flute and cello. Also the couple sang a liturgical song to conclude their ceremony as a substitute to paying for a choir.

On her own time, Barrera- Quiazon also saved money by buying her flowers at Costco and hand-making the boutonnieres, corsages and bouquets.

"I thought that would be a pretty easy job but it's actually not because you have to wire each and every individual flower for a bouquet," said Barrera-Quiazon. "I ended up doing that after the rehearsal dinner until midnight instead of being at the hotel relaxing."

Dwarfing the cost of the marriage ceremony at the Mission is the cost of a wedding reception at the Adobe Lodge. The choice to hold the "after party" here begins with a four hour facility rental that costs $1,000. However, the total bill can easily burgeon to over $10,000 for a party of 100 to 125 people and can go up to $30,000 for a party with 200-300 attendees.

"We're getting people who are looking to do a wedding, but still on a budget," said Kate Myers, the business and catering manager at the Adobe Lodge, where there are normally 50 to 60 receptions are year. "We try to accommodate them as good as we can but weddings are expensive. You just try to do something that makes sense for you as the business and them as the client. But, it doesn't always match up to what they saw in Martha Stewart."

Despite the trend toward tighter wedding budgets, people are still making the financial and personal choice to plan a marriage celebration.

"Last year, with Sept. 11, it was a difficult year to celebrate," said Coleman-Joyner. "Now people just can't wait. You still have the memorable wedding; you just plan for it."