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Everything New Orleans

Weddings 'R' Us

By Siona LaFrance Staff writer

New Orleans is already popular among out-of-town couples looking for a romantic wedding destination. And if a bill to streamline marriage licensing becomes law, this could become an even hotter spot to tie the knot.

Just above a Bourbon Street souvenir shop, across the street from a nightspot blasting bass-heavy hip hop, Kate Trott and Barry Burns look into each other's eyes and pledge their everlasting love.

Family members crowded onto the second floor balcony clap and cheer when the Rev. Anthony Talavera pronounces the Arizona couple husband and wife. In the Saturday night din below, a few tourists crane their necks up at the balcony, to the place a sign has proclaimed Weddings-A-Go-Go.

With its neon sign and wedding packages that include a 15-minute, $99 walk-in ceremony and the option of having an Elvis impersonator officiate, the Bourbon Street venture is bringing a bit of Las Vegas-style kitsch to the wedding business here.

Not that the Crescent City needs gimmicks. New Orleans already is a hugely popular destination for couples seeking Old World charm and authenticity, say people who officiate at many of the weddings here for out-of-towners.

"Certainly people love New Orleans because of the romance," said Bonnie Broel, owner of The House of Broel's Victorian Mansion on St. Charles Avenue.

"It's also very real. There are real patios, real plants and real historic homes that have the history and feeling to them. It's not a plastic, made-up place."

As state lawmakers consider a measure designed to improve New Orleans' standing as a destination wedding location, hundreds of starry-eyed couples continue to flock here to make it official.

On the busy Saturday before Memorial Day, Talavera, who also operates the French Quarter Wedding Chapel on Burgundy Street, officiated at seven weddings, all with brides, grooms and guests from out of town.

The Rev. Victor Malinda, owner of the New Orleans Wedding Chapel on Esplanade Avenue, also had a busy day. After officiating at three weddings aboard a Carnival cruise ship, he returned to the 1839 building to unite Towaski James and Tammy Martin of St. Martinville, who said their vows in a chapel decorated with cherubs and a ceiling painted with clouds. He finished the day with two other weddings.

The legislation now being considered, dubbed the "quickie marriage" bill, would give authorized Orleans Parish wedding officiants the power to waive the 72-hour waiting period for marriages. Currently out-of-towners who don't want to wait have to seek a waiver from a city court judge or a justice of the peace. The state Senate approved the bill in late April and it is awaiting action in the House Committee on Civil Law & Procedure.

The bill wouldn't necessarily clear the way here for quickie weddings, a la Las Vegas, home to about two dozen wedding chapels, extended hours to purchase marriage licenses and less stringent requirements for obtaining them. Clark County, Nev., which includes Las Vegas, last year issued 120,385 marriage licenses. About 5,000 wedding licenses were issued in Orleans Parish in 2000, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

If the Louisiana measure passes, couples still may not be able to purchase marriage licenses at night or on weekends in New Orleans as they can in Las Vegas, which has a marriage license office that stays open from 8 a.m. to midnight weekdays and virtually around the clock on weekends.

By contrast, the vital records office in the Louisiana State Office building on Loyola Avenue, where couples buy marriage licenses for $27.50, is open between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays. And the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, which administers the vital records office here, doesn't anticipate changes in office hours or staffing if the measure passes, according to an impact analysis prepared for the department.

Talavera, who launched Weddings A-Go-Go last year, said he hopes that the vital records officials will add Saturday hours if the measure passes.

It makes economic sense, he said, to nourish the city's piece of the multibillion-dollar wedding industry.

"Everybody loves weddings," he said. "Couples spend more money when they come to town to get married and they bring people with them who spend money. If you tell your family you're eloping to New Orleans, they'll want to come along."

Trott and Burns considered a cruise ship wedding before settling on a marriage in the French Quarter followed by a honeymoon cruise to the western Caribbean. Trott searched online for a wedding venue, passing on the idea of a chapel or courtyard ceremony in favor of a ceremony on the Weddings A-Go-Go balcony.

"We're not very traditional," she said.

The couple arrived in town with time to spare before the marriage license office closed at 4 p.m. on Friday. They said it was a simple matter to go across the street to get a judge's waiver of the 72-hour waiting period so they could be wed the next day, on Saturday, May 24.

"We had time to get the license, but if something had happened to delay our trip a lot of people would have been disappointed," Burns said.

Their 30 guests included Ray Szylko of Seattle, whose wife is related to the groom by marriage.

"We would have gone anywhere for their wedding," he said. "I just think that it's better that it's in New Orleans."

Maria Muro agrees. She is co-publisher of Let's Get Married, a wedding planning magazine and Web site for couples tying the knot in New Orleans. She decided to launch the project here after visiting several years ago.

"I'm from Montreal and I came here on vacation a few years ago and completely fell in love with New Orleans. I saw so much opportunity because I knew so many women who came to New Orleans to get married," she said.

"New Orleans is the best place for a destination wedding. It has so much that other cities don't have. The culture is here and it's not very expensive. New Orleans is also well situated with hotel availability. If a bride is expecting 500 guests that's important."

Las Vegas may be the wedding capital of the world, but the Vegas experience doesn't appeal to everyone, Muro said.

"Las Vegas is known for getting married quickly. People say, 'We're having a good time, let's get married.' It's more for the spur of the moment. New Orleans is for the bride who has a more planned wedding. It's her special day and she wants to do it right."

Broel, an ordained minister, estimates that as many as 70 percent of the people who wed at The Victorian Mansion are from out of town.

"I don't think we want to get to the point where we are another Vegas," she said. "But if we want to go after more of that market, as we are positioning ourselves to do, we need to accommodate those people from out of town."

Malinda, who performs more than 300 weddings a year, said he believes that more should be done to promote destination weddings here, particularly by knocking down a few more obstacles to obtaining a marriage license.

"The waiting period is not the reason people can't get married right away, it's the licensing. I lost five weddings last week because of it," he said.

He'd like the state to let authorized wedding officiants obtain marriage licenses for couples who don't have the time or money to get to New Orleans a day before their weddings. To prevent abuses to the system, he said, the officiants could be required to take out bonds. He also thinks divorced people should be able to present a notarized affidavit saying they are free to marry, rather than having to obtain a certified copy of their divorce decree.

"People are concerned about impulsive weddings," he said. "I think adults have the right to be impulsive."

Staff writer Siona LaFrance can be reached at slafrance@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3454.

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