Love, Hollywood style
Lavish weddings standard for celebrities
June 3, 1997
Web posted at: 6:02 a.m. EDT (1002 GMT)
From Correspondent Jim Moret
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- It's barely June and already wedding
bells are ringing in Hollywood.
Barbra Streisand and James Brolin are officially engaged.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are newlyweds. So
are Chris O'Donnell and Caroline Fentriss, Sylvester Stallone
and Jennifer Flavin and Brooke Shields and Andre Agassi.
While celebrity weddings attract public attention, most are
private affairs meticulously choreographed by an army of
behind-the-scenes advisors.
"Every bride wants their dream wedding, whether they're a
star or not," says party consultant Mindy Weiss, who planned
the Shields/Agassi love match.
"She wanted a very intimate, homey feeling," Weiss says of
Shields. "We actually brought in antique furniture, lamps and
tables to fill in the room so it looked very cozy."
Those personal touches extended to personal momentoes for
each wedding guest.
Each woman at the Shields/Agassi wedding received a porcelain
Limoges wedding cake that opened up to reveal the date
inside. The men received a silver luggage tag engraved with their initials. And of course, each table held a flower
arrangement.
"There really isn't such a thing as a typical wedding," says
Chris Thompson, design manager for Mark's Garden. "Each bride
and each groom has an idea what they want, and we have to
basically take their concept and put it in the flowers."
When Paula Abdul and Brad Beckerman were married last
October, they wanted everything, including their wedding
video, to reflect their own personalities.
"More than most people would think, we really can capture the
essence of what's happening," said Steve Dangcil of VidiCam Productions.
Often the most public sign of commitment -- the engagement
ring -- is chosen with discretion and privacy in mind.
"We can always meet them at their residence or in the places
they're filming or anyplace they're traveling," says Armand Espinola, manager of Harry Winston jewelers.
Espinola says special arrangements are also made for those
who visit their gallery.
"We do custom-made everything, and we work with the
appointment so they keep the privacy," he says. "When they
come in, nobody is in the store and they can express that
they want."
Then there is the wedding gown.
"Each bride, it doesn't matter how (big a) celebrity they
are, they dream about this special day," says Norma LeNain, a
designer for Celeste wedding gowns.
And celebrity weddings prompt the public to dream as well, as
noted by author Barbara De Angelis.
"The fascination with celebrity marriage, I think, has to do
with the fact that many times someone who watches someone in
a film or television show really feels like they know the
person," De Angelis says.
Which must be why every celebrity wedding lands itself on the
top of the entertainment news.
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All Rights Reserved.