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Show Advertising Supplement Thursday, February 18, 2010 Our Wedding, Our Way Technology- Wedding or Bust! Young, broke and ready to tie the knot! How engaged college couples are getting married today Going with the FLOH B3 By Melissa Tussing CTW Features World Wide ... What? America's favorite mom, Florence Henderson, knows what it takes to get your older relatives wired into your wedding. The story of two kids tying the knot fresh out of college is hardly new. But in the midst of a rough economy, the story is becoming more complicated. For two doe-eyed couples, planning a 2010 wedding has meant sacrifice, persistence and a healthy dose of DIY. [credit: The FLOH Club] THE COUPLES Hillary Sowatsky, 21, and Jeff Hentschel, 23: Hillary and Jeff met as students at Northwestern University. Jeff graduated in June 2009 and started working for Ford Motor Co. in Detroit; Hillary will graduate a quarter early in March 2010. The future Mr. and Mrs. Hentschel will tie the knot April 10, 2010 at Hillary's home church in suburban St. Louis. Alyssa Derose, 21, and Zach Gaidar, 22: Alyssa and Zach began dating in high school and attended Western Illinois University together. The future Mr. and Mrs. Gaidar will exchange vows Oct. 1, 2010, at Prairie Crossing in Grayslake, 111., an outdoor venue with a barn and a gazebo. SETTING THE DATE Alyssa and Zach initially planned to get married in April 2011. "It just seemed so faraway," Alyssa said. "We didn't know what would be going on in our lives so far away from now." To save money, the couple decided to hold their wedding on a Friday. "It cuts the cost in half," Alyssa said. "It's the same with photographers, going to DJs, anything like that." But that decision poses its own challenges. Some guests have offered to take the day to help the couple set up. Others have said they can't attend because they can't take the day off of work. Alyssa's main concern is that her rehearsal dinner is on a Thursday. "We're probably going to use the rehearsal dinner, instead of having more family, as just the wedding party," Alyssa said. Hillary and Jeff decided to get married in April to catch the end of the wedding off-season. But Hillary said she's already noticed venues booking up more quickly than usual. FINALIZING THE GUEST LIST The easiest way to cut money is to cut the guest list, Hillary said. "If you cut one table, that's 10 meals, linens, the centerpiece, invitations for everyone and various other stationery and favors," she said. For Alyssa and Zach, cutting down the list quickly turned to cutting down on invited family members. Alyssa's dad is one of 10 children; Zach'smom is one of six. "We definitely had to cut people out," Alyssa said. "We cut out the younger cousins. We just invited our age." A huge priority for Hillary and Jeff has been to create an environment that can include more people even if the theme is less extravagant. "When I got engaged, I knew it was more important to me to have everyone there that I want to have there," Hillary said. But even encouraging people to.attend the wedding proved to be a challenge. "I have relatives who are out of a job that might not be able to come to the wedding," Hillary said. "It's an added pressure. You think: Will people feel obligated to come? Is there anything we can do to make it more feasible to come?" One idea was to market the wedding as family weekend. Hillary's family has a reunion every two years, but this year the family was unsure who would be able to make it. "My mom turned [the wedding] into a reunion weekend," said Hillary, who included pamphlets for St. Louis attractions with the save-the-dates. So the wedding Web site is up and running, and with a few clicks guests can RSVP, book a room at the hotel and even purchase something off one of the registries. It sounds simple enough - except some of your older relatives may be a little nonplussed by it all. If technology is completely foreign to them, you might try to sing the laurels of technology and help guide them a bit. It just may stick. "When you're younger and have young kids, they're trying to keep up with you; when you're older, you're trying to keep up with them," says actress Florence Henderson. Most famous for playing mom Carol Brady on "The Brady Brunch," Henderson turned her own technology fears into a way to help older adults in the same boat. Her new venture, The FLOH Club, is a phone-based technical support service designed to help older adults with tech issues - it's like roadside assistance for computers, says Henderson. A reformed Luddite, if you will, Henderson long avoided computers and learning about technology, to the point that she'd have her assistant print out e-mails and would dictate back the responses. "I never really had the time or felt I had the need," she says, "I was so terrified to even try it." But at the behest of her children - "Mom, you gotta do this" they told her - she dove in and was soon e-mailing from her phone and texting - and thinking it wasn't hard as she thought it'd be. Now, she has a Facebook page and Skypes with her family. "The most exciting thing for me is being able to video-conference," she says. To help your parents, grandparents and other older relatives feel at ease with the Web-savvy of today's weddings, Henderson outlines a few suggestions: Remind Them of Cost Savings When booking hotel rooms or making airliner reservations, "[You can] get good deals if you know how to do it online," says Henderson. "Especially today with everything so costly, if you can find a less expensive way to do it, that's so important." • Feeling Secure with Online Purchases "That is a worry," says Henderson, noting that now she does more online shopping. Her tip: "Guide people to stores where they know their cards will be protected and where they're not going to get ripped off." A Little Goes a Long Way Everyone's busy, and sometimes it's even tough to connect on the phone. E-mailing o r sitting down for a quick video-chat is a simple way to keep family in the loop on wedding details without laborious phone calls. "I think for me it's being able to stay connected," Henderson says. Be a Cheerleader "[My kids] know how I like to stay with it. They would always be encouraging me," says Henderson. "I've always wanted to be relevant and know what's going on," says Henderson. "Being a part of something so vast and so big... it makes me feel younger." -Timothy R. Schulte (c) CTW Features FINISHING TOUCHES Fitting all the wedding essentials has forced the couples to get creative. First In Fashion I Elegant by Design I Modest by Choice See WEDDING Page C4 "•FORMAL Alyssa Derose, 21, and Zach Gaidar, 22 began dating in high school and attended Western Illinois University together i} i.>a Color Perfect Match Dessy and Pantone join forces to get colors under control i [credit: The Dessy Group] It's not easy getting your wedding colors to match. Your bridesmaid dresses' fuchsia may not be your florist's fuchsia, which probably isn't your venue's fuchsia or your cake designer's fuchsia, either. A new collaboration between Pantone and The Dessy Group hopes to change that. The result Pantone Wedding, incorporates Pantone's color tools with Dessy's collection of fashions and accessories with the goal of establishing a perfectly color-coordinated wedding. Swatch Cards Swatch cards ($10] are available in approximately 200 Pantone colors. The 8.5-by-ll sheets can be divided into 14 individual swatch cards - one side features full-color saturation, the other lists the color name and Pantone reference number. The goal: to be able to hand off perfect-match colors to your vendors. Inspiration Boards Inspiration Boards help brides create the "look" of their wedding by mashing together photos of fashions and accessories in their wedding colors along with notes and other wedding-related images. Once saved, the style boards can be shared via e-mail and posted on Web sites and blogs. Each Dessy image also directly links to the product-detail page for finding and purchasing items. See them at www.dessy.com/pantone -Timothy R. Schulte (c) CTW Features ' 1 I ' l l . |
