There goes the brides (and their money): oil spill has couples canceling beach weddings

Oil spill has brides canceling beach weddings

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. — The bride wore white, her bridesmaids watermelon pink. The groom dressed in khaki pants and a casual white shirt. And all went barefoot despite the risk of stepping on tar balls.

Rion and Gidget Bowers were determined to exchange vows with the backdrop of a soft, pink beach sunset and turquoise waters — even with the outer edges of the Gulf oil spill lurking just offshore.

It’s another ripple effect of the disaster in the Gulf oozing oil square in the middle of wedding season: Fewer and fewer couples are willing to risk holding their weddings in this stretch of Panhandle sometimes called “the Las Vegas of beach weddings.”

Millions of dollars are at stake because the ceremonies bring thousands of visitors annually to the area. Some businesses say their bookings have been cut in half.

“It’s not just me hurting: it’s the DJs, caterers, photographers, everyone involved,” wedding planner Darrin Land said. He said he’s lost $12,000 since news of the oil threat began in late April. “Sixty percent of my beach weddings are canceling. This is worse than a hurricane because we don’t know what is going to happen.”

Those in the wedding business say they, too, are suffering along with the oil workers, shrimpers, fishermen, hoteliers and restaurateurs whose jobs and businesses have been undercut by the spill.

“It’s hurting everyone from the ministers to the people who put the chairs out on the beach,” said June Watkins, a non-denominational minister.

Watkins normally does 40 weddings a year, mostly in the summer and early fall. She has no reservations through July and none for the fall. “They are talking about fisherman — and that’s huge — but our wedding business along the Gulf Coast has been growing for years.”

It’s easy to see why couples from throughout the country get married on the Panhandle’s beaches. The powdery white sand, vivid turquoise water and pastel sunsets are breathtaking. The many quaint, beach-front homes for rent on crowd-free beaches are the perfect honeymoon getaway.

So far, workers have been able to quickly clean from the sand the tar balls and sheen that’s washed ashore here.

“I have a saying that it is God’s church when were are out there on the beach with the Gulf of Mexico in the background. Every time I go out on the beach I am struck by the beauty. You know it had to have been made by a creator,” Watkins said.

But with the oil spill, some couples worry that their day will be ruined. Even when the ceremony isn’t canceled the spill can cause headaches for organizers.

Land held a beach wedding for a Mississippi couple and 40 guests in early June, but the bride waited until just two days before the event to make sure the beach would be tar-free. She had planned to move the wedding to a bay-front site away from the beach if the oil was a problem.

The last-minute setup is tricky.

“It’s nerve-racking — do you have all the guests in the right spot, how do you notify everyone if it changes at the last minute? Do you have enough time to secure a beach spot where there aren’t people in bikinis in the backdrop of the photos,” Land said.

An arched trellis on the sand overlooking the gulf? “Totally out of the question because there isn’t time to set them up,” Land said.

But some couples are refusing to surrender to the spill.

Lindsay Catalano and Jon Lacey of Atlanta plan to marry Sept. 5 on a secluded beach between Destin and Panama City, no matter what. She’ll wear Vera Wang and her seven bridesmaids will wear raspberry pink and orange gowns. A string quartet will play The Beatles’ classic “All You Need is Love,” as the couple walks the beach before exchanging vows.

Between 200 and 250 guests are expected — the couple is asking them to donate money to help those hurt by the spill.

“The oil, it just adds to the meaning of it all,” said Catalano, who has vacationed in the area since she was a child and has long dreamed of having a beach wedding.

If the beach is too messy to have the wedding, the wedding will move to a grassy spot near the beach.

Pam Thompson, wedding manager for Carillon Beach resort where the wedding will be held, cried when the couple e-mailed her their firm intentions. The resort normally hosts 40 weddings a year, but this year she is expecting 20 because of the spill.

“If I could have reached through the phone and hugged them, I would have,” she said.

The Bowers were among those determined to stay the course. The Tucson, Ariz.-couple, love Pensacola Beach’s famous white sands, where they got engaged last September.

“There was a little bit of trepidation because we learned the beaches were possibly going to be covered with tar and oil,” Rion Bowers said. But the rough surf that brought the first oil to the beach days earlier subsided and their dream ceremony went off without a hitch — or a single tar ball on anyone’s bare foot.

They now joke that the spill gave them a wedding to remember.

“My biggest concern was one hour before the wedding when I looked out on the beach and a hazmat crew had set up near our site,” Gidget said with a laugh. “I have pictures of our wedding trellis and the hazmat team.”