Relaxed Romance

Second weddings have their own
protocol and problems to face.

BY RHONDA COHEN

H ere comes the bride —
for the second time.
Today, more than
930,000 women per year
in the United States are taking a se-
cond chance on love. For couples who
have already been down the aisle
before, the options on planning a wed-
ding are bountiful and sometimes con-
fusing.
"The main problem when consider-
ing a second wedding is that couples
don't want to duplicate the first one
and often have a hard time finding a
new direction. They also aren't quite
sure of the protocol," says Judith
Slawson, a second-time bride herself

72 Brides 1990

and the author of The Second Wedding
Handbook, a practical guide to the op-
tions published by Doubleday last
year.
"They know they want something
meaningful, vibrant and real, but that
might not mean a full-blown tradi-
tional event," Slawson continues. "At
the same time, however, they don't
want to throw something together and
have a skimpy kind of ceremony
either:'
One way to find a direction for the
event is to review the first wedding
and try something different, unless it's
the bride's first wedding and then she
usually opts for tradition.