BUSINESS

ing the Knot

The Garden Wedding Chapel may be a cheaper
alternative to costly, traditional weddings.

Special to The Jewish News

N

ancy Wermuth is go-
ing to host the first
Jewish wedding at the
Garden Wedding Cha-
pel in Farmington
Hills — her own.
The chapel, which she co-
owns with relatives, offers
couples an alternative to the
traditional synagogue wed-
ding.
"We've kept costs to a
minimum," says Dolly Roten-
berg, who owns the chapel
with her daughter, Bonnie
Hubert, her brother, Robert
Fenton, and Ms. Wermuth,
her cousin. "There are no ex-
tra fees included, so a bride
can have a beautiful wedding
ceremony on a very tight
budget."
For $175, bride and groom
can get married in a French
garden setting, including a
private dressing room for the
bride, lavish flowers in the
chapel, traditional wedding
music, and a ceremony per-
formed by clergy of the cou-
ple's choice.

"We are trying to give a
bride every possible break so
she can get married for as lit-
tle as possible!' Ms. Roten-
berg says. "She can augment
the basic package and make
it as extravagant as she
wants."
The family opened the Gar-
den Wedding Chapel in June.
So far, they've held 17
ceremonies and are booked
through next July.
"Our phone was ringing the
first day we opened and our
first ceremony was two weeks
later," Ms. Wermuth says.
She adds the chapel has had
a positive response from the
local Reform rabbis willing to
officiate out of their congrega-
tions, and they are looking for
a Conservative rabbi to of-
ficiate as well.
The chapel can arrange a
traditional wedding ceremony
in one day, complete with
chuppah, as long as the cou-
ple has a marriage license. Of
course, more elaborate wed-
dings take longer to plan.
The idea to open the chapel
was Ms. Wermuth's. A real
estate agent and former par-
ty planner, she had been toss-

ing the idea around for years.
She called Ms. Rotenberg,
who has a successful party
planning business, and Ms.
Hubert, who often works with
Ms. Rotenberg. The mother-
daughter team recruited Mr.
Fenton, a local attorney and
author.
With $100,000 and a vision
of a classic French garden,
the foursome hired Ken
Malecki, a Grosse Pointe
Shores interior designer, to
interpret their ideas. The
result is an elegant white,
green and pink garden set-
ting, complete with lat-
ticework gazebo, lush flowers
and ivy-covered pillars. The
chapel can seat up to 65
people.

For $175, bride and
groom can get
married with
flowers, music and
clergy.

Photos by G lenn Triest

ROBIN FREEDMAN

"There was never a pretty
place to do a small wedding in
an inexpensive way," says Ms.
Rotenberg, who has planned
weddings costing as much as
$50,000. She says the Garden
Wedding Chapel provides an
economical alternative.
For instance, to rent the
main sanctuary and dining
hall in a local synagogue,
non-members can pay as
much as $1,000. There usual-
ly isn't a charge for congrega-
tion members to use the sanc-
tuary, and catering fees in-
clude the cost of the hall.
Since the Garden Wedding
Chapel provides a place for
the ceremony only, couples
must plan a reception at
another site. In addition, the
people at the chapel have the
experience and the resources
to help them plan their party.
They offer a long list of local
merchants and services, in-
cluding florists, photo-
graphers, caterers, travel
agents, musicians, jewelers,
even a baby-sitting service,

that brides can choose from to
plan their ceremony or
reception.
"We take the stress out of
planning a wedding by offer-
ing the bride a variety of
choices, from invitations to
moving companies," Ms. Wer-
muth says. "And most of our
vendors give the couple some-
thing special, like discounts
on services, a free bridal suite
or a bottle of champagne, that
they wouldn't get somewhere
else."
These discounts can add up
when considering the average
cost of a reception: between
$150 and $200 per person, ac-
cording to Ms. Rotenberg.
Ms. Rotenberg says the
chapel will be a success large-
ly because of economics.
"Young, Jewish couples don't
want to spend $10,000 to
$50,000 on a wedding," she
says. "They would rather put
it into a down payment on a
house or a car!'
The wedding chapel
response has been over-
whelming, says Mr. Fenton.
Plans, he says, include fran-
chising the concept. Metro
Detroit's future, he hopes, will
include five or six Garden
Wedding Chapels.

Above, one of the
accessories
available at the
chapel.

At left, proprietors
Bonnie Hubert,
Nancy Wermuth
and Dolly
Rotenberg.

❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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