"It was," beamed Bridget Jaramillo of Cruiseport Gloucester's recent, hugely successful Bridal Expo, "our Super Bowl."
Jaramillo, one of three event planners Cruiseport Manager Sheree DeLorenzo calls her "fantastic team," noted that the event, in just four years, has grown from a crowd count of under 100 to more than 1,000.
It was not only the largest commercial event Cruiseport had ever staged, but by far the most elaborate. And it spotlighted the continued growth of the wedding planning industry as a whole, particularly on Cape Ann.
Jaramillo shares with fellow teammates Tanya Horvath and Tanya Biloskirka a combined expertise in event planning, marketing, interior design, floral design, art history and catering, all of which, DeLorenzo says, contributed to making the Jan. 27 event "not a trade show, but an event — a service event for both our vendors and guests."
Everything — three bands, a fashion show of 24 bridal gowns, tiers of towering wedding cakes, 20 showcase bridal tables, floral arrangements, stationery, photos, gift displays, and non-stop circulation of crowd-pleasing catering samples "came together seamlessly."
Altogether, it took a staff of more than 50 to pull it off, says Tom Lang, owner of Ipswich-based Vinwood Caterers, Cruiseport's exclusive catering partner, whose staff accounted for 20 of the 50 involved.
All told, Lang reigns over an army of 160 staffers who handle some 600 events a year, most of them weddings, he said.
The $40 billion a year U.S. wedding industry has remained remarkably strong throughout the recession, After 2008's financial free-fall, Lang says, local volume stayed high, but "budgets got a lot more no-frills."
The "no-frills" concept, however, was nowhere in evidence at the Cruiseport extravaganza. While Lang manned wildly popular pasta and antipasto stations, his nattily tuxedoed servers moved smoothly through the crowds delivering trays full of finger-food feasts representing the latest trends in culinary crowd-pleasers, while out on the deck, an Italian sausage cart did a brisk business, and downstairs, a Calypso band played next to a chocolate fountain which flowed non-stop next to an expresso bar across from a cupcake tower.
What's good for Cruiseport, says Lang, is great for all of Cape Ann's economy. Its booming bridal business sails full-speed ahead through all four seasons, he observes, filling the restaurants and rooms of local hotels and inns with bridal parties and wedding guests.
It is, Emerson Inn owner Bruce Cotes confirmed, a year-round boon for the Emerson's guest rooms and cottages in Rockport.
Like many smaller local venues, the Emerson itself handles small, intimate weddings of 10 to 20 weddings, with average budgets of under $10,000.
But Cruiseport, with 12,000 square feet of waterfront event space, draws huge crowds and budgets closer to $35,000, and that means big business for local businesses, from bands to florists, hairdressers, restaurants, etc., up and down the retail chain.
DeLorenzo, who's managed Cruiseport since its 2007 opening, has grown the waterfront facility on two other fronts.
As Gloucester's only licensed cruise ship and marine terminal, she oversees a business which this year is already scheduled to see "more than 16 cruise liners visit Gloucester." Then, there is the Seaport Grille, a restaurant she not only built, but due to instant popularity, quickly expanded, nearly tripling its original size.
But weddings remain a clear sentimental favorite with DeLorenzo, who moved through the Bridal Expo crowd beaming like a mother-of-the-bride.
Hooking arms with Lang, the two surveyed the crowd. Most of the vendors, like the guests, were, DeLorenzo said, from the North Shore. But there were also, she added, impressive contingents of guests from Boston and beyond, many of them bridal parties with weddings already booked at Cruiseport.
Marketed on local radio and online at knot.com, the event was never intended as a money maker, says DeLorenzo, but as a service event. Guests paid $10 each, vendors paid $300 each, and for DeLorenzo, the payback was "all about seeing the brides come in and say, 'Oh My Gosh, I love that table cloth, those glasses, that cake, those cupcakes' — even down to this or that napkin fold.
"All the little things," she said, "that give them big ideas."
Bid ideas that keep flowing in a still-growing business.
Joann Mackenzie can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3457, or at jomackenzie@gloucestertimes.com.
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
Facebook Sued by Investors Over Disclosures
HP to Cut 27,000 Jobs, Save Up to $3.5B
Investors Slap Facebook 11 Percent Lower
Yahoo to Reap $7.1B From Alibaba Stake
Facebook Shares Close Up Just .23 at $38.23
Future Uncertain for Post-IPO Facebook
Facebook Shares Spike 10% Higher at Open
Mark Zuckerberg Rings Nasdaq Opening Bell
Verizon to End Unlimited Data Plans
Facebook IPO: What You Need to Know
GM Says It Will Stop Paying for Ads on Facebook
On Zuckerberg's Mind: People, Not Shareholders
Dimon Survives Votes on Pay, Chairmanship
Raw Video: Protesters Target JP Morgan Meeting
Poll: Half of Americans Call Facebook a Fad
Could JP Morgan Losses Have Been Prevented?
Fuzzy Resumes: A Look at Leaders Undone
More Questions After Yahoo Leadership Fiasco
Ground Broken for New Whole Foods in Detroit
