NEW YORK — A total of 300 brides-to-be and their respective supporters had free reign Friday at the Kleinfeld bridal salon, where champagne was at the ready and a bevy of wedding experts were sprinkled throughout the room.
The party was the official kickoff for the Condé Nast Bridal Media-backed Wedding March New York, a two-day affair offering practical advice from bridal industry insiders. (Condé Nast Bridal Media, like WWD, is owned by Condé Nast.) Seminars, panel discussions and on-site shopping were scheduled for Saturday, with event designer Preston Bailey, cake designer Sylvia Weinstock, Brides editor in chief Millie Martini Bratten and Modern Bride and Elegant Bride editor in chief Antonia van der Meer among the speakers. Designed to help women get everything in order for their weddings, the event has also been held in San Francisco, and another will take place in Atlanta in March.
For Condé Nast Bridal Media, the event provided the opportunity to reach its targeted audience “at a point where they were picking their brand loyalty,” said Susan Rerat, vice president and publishing director. More often than not, brides-to-be want their weddings to have at least one element that has not been seen before, van der Meer said. And Bratten noted that compared with previous generations, engaged couples today spend more on their weddings, since they often pay for them and are older when they get married.
Kleinfeld owner Mara Urshel noted that women are more willing to wear nontraditional dresses than in years past. Gesturing toward a model in a Claire Pettibone lingerie-inspired cotton dress, she said, “A lot of designers are getting more adventurous with fabrications and styles.”
Noting that another model was wearing an Azzedine Alaïa-inspired dress that would be ideal for a destination wedding, she added, “But you can roll that dress up and it take it in a duffel bag.”