BUSINESS PROFILE: Weddings now big business

Public Record, The, Sep 07, 2001 by Apfelbaum, Sharon

French Canadian from Montreal turned desert rat saw an empty business niche and quickly filled it with his own creation: total wedding planner. Spearheading one of the fastest growing start-ups in the Coachella Valley, Richard Cadieux has become a minister and community organizer along the way to forming the Greater Palm Springs Wedding Association.

Coordinator Cadieux has assembled a cadre of professionals to lure folks here for desert weddings. He has a string of videographers, photographers, florists, caterers, musicians, beauticians, ministers,, honeymoon suites and parking valets ready to go into matrimonial action. Cadieux' wedding base so far includes 76 local businesses in twenty different categories.

As an inaugural promotion, The Association is donating a full-out complimentary wedding to the winner of its essay contest. Besides a wedding site, the contest package includes wedding attire, flowers, photographer, music and entertainment, a minister and catered reception. To be held October 23 at the adjacent Estrella and Ingleside Inns, the model wedding allows for 50 guests and will be open to the public, with certain privacies for the marrying couple.

The wedding will be preceded by a Chamber of Commerce mixer from 5:30 7:30 p.m., when the wedding festivities will promptly begin.

What Cadieux' business offers is long-distance wedding planning. He and his cadre of helpers can organize a personal wedding in the desert area for out-of towners, or for locals who may lack the confidence to put it all together themselves.

"I'm a wedding packager. I help put together all the elements of a memorable wedding," says Cadieux.

He knows weddings are big business. Some 2.4 million U.S. brides spend an average $20,000 per wedding, a cost which rises $4-5 thousand in the desert. He says the Indian Wells Hyatt Hotel remodel will include two new wedding chapels and the Marriott may also add one of their own.

But this Universal Life Church minister of less than one year isn't in the business only for money. Cadieux claims he gets a charge from marrying a couple in love. "I take their energy and send it out to the audience. What a powerful, ecstatic place to be. I get to see the honesty of two souls coming together. Ooohh," he exclaims, emitting a trill of vicarious excitement.