Moonlight in Vermont is another draw

Vermont Business Magazine, Mar 01, 1997 by Marcel, Joyce

Vermont is for out-of-state lovers. According to the Vermont Department of Health, in 1994. the last year or which complete statistics are available, 6,085 marriages were performed in Vermont. In 1,673 of them--a full 27 percent--both parties were from out of the state.

More and more people are coming to Vermont to get married, especially from Japan, England and Germany, reports Linda Seville, executive director of sales for the Inn at Essex. She recently returned from a marketing excursion in Japan.

"It's becoming really popular to get married here," Seville said. "In Japan, the absolute minimum a wedding costs is $300 a guest. So all of a sudden, these young people, instead of starting out their lives in debt, or not being able to buy a home, are opting to get married out of the country.

They can come to Vermont and have a picture-perfect wedding for a fraction of the cost, and it's something unique and different."

Young Japanese enjoy the West and Western culture, and weddings abroad are regularly featured in travel brochures," Seville said.

"It's incredible how many wedding pictures are in there," Seville said.

"Over here you don't see it. You see honeymoon pictures, but over there they feature bridal gowns. One travel agency sells you the wedding dress, the tuxedo, the luggage, right there. It's big business."

To the Japanese, Vermont has a natural romantic appeal.

"It's so different, with the natural beauty of the landscape and such nice properties, from little one-room B&Bs to full service hotels," Seville said. "Throw in sleigh rides and wagon rides from the church to the hotel; it's really terrific. With the great restaurants and food service available throughout the state, Vermont makes a neat location."

Also good for business is the fact that weddings are blossoming into family reunions, Seville said.

"People will come in early, have the wedding, have a brunch afterward, and spend the weekend, just to keep the family together and keep things going." Seville said. "They'll play golf, take rides on the Spirit of Ethan Allen, all in addition to the wedding. They can take over an inn and have a place to themselves, and have all the service they need."

To capitalize on the wedding-family reunion aspect of group business, the Inn at Essex recently put on a bridal show.

"We called it a 'Familiarization Tour,' and invited bridal planners from around the Northeast come up and experience what a wedding would be like here," Seville said. "We had tours of the kitchens, demonstrations on cooking techniques and how to make a wedding cake. We introduced them to the vendors we use, the photographers, the sleigh ride people, things like that. So they could meet them personally and feel comfortable about the type of services they provide. We really treated them to a couple of days that we paid for, in the hope they would sent their clients to us."