Vendors offering everything from traditional to creative to make your wedding memorable
Danielle Hasting of One Fine Day.
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
Worried about whether your florist will object to your “lifestyle” or that your baker will back out at the last minute because his religion says same-sex marriage is bad? Well, the vendors participating in the The Wedding Party and Expo at the Hilton Anatole on Sunday, July 23, are eager to help make your wedding memorable.
Wedding officiants, venues, caterers, dance instructors, DJs and formal wear vendors will all be represented. Frosted Art Bakery and Studio, whose cake baker Bronwen Weber has been named one of the world’s best cake decorators by The Food Network, is among those vendors, giving you a chance at a “celebrity sighting,” too.
Destinations for wedding, transportation to get there and where to stay will also be part of the mix. And if putting it all together yourself seems daunting, event planners that can do all that for you will also be on hand. And while we couldn’t profile every vendor, here’s a look at a couple of the folks who will be there to make the day special.
Specialists
Sarahbeth Marshall offers edible thank-you gifts and an entertaining dessert option for a wedding.
Her Yelibelly Chocolates produces artisan chocolates at her facility in Addison. There, she makes bonbons, truffles and chocolate-covered Oreos personalized with your wedding colors, theme or monogram that can be given to the wedding party as a personalized gift.
Yelibelly specialty gifts for the wedding party. (Courtesy Yelibelly)
Her facility is open for tastings and a class to teach you to “savor the flavor,” Marshall said, teaching fans how to tell the difference between a Hershey bar and a fine chocolate with a red raspberry taste. For that upscale bridal party, she said, Yelibelly offers a tasting of fine chocolate and liquor.
For an interesting dessert option, Marshall offers an interactive, liquid nitrogen dessert bar. In front of your guests’ eyes, she’ll make ice cream in about a minute and a half. The liquid nitrogen freezes the ice cream quickly, giving it a consistency somewhere between yogurt and butter cream cake icing. She said it’s a lot easier than a hand-crank ice cream bucket that takes at least half an hour of work.
“This makes it light and fluffy,” she said, and because of the flash-freezing process, she can even use alcohol, which usually doesn’t freeze.
“My favorite is bourbon-infused,” she said, which has a “smoky and oaky flavor.”
Marshall will have samples of everything at the Expo.
Wedding planner
Maybe the idea of putting a wedding together yourself is daunting. Maybe you’re afraid you’ll encounter some of those homophobic florists who would rather ruin your day rather than sell you some flowers.
Danielle Hasting, owner and event director of One Fine Day, may be just who you’re looking for. Her resume includes planning a Laotian/Jewish wedding. For the Jewish side of the family, she said, the reception had to be strictly kosher. But a Laotian ceremony includes a pig roast. Hasting said she was able include both traditions that respected both sides of the family.
One Korean groom approached her with similar concerns. Hasting said she knew she was doing her job and had done her homework when he told her she was more Korean than he was.
“I’m a skilled logistics coordinator,” Hasting said.
She said she earned her title as The Red Dragon by handling difficult, situations like the time she dealt with a men’s store that wouldn’t accommodate one bride who wanted to wear a tuxedo because they didn’t know how to measure her. She began renting her own tuxes specifically for brides.
And she wondered about bridal stores that couldn’t deal with two brides buying dresses. That’s double the sale for just one event.
Hasting summed up her job as simply helping the couple put on the event they want: “Two people figure out what their needs are and I make it happen.”
Hasting said she’ll have her Access 360 available at the wedding expo. It allows the couple to stand on a platform as the slow-motion video camera rotates around them. She has an editor that adds music, creating a video great posting on social media.
One Fine Day is the only company in Texas offering Access 360, Hasting said.
Hasting said because she works with lots of same-sex couples, her contracts don’t list bride and groom but just asks for the signatures of the wedding couple.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 21, 2017.