Brick planner does green, budget weddings

By AMANDA OGLESBY
Staff Writer

BRICK — Adele Leonard plans weddings and parties for a living, but chose a small, low-key reception when she married. The Brick planner is an enigma in a world of ever-increasingly lavish weddings.

Among the off-beat packages listed by Leonard's company, Above and Beyond Event and Party Planning, is the Go Green wedding package. When so many weddings go to extremes of pomp and circumstance, having disposable bamboo dishware and eliminating gas-guzzling limousines seems at odds with the traditional day of extravagance.

"It (environmentalism) is coming into play everywhere you turn," she said.

She started eco-friendly weddings because of her efforts to go green in her personal life, she said.

Her own eco-friendly wedding had the disposable, biodegradable bamboo dinnerware, tropical flowers from a local dealer and hand-made sarong table linens, she said. Her guests kept the sarongs as souvenirs.

"We were just trying to do something different," she said.

Her green wedding options include using soy-based candles, organic ingredients for food, or sending out invitations online or on recycled paper. "The simplest things make a difference," she said.

Another distinct package is Above and Beyond's $10,000 wedding for budget-conscious couples. The package includes the reception and Leonard's fees.

By comparison, "the average wedding is about $20,000," she said. "And that's on the low end."

The average price of a wedding in Brick is $29,380, not including wedding planner fees, according to www.costofwedding.com. In Toms River and Point Pleasant, the cost is thousands of dollars higher.

"I get a lot of phone calls from brides panicking," she said. "They're so concerned about their budget."

The $10,000 wedding includes five hours with a DJ, catering, rental fees, centerpieces, flowers and planning fees. The budget is also flexible, she said. "Some brides may want more floral arrangements, so we can take what we have left in that budget and put it all toward the floral," she said.

Leonard suggests couples looking for additional savings consider backyard weddings. One client was able to save $7,000 by downsizing her guest list and using a backyard for the reception, she said. "I think they (backyard weddings) are fun. I think the guests enjoy them much more and the bridge and groom get to enjoy the party a little bit more," she said. However, most couples she has talked to recently are looking for the traditional "fairy tale" wedding, she said.

Though wedding planners are a luxury, budget-concerned couples should still consider the option, she said. "It can get very crazy, very stressful," she said. "I'm not going to make your budget go over. I work with people. I work on all different levels of pricing."

Leonard plans only three to four weddings a year and about 10 parties. Running one event at a time allows her to better focus on clients, she said. "They (other planners) know their clients by numbers," she said. "I know mine by name."

"I love going to extravagant weddings. I think they're beautiful," she said. But her own wedding had less than 100 people, one hour of steel-drum music and was outdoors. She and her husband were "not into the big fluff of it all," she said. Perhaps stranger words have never been spoken by a wedding planner.