Gay weddings are booming
Re-legalized last summer, same-sex wedding bells have been ringing all over greater Palm Springs. If you haven’t been involved in one, you may have been invited to one. Romantic nuptials are in the air; we live in one of the gay capitals of the world.
Event planner Gregory Goodman, who holds forth from his store My Little Flower Shop in Palm Springs, understands from personal experience. He married his 15-year (haven’t heard about any impulse gay nuptials) partner in grand style.
During the brief legal window in 2008, Goodman and Alan Kelly tied the knot in their then home in Los Feliz (Los Angeles), with 250 attending.
Since Goodman is Jewish, he insisted on having a fiddler on the roof, well, the balcony. And Kelly, being Irish, inexplicably asked for a Scottish bagpiper.
Guests were greeted with leis to wear, and the florists built a glorious chuppah for the ceremony. A full dinner was accompanied by klezmer and jazz bands. At the end of the celebration, they handed out Pink’s hot dogs.
Has anything changed, being married? “It’s a totally different feeling. You’re committed,” Goodman says.
He went on to comment on the local gay wedding scene. In his experience, it’s about 70-percent double grooms, 30 percent double brides.
As for venues, “There are a lot at the museum, in the sculpture garden and inside the main entrance. Then there are the Ace and Hard Rock hotels, and the historic O’Donnell house.”
He lets fly that tropical flowers are popular here. And photo booths. Complete cost varies from $2,000-$500,000.
As a producer he arranges for linens, catering, photography, music, valet and more. And the ceremonies, they never get old. “I tear up,” he says. Next project, a very large one, he hints, features a celebrity couple. But he won’t say more.
Fun at the pink motel
Ruby Montana, a Universal Life minister, has married three couples at her Coral Sands Inn, including artist Helen Macfarlane and Siouxzan Perry of Girlwerks Media. She wears a fez from her collection to officiate. She played cupid to Macfarlane and Perry, bringing them together via Facebook.
The red-carpet December wedding party at the pink motel was snugly enclosed under a tent warmed with heaters for the sit-down dinner. Decorator Jay Jones enhanced the scene with linen table cloths, flowers, the lot. There was a covered dance stage and, despite inclement weather, Montana says, “There wasn’t a hitch in the glitch. It went on to the wee hours.”
Montana can supervise the weddings, but if a couple wants to do it themselves, it’s OK. For food she just recommends “Guacamoles: they deliver.” And she’s partial to Jake’s: “They do a lovely job.”
Wedding parties take over the Coral Sands, plus its sister adjuncts — the Casa Redonda and, across the street, the Casa Lone Palm — “the first home built in Las Palmas, Spanish hacienda [style].”
She operated a vintage store, Ruby Montana’s Pinto Pony, in Seattle before coming to Palm Springs in 2000 — “I was born to live in flip-flops and shorts,” she says. “Each room in Coral Sands has its own character, like leopard carpet in the Liberace chamber.”
Clothing optional
Across town, Michael Green of the Triangle Inn is a wedding officiate, too. In an e-mail he wrote, “We’ve done traditional weddings, small weddings, even a couple of naked weddings. Most have been for [people] who have been together for 10 or more years. We’ve [served] California residents as well as couples from all over the United States and Canada. It’s been a great way to contribute to our community.”
The fancy Hollywood Regency-style Viceroy Palm Springs offers a package that includes a pair of bouquets or boutonnieres, floral arrangements with a stylized white rose petal aisle, white Chiavari chairs with black cushions for guests, a male or female officiate, two hours of photography, one hour of DJ, acoustic guitar or strings, and overnight accommodations for the just-weds.
Food and beverage bills are extra, but the basic charge is $5,000 Sunday through Thursday, $7,000 Friday and Saturday. Not so much if you compare it with Bridezilla prices — and the Viceroy is a very chic setting.
Jon and Gary and Bob and Craig
Jon Von Erb and Gary Williams met at the Bourbon Pub in New Orleans in 1975 and have been together ever since. Last fall, they decided to go for it, and asked long-time pals, Bob Hoffman and Craig Bruce, fellow expats from San Francisco, to join them.
Von Erb says, “We’re close comrades and we wanted to join our families and collective friends together.” And there was also sharing the expense.
And so they were married in the Von Erb-Williams Palm Springs back garden at sunset. Guests came from all over, from New York and Alaska, Kentucky and the California coast. Once a floral designer, Von Erb decorated the tables, buffet and bar area with local blossoms — bougainvillea, roses, birds of paradise.
Von Erb and Williams wore lighter outfits, crèmes, greens and blues to reflect the pool and garden, and Hoffman and Bruce chose darker apparel. On top of the cake were two sets of groom dolls in similar attire.
The invitations specified no gifts. Von Erb says in effect that most gay couples get married after a long relationship and don’t really need any toasters.
Tory and Deb do It
Victoria Thompson and her partner of 20 years, Deborah Hamilton, drove in from Tempe, Ariz., to get married recently. In an e-mail Thompson wrote, “Some friends of ours, a gay couple, recently came here to get married and recommended it. Also, Palm Springs seemed like an exotic getaway.”
Her mother, Barbara Thompson, flew in from Sausalito to join them. She hosted a festive lunch for the three at Le Vallauris.
Victoria writes “It was so special, like a fairy tale. The food excellent, and the chef was charming.” He improvised a wedding cake that was “incredibly delicious and a great surprise.”
Afterward, the ladies went around the corner and visited the impressive Palm Springs Art Museum.
“I spent the whole day in my wedding dress without anyone giving me an odd look,” Victoria said. Earlier, at the county clerk’s office in Indio, the women found “everyone so friendly, we did not feel uncomfortable, which was the experience our friends had as well. It seemed like everyone was celebrating with us.”