Wedding Road Show to Feature Unique Barnegat Businesses

Hundreds of brides, grooms, their wedding parties, families and friends from all over the state and country are expected to attend this weekend's 4th Annual Long Beach Island Region Wedding Road Show to help plan their destination weddings.

The event is sponsored by the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce and the Long Beach Island Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) and will feature 56 area businesses associated with weddings -- everything from banquet halls and florists to videographers and bands.

"We're rolling out the red carpet so people see Long Beach Island as a wedding destination," said Lori Pepenella, Destination Marketing Director for the chamber.  "To get on a plane to fly to an island isn't in everyone's budget.  You have the range of budget options if you choose to have your wedding in our area."

Starting at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 22, brides can register at one of three locations:  Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce Office in Ship Bottom; Holiday Inn on Route 72 or Tuckerton Seaport.  There, they will get a tour book detailing the open houses they can visit, each featuring a wide variety of vendors to build their wedding event.

The open houses will take place at:  The Stateroom in Ship Bottom; Surf City Hotel; Surf City Yacht Club; Converse Estate in Beach Haven; Long Beach Island Historical Society in Beach Haven; Brant Beach Yacht Club; Daddy O in Brant Beach; Sea Shell Resort in Beach Haven; and Boathouse Restaurant in Beach Haven.

Pepenella said brides can go from place to place and get signatures in their tour books and those who turns in the most signatures will be entered to win a wedding gown, five tuxedo rentals and a pair of wedding rings.

The event will go on until 4:30 p.m., Pepenella said.

Rock Solid Productions of Barnegat will be one of the vendors stationed at the Stateroom in Ship Bottom. 

"We're a full-service music production house," said Halley Feaster, a cellist who grew up in Ship Bottom and played her first wedding when she was 16 years old.  "We offer music for the entire wedding day -- a string group, which might be good for the ceremony, for the cocktail hour, my fiancé is a highly trained jazz pianist, and a party band for the reception."

Feaster's string quartet will be playing as visitors enter the Stateroom and she will have a table with her booking information for brides and grooms to peruse. She hopes the wedding road show will remind people about her and that she wants to play.

"Just being able to have that role in somebody's big day is special," she said.  "We're helping to make it even more special.  I will never get tired of that part."

A new trend in weddings is the use of antiques for favors, place card holders, centerpieces and decorations, according to Joan Rader, Manager of Unshredded Nostalgia, 323 S. Main Street, which will be displaying two vintage wedding dresses during the Road Show.

"Themed weddings are very popular right now and what's fueling the trend is people are going green," said Rader.  "They're trying to rethink vintage to make it that much more interesting and beautiful."

Rader said she noticed the trend about two years ago when people started coming in to find vintage and antique pieces to enhance the decor of their weddings.  She said people have used old record albums as place mats, old wooden spools as place card holders, medicine bottles with rolled up notes to save the date and old buttons to decorate the table in place of glitter.

"The bride and groom are only limited by their imagination," she said.  "And, once they explore the decor for their wedding, they'll come back to us to decorate their home."

Unshredded Nostalgia is an antique business that specializes in ephemera -- paper or paper-made products.  They have a photo gallery of photos from 1839 to the present, a room devoted to New Jersey history and typical antiques, among other things, said Rader.

Other Barnegat Township businesses with displays at the Road Show will be Sweet Jenny's Restaurant, 688 E. Bay Avenue and Rose Garden Florist, 257 S. Main Street.

Lacey Limo of Waretown will be providing the transportation for the VIP Road Show winners - a couple from Medford who was selected out of more than 1,200 entries.  They will be treated to a night's stay at Daddy O, will receive a variety of gifts and will travel to the different road show venues by limo, said Pepenella, but, they are striving to make all brides feel like VIP's during the event.

"We want the brides to feel like they're guests for the day and share with their family and friends as they explore the island and options available to them," she said.

For more information about the Wedding Road Show, visit the Chamber's website at http://www.visitlbiregion.com/weddings/road-show-registration.