Wedding plans take flight
From fake cakes to real doves...By MARLY KOSINSKI Tribune Chronicle
Article Photos
NILES - From fake cakes to real birds and everything in between, the Bridal Extravaganza at the Eastwood Expo Center offered brides-to-be and their future husbands a smorgasbord of services to make their wedding day special.
Among the more than 100 vendors was Party On!, located in the Boulevard Centre in Niles, which offers a unique service for brides and grooms - a white dove release. The store is owned by siblings Jeff Lyda of Warren and Debbie Simon of New Springfield.
The service, Wings of Love, is owned by their father, George Lyda. He said he started the business eight years ago when Debbie wanted to have white doves released at her wedding and couldn't find anyone to do it.
"She asked me to do it, so I started researching it and going to dove shows. It took me two years to get my own stock of doves," George Lyda said.
He said he has 120 white racing homers - a breed of dove developed in the Netherlands specifically for release. Lyda said the doves can travel up to 600 miles a day, flying between 40 and 60 mph at about 1,500 feet.
Lyda said a trainer is present at all releases to ensure the birds' safety, and the doves fly back to their perch at his North Lima home when finished.
"In addition to symbolizing love and peace, doves mate for life," Lyda said, "which makes them the perfect addition for a wedding."
He said dove releases have been popular in the South and West for several years, but have just started catching on in this part of the country.
Also catching on, according to Party On! sales associate Melissa DeFalco, are bachelorette parties and destination weddings. Destination weddings are ceremonies held at a traditional vacation spots such as Hawaii or on a cruise.
Stella Kotsatos-Angelo of Warren and Penny Bennett of Vienna are fueling another new trend with their business, The Cake Boutique. The women work out of their homes and specialize in creating fake cakes made out of molded foam with real icing in a design chosen by the bride.
Bennett said a traditional tiered wedding cake can cost up to $800 while one of their fake cake creations is $400. She said couples rent the cake to display at the reception, and she and Kotsatos-Angelo will make a sheet cake with the same colors and design to serve to guests.
The top layer of the fake cake usually is edible, or a mini cake can be made for the bride and groom to share their special "first bite." All of the icing on the fake cakes is edible as well.
"We make traditional cakes too, but we're really pushing the fake cakes because they are more economical," Bennett said.
