One of Marino's clients wanted fresh venison and bison for the reception dinner and had it flown in from his own Montana ranch. Fireworks can add a festive touch with five minutes of rockets costing $5,000, or up to $25,000 for a more elaborate display.
"We created one wedding in an open field, where we brought in tents, built an entire kitchen, imported electricity, lighting and refrigeration," she says. "Another client was fascinated by red English telephone booths and had one flown in to add to the décor. Spending thousands of dollars for a wedding cake is also not unusual."
For events where guests are coming from far off places, a few days or weeks of activities and sightseeing is often planned.
Other Marino touches have included handmade linens from India at $500 per tablecloth, Bentleys for transporting guests from one venue to another and private-chartered jets and yachts-if the families don't own their own-to fly or sail guests in. Security services are also sometimes included, particularly for weddings in Washington, D.C.
When En Vogue planned a wedding that required flying in many of its 2,000, mostly from India, it ran into a logistical problem: where to hold a wedding ceremony for that many people. The solution was a convention center.
"We had to transform the convention center into something that did not look like a convention center, so that added drastically to the cost," Hughes explains.
In California's wine country, a wedding is often planned around the venue. Wine country tours are common for guests who arrive days in advance, with all costs often paid for by the wedding couple. The event itself can be held in a wine cave-a manmade cavern that is used, among other things, to store wine.
Wine country is often used as a destination for weddings even when the couple does not live in the area, says Montero of A Dream Wedding.
"Of the top 100 wines in the world, we have 40% of them," notes Montero who plans weddings around the wines themselves. "Number one in priority for our couples is usually the food and wine, then the intimacy we can provide and then the settings."
A wedding ceremony and reception in wine country can often include six or eight different wines, she says. In addition, for one affair, Grace Ormonde wedding invitations alone cost $30,000.
Most events in wine country are held between April and October. Montero says she has seldom had to put up a tent because of the region's favorable weather, although a backup venue might be planned just in case. A tent can add nearly $30,000 to the cost.