Wedding planner

Brides’ Wedding Wishes Come True

By Janet Eastman

Dear brides-to-be, breathe. Platon is here.

No, Platon is not the latest high-tech substitute for platinum wedding rings. Platon isn’t the latest trend in small plate dishes. And Platon isn’t a romantic island getaway perfect for honeymoons.

Platon is the man of your dreams. Well, the other man of your dreams.

Platon Mantheakis is the effervescent manager of the fabled Jacksonville Inn in Jacksonville, Oregon. For 24 years, longer than most brides have been on the planet, he has taken brides by their justifiably nervous hands and led them down the aisle of good times and happily ever afters. He arranges for candlelit dinners, romantic dances, a white Cinderella-like carriage to whisk them away and every other fantasy they’ve been thinking about since they were seven.

Mantheakis has produced more than 200 weddings, from those small enough to fit in a suite to those grand enough to fill the Inn’s ballroom. “I’ve had brides who tell me their dad is given them $400 for the wedding and others who are given $50,000,” he says. “They’re all women in love listening in their heart and you can’t put a price on that.”

The wedding business sounds glamorous, but it’s hard work. The day itself means workers have to strap on running shoes and wait on people for 18 hours. Catering, says Mantheakis, is seven days a week. “You work when other people play,” he says, adding, “most of the professionals who have been exposed to the wedding business think it’s a pain in the ass, the fighting brides, warring families, the pressure.”

But Mantheakis l-o-v-e-s weddings: “I’ve always been fascinated by the matters of the heart,” he says, calling from the backstage of the Britt Festival, where he also satisfies the special requests of rock stars and divas. “I see weddings as the creation of a special day of a couple’s life. It’s a privilege to be part of a wedding that is sincerely their own.”

Pay close attention to those last words because they are the key, he says, to pulling off the perfect wedding: Make your wedding your own.

After all, he reminds us, a wedding and the reception are not about showing off what’s in your wallet, but what’s in your heart. It’s a crash course in letting new friends and an entirely new family get to know you. For this reason, you need to put your genuine self forward. This takes the pressure off emulating what other brides or magazine editors think you should do.

He offers this seasoned advice: The single most important thing a woman can do to get married is to find a good and descent man. “Don’t get married to have a party, but to marry someone who you want to share your life with,” he says. The second most important thing a bride can do for herself, her family and her guests is to authentically portray herself and the groom at the wedding and reception.

He says, only half jokingly, that if the couple is all about Mad Dog 2020 or they have a sentimental story about Cold Duck, they should serve that at their reception.

“How boring would it be if these brides just opened a trendy magazine and did a cookie-cutter, black-and-white wedding?” he asks. “If your uncle knows how to roast a whole lamb with the head on and you want to pour ouzo, do it. These are the elements that guests will remember.”

He recalls when prominent Jacksonville couple Mark Wisnovsky and Jill Hamilton got married, they wanted everything environmentally friendly, way before the term was mainstream, and they requested a vegetarian meal. “An American Indian shaman performed the ceremony and there was not a dry eye in the place,” says Mantheakis, adding, “especially not mine.”

Another time, he worked with a bride who introduced herself by saying, “I’m a redneck girl from Rogue River.” He says he learned that chicken and turkey marinated in Jack Daniels and cooked in a cardboard box could taste great. And that a lot of dogs at a wedding could be fun.

Janet Eastman writes for national publications and covers Southern Oregon wine for www.examiner.com. Her work can be seen at www.janeteastman.com.