”No sitdown dinner, no wedding cake, no garter toss,” said newlywed Connie Castanuela Helbling, a portfolio investment advisor for Nodding & Associates, in Chicago. ”We wanted something totally different.”
The bridegroom wore a suit instead of a tux, and the bride marched to the altar to Bach`s ”Bist Du Bei Mir” (”If You`re Near to Me”). But tradition wasn`t a no-show at Connie and Chris Helbling`s recent wedding at Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park, although the reception was held in a River North art gallery. The bride found the gallery through her caterer, who suggested a number of unusual sites.
”We wanted an eclectic mix of traditional elements we liked, balanced with the nontraditional,” said Chris Helbling, a writer for Leo Burnett Co. Inc., an advertising agency.
Reflecting the bride`s Mexican heritage, the couple`s personal invitation inscription was in English and Spanish: ”I traveled to a different land of different people and different ways, and yet my life remained unchanged until I found my heart.”
The bridegroom, who received his MBA from the University of Southern California, explained: ”Connie was born in Mexico, and I was born in a California beach town (Hermosa Beach), and we found happiness in each other here in Chicago.”
The couple met through friends at a Chicago Jazz Festival five years ago. ”I knew I liked him when he said he knew what a convertible bond was,”
the bride said.
The couple exchanged traditional vows while bound by a large crystal rosary, a Mexican rite known as ”the lasso” that symbolizes the marriage union.
The Episcopalian ceremony was performed by Rev. Edwin Wappler. A family friend, Rev. John Van Eenwyck, said the homily.
Attending the Oct. 17 wedding were the bride`s parents, Francisca and Arnold Castanuela, who moved to Chicago from their native Mexico when Connie was 6. Her father is a retired electronics engineer. In from San Francisco were the bridegroom`s mother and stepfather, Molly and Peter Hartwell.
Later, at the Klein Gallery, guests, who included a physicist, a cartoonist, artists and a model, nibbled a buffet-style dinner and mingled among the works of Chicago artist Cameron Zebrun, who makes constructed paintings on wood.
”Having that kind of setting made it easy for guests to strike up conversations with each other,” said Connie Helbling. ”We didn`t want people stuck at one table.”
Wandering mariachis played during cocktails, and after dinner the Susie Hansen Orchestra provided music by Gershwin for dancing.
Initially Chris wanted a simple civil ceremony but acquiesced to Connie`s wish and considered the traditional ceremony his gift to her.
”I wanted a small, elegant wedding that was personalized,” said Connie, who planned her wedding in six weeks.
The bride said that many of her guests were surprised, given her penchant for the nontraditional, that she wore a traditional bridal gown.
”You`re supposed to have six months to order a designer dress, so my choices were limited.”
She chose a dress with Alencon lace and sequins that could be made quickly.
The only special order was that it have no pearls.
”My friend Pat said the number of pearls you wear on your wedding day is the number of tears you`re going to shed during your married life,” she explained. ”I wasn`t going to take any chances.”
On Nov. 20, the couple were married again in Hermosa Beach for the benefit of the bridegroom`s West Coast relatives.
That day, Chris Helbling fulfilled a weekly tradition by presenting a bouquet of red roses to his wife.
”Every Friday for the last year and a half, I`ve sent her a dozen roses as a reminder of what a lucky guy I am,” he said. ”The bouquet fulfilled that week`s quota.”
