The September 11th attack
Attacks take toll on wedding bells

By Michele Kayal
and Frank Cho
Advertiser Staff Writers

Love may conquer lots of things, but it apparently can't overcome a reluctance to travel.

Reiko Nagaarashi and Masayuki Honda exchanged wedding vows at Kawaiaha'o Church yesterday. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

During the week of Sept. 11-18 last year, the state issued 732 marriage licenses. This year, the state issued 268 licenses.

"You can see from these ... figures that there's a tremendous impact already," said state registrar of vital statistics Alvin Onaka.

The figures reflect a week in which the U.S. aviation system was shut down. In the days that followed, travel and wedding experts said they received some cancellations and postponements, though business from Japan seems to be suffering more than that of betrothed from the Mainland.

The indicators are putting a pinch on hundreds of business that cater to the wedding industry, a significant portion of which is made up of tourists. More than half of the 25,000 marriages in Hawai'i last year were among non-residents, according to state statistics.

Modern Bride magazine estimates the business pumps nearly $900 million a year into the economy from the Mainland market alone. Japanese weddings add a similar amount each year.

Of the 1,600 weddings booked during September at Watabe Weddings, one of the state's biggest Japanese wedding vendors, more than 500 have been canceled since the Sept. 11 attacks, said Watabe sales manager Isao Yamanaka. Watabe Weddings employs about 230 people and holds weddings at 40 sites around O'ahu.

"Right now, we have not recorded many rescheduling," Yamanaka said. "Maybe they will later, but they may still be thinking about it right now."

Bride Reiko Nagaarashi and groom Masayuki Honda emerge from Kawaiaha'o Church after their wedding yesterday. Some couples have canceled their nuptials. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I have cancellations two inches high. That means they are canceling their hotel rooms, canceling their limos, they are canceling their airplane reservations," Bates said. "I have been in the wedding business since 1987, and I have never seen it this bad."

Dieu "Duke" Tiet, owner of Duke's Limousine, said that almost all of his Japanese customers canceled last week. O'ahu's largest limo operator, Duke's concentrates on wedding services nearly evenly split between Japanese and kama'aina customers, who take an average of 250 to 300 rides a month. Tiet said October is looking better, with only 10 percent to 15 percent cancelations. Meanwhile, local business has not been affected, he said.

For, David Sukowske, president of Mary Catherine's Bakery, there has been a change in cake sales for local weddings, but it has been slight. He said some local weddings are shrinking because fewer Mainland guests are attending, and that means smaller wedding cakes.

Orders last weekend were off 10 percent to 20 percent. This week, he's making 28 wedding cakes, which is not out of the ordinary.

Some wedding planners steeped in the Mainland business also have seen a slowdown, but it does not appear to be as dramatic as in the Japanese market.

A1 Weddings in Kane'ohe, which does about 50 weddings a month, lost 85 percent of its business for September, said Bonnie LeLesch, who is minding the business for its owners, the Rev. Toni Baran and the Rev. Jerry LeLesch, her cousin. But two weeks after the crisis, things began to pick up a little, LeLesch said.

"We haven't gotten cancellations in October or November, and I'm getting more calls to make arrangements for those times," she said. In addition, she said she's had five or six calls in the last week from military personnel stationed in Hawai'i who want weddings within a week.

"It seems to me I'm getting requests from military people on relatively short notice," she said. "I wonder whether they're feeling they may be sent away, and they should get married."

At White Orchid Wedding on Maui, which gets 95 percent of its business from the Mainland, there were only three cancellations, said wedding coordinator Kelly Miller.

"To us, it really appears that most people are going to continue with their plans and not let this prevent them from continuing on with their lives," Miller said.

Wedding photographer Barry Maier said he believes wedding couples are trying to make it here, but are having difficulty because of service cutbacks by airlines.

Maier, who operates Aloha Beautiful Hawaii Weddings and caters to westbound visitor weddings, said his call volume is down only a few percent.

Kris Anderson, who coordinates mostly Mainland and Canadian weddings and does about 17 a month, received only one cancellation, from a couple that got in very late after days of delays and were simply too tired to get married.

Immediately after the tragedy, Anderson said visits to his Web site were off about 50 percent, but a week later, the number of hits shot up to about 40 percent more than usual. That same week, he also had his busiest telephone day of the year.

"I was on the telephone all day (with) people that were planning their weddings," he said. "We're not too concerned. Love and marriage will continue."

Advertiser staff writer Andrew Gomes contributed to this report.