Sedona, Ariz. — The last thing hikers on the Cathedral Rock trail expected on a waning November afternoon was to witness a wedding.
But they were, in their sweaty T-shirts and muddy boots and carrying walking sticks. Between them and the towering, steeple-like red rock formations they had come to see knelt a bride and groom in striped serapes. Standing over them was a Native American shaman in flowing robes with a leopard scalp on his head.
The shaman, Uqualla, was shaking a rattle and rain stick over the couple as he chanted blessings. Periodically, he glanced at a stout woman in a black polyester dress and sensible heels who was waving her hands like a traffic cop as she directed a wedding photographer loaded down with Nikons.
The dramatic backdrop, the shaman, the photographer, the director and the serapes were part of a $675 package Atlanta residents Karyn and Tom Griffith had booked with Weddings in Sedona. The Arizona company is one of hundreds of wedding planners that have sprung up to meet the soaring demand for marriages held in faraway places.
Search on the keywords "destination wedding" on the Internet and more than 17,000 entries pop up for wedding planners, resorts and cruise lines offering to arrange nuptials aboard ships; on Caribbean, Mexican or Hawaiian beaches; at Scottish castles; in nature reserves; or at theme parks.
"Destination weddings are huge; the number of weddings away has quadrupled in the past decade," said Tom Curtin, publisher of Bridal Guide, a Manhattan-based bimonthly magazine that reaches 500,000 readers. The publication includes a destination wedding story in each issue -- from gatherings in California's Wine Country, where the couple departs in a hot-air balloon, to "Fairy Tale" weddings at Disneyland or Walt Disney World, complete with a horse-drawn glass coach.
"About 30% of American couples are choosing to be married away from either the bride's or groom's home turf, with many of them combining the wedding and honeymoon in one," Curtin said.
"These are the children of baby boomers; they're well traveled, well educated, adventurous and independent, and they're not interested in wedding mills and banquet houses," said Lisa Light, owner of Destination Bride, a Chatham, N.Y., agency that organizes weddings worldwide. "They want to be stars, and since more and more of them are footing the bill themselves, they're determined to do it their way."
