Wedding resurgence draws vendors to inaugural expo at Hempfield casino venue

Tessa Spellman and her mother, Ramie O’Brien, have found their business fortunes waxing nicely — literally — as a post-pandemic resurgence in full-blown wedding ceremonies has fueled demand for their related products.

“Wax seals are hot with the young people,” O’Brien said.

The Forest Hills duo provide initialed wax seals to add an elegant touch to the custom wedding invitations and stationery they create. They also offered seals for do-it-your-selfers at their Fussy Cuts Papery booth Saturday, March 4.

They were among those who attended the first wedding expo at The Venue Live event space at Live Casino Pittsburgh in Hempfield’s Westmoreland Mall.

About 25 vendors are featured at the expo, which continues 10-2 Sunday. Admission is free.

O’Brien made wax seals for Spellman’s 2014 marriage, and Spellman provided stationery for the recent weddings of her sister and a friend.

They combined their specialties in an Etsy shop Spellman started in 2021.

They started displaying their wares at area wedding shows in November of that year and also at the local Greensburg Night Market. They’ll participate in their biggest show so far next fall: the Pennsylvania Bridal & Wedding Expo at Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

“Our growth has been phenomenal for the last two years,” Spellman said. “Did I think in 2020 that I would be doing this on a professional level? No.“

Set up in a workshop in her basement, she’s hoping to grow the venture into a full-time business. So far, she said, “It’s gone really, really fast.”

Weddings normally make up about 85% of the business of Irwin photographer Holly Ferencuha, a fellow vendor at Saturday’s expo. But, in 2020, during the first year of the pandemic, she said, “Everything pretty much got canceled.”

As pandemic-related restrictions on outdoor gatherings eased, she said, “We had a boom in 2021 and 2022.”

Now, with inflation causing renewed economic hardship, she noted, that boom may be over.

“It’s tough now,” she noted, “but weddings will never stop.”

Amanda Sawayer of Carlisle held down a booth for Designing Memories, which fields a staff of wedding planners across Pennsylvania.

Between the pandemic and budgetary concerns, she said, clients have started preparing for smaller weddings with a limited number of guests.

“We help them break down their guest list to the people they have to have there versus the people they should have there,” Sawayer said.

When the pandemic arrived in 2020, she said, “We weren’t able to have anything for 10 to 12 months. We’re still recovering from that.

“For the most part, we’re able to get back into the swing of things. I don’t want to call it back to normal yet. We’re getting their slowly.”

It’s been helpful that more couples are considering outdoor settings for their weddings, she said, while noting clients are open to more creative choices in venue and theme.

“There have been a lot of rustic settings,” she said, “but I’ve seen them transitioning into more of an industrial feel.

“Instead of barns, they’re looking into other options, like a renovated warehouse or a brewery.”

With their nuptials less than eight months away, Belle Vernon couple Valerie Wallace and Ronnie Lemley had some specific items at the top of their list as they visited Saturday’s expo: choosing a tuxedo for Lemley and possibly hiring a limousine.

Wallace acknowledged she held out a visit to the affiliated casino as an incentive for getting her fiance to accompany her to the event.

“He’s along for the ride,” she said.

Wallace said personal choice rather than pandemic or economic concerns are prompting the couple to book the outdoor gazebo at Harrison City’s Nicassio Fields and to limit the guests to about 80.

She said they selected the venue “just because it’s pretty. We really want to get a nighttime picture of it outside.”