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‘Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?’
Enfield couple’s nuptials to be broadcast
on Style Network show
By Michelle Firestone
For the Journal Inquirer
Ginger and Nick Hearn of Enfield were married last month in a televised ceremony for the Style Network’s reality show, “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?” The show is expected to air in the spring. (Michelle Huston)
ENFIELD — Weddings are stressful enough as it is, but imagine having your wedding televised.
That’s what happened when local residents Nick and Ginger Hearn got married on Saturday, Dec. 20, before cameras for the Style Network’s reality show, “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?”
The couple were planning a high-end wedding when Ginger’s neurological condition, known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, began to worsen and the medical bills started piling up.
“We had all this stuff to do but no money,” said Ginger, who works as a pharmacist for Partners Pharmacy in East Windsor.
She was diagnosed with the rare syndrome —whose symptoms include severe burning pain, tissue swelling, and extreme sensitivity to touch — last April after injuring her knee a few months earlier at the local store where she formerly worked. Doctors are unsure how she contracted the rare syndrome.
“It could have been either from the injury, the knee surgery, or both,” Ginger said.
In the wake of mounting medical bills, Ginger wrote to several television networks that broadcast wedding-related reality shows, describing the couple’s situation and asking for help with their nuptials.
After being rejected by TLC’s show, “Say Yes to the Dress,” where brides-to-be search for the perfect wedding dress, the couple was selected by the Style Network to be featured on its show, “Whose Wedding is it Anyway? The show helps couples plan their weddings.
The couple received final approval to be on the show within four days of applying last fall.
“The whole process was very fast,” Ginger said.
Ginger, 31, and Nick, 29, met in 2005 while working at the same store — Ginger in the pharmacy and Nick in produce. Nick, who has Type I diabetes, used to have his prescriptions filled by Ginger in the pharmacy.
Ginger’s co-workers always thought Nick was cute and wanted to set him and Ginger up on a date, even though they were both in relationships with other people at the time.
But by July 2006 both Nick and Ginger found themselves unattached and finally had that first date, at a bowling alley, and sparks flew. They got engaged less than a year later, on May 23, 2007.
It would be Ginger’s second wedding and the first for Nick, who now works as a substitute teacher. Although she was married before, Ginger, who doesn’t have any children, didn’t look at it as her second wedding because she was finally marrying the right person.
“I didn’t compare the two,” Ginger said. “The first time I got married for the wrong reasons and to the wrong person.”
Ginger wanted her wedding to be fancy and referred to it as a “platinum wedding.”
“We wanted it to have the ‘wow’ factor,” she said.
Having their wedding taped by a national TV show meant the show paid for the couple’s wedding planner and many vendors donated or discounted their services due to the publicity. The Hearns paid for other basic costs themselves.
“We got good deals on everything,” Ginger said.
For example, when Ginger’s dress was too tight, the dress shop exchanged it at no additional cost.
As the Dec. 20 wedding date drew closer, things got more stressful, however. The couple didn’t have enough time for everything that needed to be done because certain events leading up to the wedding had to be taped for the show.
“It took a lot of time out of the day,” she said.
The dress fitting, for example, took about an hour due to the taping when it normally would have taken five minutes, Ginger said.
They also faced other problems.
The original plan was to hold the wedding at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford but for insurance reasons they had to change the location to the Guilford Yacht Club.
The florist backed out just five days before the wedding so Ginger didn’t get the exact bouquet she wanted. Shawn Rabideau, the New York City event planner hired by the show, ended up taking care of the floral arrangements.
The winter weather also didn’t help things. A major snowstorm struck the day before the wedding, causing the cancellation of the rehearsal dinner.
“I was disappointed,” Ginger said. “I was looking forward to the dinner as a way to thank everyone for participating in the wedding.”
But on the day of the wedding before more than 85 guests at the Guilford Yacht Club, all major problems disappeared.
Sal Fiore, the justice of the peace from Enfield who married the couple, said things went pretty smoothly.
“The nerves are there; you can’t block them out, but they handled the circumstances pretty well,” he said.
Although he’s been performing marriages for 28 years, Fiore was more nervous than usual this time around because of the presence of TV cameras.
“Going on TV makes you think that not only are you doing the ceremony in front of the family and friends of the couple, but you are doing it for a national audience,” he said.
Ginger said that although the taping added extra stress, overall it was an enjoyable experience for her and Nick. Being faced with the cameras enabled the couple to completely analyze the experience.
“It allowed us to talk about things we wouldn’t necessarily have talked about,” she said.
Exactly when the Hearns’ episode of “Whose Wedding is it Anyway?” will be shown has yet to be determined, but Ginger said she expects it to air sometime in April or May, whenever season nine of the show begins.
Source
January 14, 2009
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