Smoothing the way

By Mary Alice Garrett

This story originally appeared September 11, 2008 in The News Journal of Wilmington, Delaware.

WILMINGTON - Society, as it was 60 years ago, has gone out of vogue.

No one knows that better than Samantha Diedrick, owner of Secretariat, Wilmington’s 3 leading wedding and event planning firm. Diedrick, just 34, will hold a tea this month to celebrate Secretariat’s 60th anniversary.

Unlike Secretariat’s original owners, Diedrick will not wear white gloves, cocktail party attire and high heels to the tea. Instead, she’s likely to don her favorite work outfit — khaki skirt, blouse and flats. It’s more practical and more in tune with her younger clients.

Secretariat was founded in 1948 to plan weddings and debutante balls for old-line Wilmington society. Owners Kathryn "Dit" Buchan and Mary Hynson, now deceased, coordinated lavish weddings and parties for many du Pont family members and their friends.

"They were two wonderful women who were highly thought-of here in Wilmington," recalled Nancy Crowe, who worked briefly for them and bought the business in 1983.

Crowe desired to make the part-time business "a real business" and did so by expanding into corporate accounts. Soon she was planning out—of-town sales meetings for corporations and even ran the DuPont All-American Tennis Championship on Amelia Island, Fla., for 10 years. "I’d never done that before. I enjoyed it very much."

Crowe kept her wedding clients, some of them throughout the world. One memorable one was in Harbor Island in the Bahamas, where she had just five days to find a minister, flowers and food and accommodations for the destination wedding. Another took place in Nantucket. "We even flew the wedding cake up from Delaware," she recalled.

Sewing thread (for buttons) and smelling salts were a staple for the wedding parties. "There were always little glitches," said Crowe. She said the role of the wedding coordinator is to anticipate potential problems in advance. "I could write a book on the funny things that happened, the catastrophes," Crowe said.

Crowe ran the business for 19 years and gave it up when her daughter gave birth to triplets. "It was hard to give up the business. I felt like I had grown the business."

Changing times

In 1997, Secretariat merged with Breakthrough Communications Group, a marketing and communications company headed by Sonia Rice. Diedrick became an account executive for the firm in 2000 and bought it two years later. By then, corporations had their own event-planners, and that end of the business had started to dwindle. Wilmington debutante balls had also become passe. Diedrick decided to return to weddings and social functions.

"No matter what the economy, people are getting married, having cocktail and holiday parties and, in the Jewish community, celebrating their children’s bar or bat mitzvah. Managing these events is what we do best," noted Diedrick.

Today, Secretariat will do everything for a bride — short of writing her thank—you notes. (One bride actually requested that.) Secretariat will find a wedding and reception site, a caterer and photographer, address and mail the wedding invitations and monitor their responses. All of this is done for $75-$85 per hour. On-site coordination of an event is $100-$125 an hour.

Diedrick says she’s both wedding planner and therapist. Sometimes, family dynamics go awry, and she becomes a mediator. "I always ask, ‘Does everybody get along?' " when booking a wedding. Diedrick’s telephone starts ringing consistently on Jan. 2. "It’s the ones who got engaged at Christmas."

People are marrying at an older age (many in their 30s), Diedrick notes. The wedding cost is being born by multiple people. "I have a lot where everybody is contributing." One—third of her brides and bridegrooms pay for the wedding themselves and therefore are doing exactly what they want.

‘Attention to detail'

Rachel McKenna and her husband chose a beach wedding at Stone Harbor, N.J. "My husband [to-be] didn’t want to wear a tuxedo," said McKenna of West Chester, Pa. Instead, he and his groomsmen wore khaki pants and navy sport coats. Their beach theme reception included seashells and saltwater taffy as favors. McKenna had been a bridesmaid eight times and had seen a few "stressed-out brides." She wasn’t one of them. "Samantha made being a bride fun," she said. " I had a fabulous time at my wedding. She is incredibly organized."

"Her attention to detail is amazing," added Dana Monzo of Wilmington, who married in 2006. Monzo used Secretariat to hand write her wedding invitations and coordinate her rehearsal, wedding and reception.

Diedrick says wedding food has changed. Some clients opt for sushi and mashed potato bars and apple martinis over the traditional champagne. "A lot are scrapping the champagne toast because it's a waste of champagne." Cupcakes sometimes replace the wedding cake.

Secretariat sill manages Cotillion and the Holiday Dance, both of which it originated. Cotillion is held for seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders at Wilmington Country Club. The Holiday Dance, at The Hotel du Pont, is for high school students from area independent schools.

Diedrick held an etiquette class for teenagers which proved to be popular. "I've had a lot of people call begging us to offer [another] etiquette class," she said. The class included everything from making eye contact to how to react when given an unwanted gift. The problem with offering the class again, Diedrick says, is that today's teens are over-scheduled, it's difficult to find a convenient day and time for the class.

Diedrick began working in event planning when she was only 16. She worked part time for her mother, owner of a similar firm in New York City. Crowe ways Secretariat is in good hands with Diedrick. "She has a lot of energy. She has the energy I had 25 years ago."