Couple throws McWedding

[PiKA2001]

February 15, 2006

When Corey Cutcheon and Doreen Brown got engaged three weeks ago, they found themselves squeezed. The couple had sunk so much cash into their new house in Yaphank that there was little left over for a marriage celebration. And they said it was impossible to book a reception venue as quickly as they wanted.

So thrift and haste gave birth to Long Island's first McWedding.

"We called several places; no one would house us, and it cost a fortune," Doreen Cutcheon, 34, said of her and her 23-year-old groom's dilemma. "Corey said to me, 'Why don't we try McDonald's?'"

A judge at Port Jefferson Village Hall hitched them legally at 9:30 a.m. yesterday and then the new couple joined their friends, family and well-wishers under the golden arches in a Farmingville McDonald's.

Franchise officials called the McWedding Long Island's first -- on Valentine's Day to boot. "It's a first and it's pretty exciting" said John Rompollo, who oversees a dozen McDonald's restaurants on the Island. "Maybe it's the beginning of a trend."

The Cutcheons' celebration was not the first McWedding reception the world has seen. In August 2002, a thrifty couple in Wales made BBC headlines when guests at their wedding reception devoured 33 McDonald's Happy Meals at a local franchise.

Yesterday, the 50 wedding guests who gathered for fast food on North Ocean Avenue ate 14 cheeseburger value meals, 13 Filet-o-Fish sandwiches, 17 Chicken McNugget meals and four hot fudge sundaes -- all washed down with 44 medium sodas. They topped the meal off with complimentary slices of chocolate Ronald McDonald cake.

The grand total for the feast was just $250.59.

The bride's family had no complaints. "Our children are in charge of their own weddings and they shouldn't be under the stress of the so-called traditions," said mother of the bride Lene Brown, 57.

Brown said her own wedding was a modest affair on a rainy October day 34 years ago, in front of a judge in Yonkers.

The celebration drew mixed reactions from the customers there for non-wedding noshing, depending mostly upon the observer's age.

"I'm very shocked," said Janet Marino, a homemaker from Farmingville. "McDonald's is for children, and now the adults have become children."

One onlooker, a wedding catering manager, said she's seen clients spend anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 on their receptions.

"People can't afford Long Island weddings," said the manager. The 31-year-old Oakdale resident did not want to be identified, saying her business could be adversely affected by her name's appearance in print alongside the McWedding. "The business is just that competitive," she said.

But a younger McDonald's patron was all for the fast-food nuptials.

Said Vanessa Vorisek, 16, of Farmingville, as she cleared off her table: "It's cool, and it's a lot less money than a regular reception."