|
| A wedding to remember
In an elegant ballroom transformed into a living garden by thousands of pink and apricot flowers, Johnson Publishing Company President and CEO Linda Johnson Rice and automobile executive Mel Farr Sr. exchanged vows before an audience of bold-faced names that mirrored and reflected the increasingly intersecting worlds of media, fashion, industry, and commerce.
Held at half after six o'clock at Chicago's Ritz-Carlton Hotel the black-tie affair was attended by a select group of 270 family members and close friends, including leading American CEOs and household names from American power centers.
Chicago society columnists said the wedding set new standards of elegance, citing, among other touches, |
the conversion of the ballroom into a flower-draped fairyland, the Dom Perignon champagne, the elegance of the sit-down dinner, the string orchestra, the Gentlemen of Leisure orchestra with five vocalists, and the spectacularly long dessert table.
A stunning touch, never before seen in Chicago, Michael Leventhal of Ronsley Special Events said, was the use of antique gold fabric "to cover the walls, ceilings and floors of the entire area covered by the entranceway and the two ballrooms." Another first was the use of thousands of flowers to create floral paintings, some of them 8 feet high. Leventhal said the design team that worked with the bride in planning the event wanted "to create the most visual masterpiece ever seen at a wedding."
All these touches--the flowers, the transformed space, the violins and the jazz orchestra--were defined by the infectious joy and celebration of the bride and groom and guests who celebrated one another and line-danced the night away on the custom gold dance floor.
The bride, who is the daughter of JPC Founder and Chairman John H. Johnson and JPC Secretary-Treasurer Eunice W. Johnson, wore a gold beaded lace gown created by Amsale, the Ethiopian-born designer who has been called "the creator of the modern wedding dress." Hairstylist Leigh Jones created her hairstyle.
Amsale also designed the gowns of the bride's attendants, her 15-year-old daughter Alexa and her close friends, Desiree Rogers and Judy Byrd. The bride's mother, Ebony Fashion Fair Director Eunice Johnson, wore a pink gown by Bob Mackie.
The groom, the son of Doretha Farr and the late Miller Farr Sr., is a former Detroit Lions All-Pro who went on to create a business empire as a Detroit auto dealer. He wore a tuxedo created by Black designer Lawrence McQueen of Houston. He was attended by his brother, best man Miller Farr, and his sons, Mel Farr Jr. and Mike Farr.
Chairman Johnson set the tone of the wedding at the very beginning, setting a brisk and determined pace as he escorted his daughter to the wedding platform. Undaunted, he repeated the long walk at the end of the ceremony and received sustained applause, not only for his role as a parent but also for his contributions as a pioneering publisher and media magnate.
The wedding was performed by Dr. William H. Gray III, former congressman and former president of the UNCF, who said later that the central message of the wedding was not glamour but joy and a sense of family and the continuation of great traditions and great dreams.
The who's who list of attendees included Tavis Smiley, Chicago School Board President Michael Scott, Chicago Urban League President Jim Compton, Paula and James Crown, Linda and Peter Bynoe, Nicki Zollar and William Von Hoene, Jeannette and Langdon Neal, Isobel and Earl Neal, Maria Bechily and Scott Hodes, Sugar Rautbord, Lester and Nancy McKeever, Steve and Candace McKeever, and Maurice and Madeline Rabb.
|
|
