Wedding Expert Makes Bells Ring

She’s been written up in People and admired on the cover of Town & Country magazine. She’s been romanced by Margaret Thatcher’s son, Mark, and David Niven’s son, David Jr.

She’s the daughter of Texas oil magnate Benjamin Johnson Fortson Jr. and his wife, Kay Kimbell Carter, a couple at the zenith of Lone Star society.

But Karen Fortson, the beautiful Ft. Worth heiress, has left it all behind to follow the love of her life to Orange County. And it will be here next month that she will marry sound recording specialist Tom Davis in a private ceremony.

Who’s the wedding coordinator? Susan Nunn, of course.

Now. Don’t go pumping Nunn for details about the Fortson-Davis nuptials. She’ll just smile her sweet, enigmatic smile. She’s fiercely protective of her brides.

But go ahead and ask her anything about weddings--from “how much cake?” to “what kind of music?”--and she’ll answer gladly and thoroughly. Nunn’s love of wedding celebrations and her commitment to making them flawless has made her queen of the Ritz-Carlton gazebo, the place to be married in Orange County. The facts: Nunn averages one gazebo wedding per week and the hotel has a one-year waiting list.

What’s the attraction? “The view of the ocean, the getaway feeling, the romance,” said Nunn, who coordinated four gazebo weddings last week.

“The Ritz is the only Five Star hotel in Orange County,” she added. “It’s black-tie at the beach. It’s prestige.”

A typical gazebo wedding has the bride and groom standing just outside the Mediterranean-style structure during the ceremony, Nunn says. After all, guests don’t want to lose sight of the blushing bride as they sit--as they sometimes do--on chairs fitted with satin coverlets. After the wedding, there is usually an elegant dinner in one of the Ritz ballrooms and, more often than not, the newlyweds settle into one of the Dana Point hotel’s luxury suites for the night.

The cost? “Oh, weddings range from $20,000 to $200,000,” said Nunn, whose offices are in Orange. “Anything lower than $20,000 and you’re not going to get much of a wedding these days.”

Nunn likes to extend her services beyond what she promises on her brochure: attendance and organization of the rehearsal, wedding and reception.

For example, she likes to help the couple with their honeymoon suite. During the wedding reception, Nunn will steal away to the couple’s accommodations and make sure the room is filled with champagne, flowers, warm food, wedding cake, and no booby traps. Recently, a best man filled a marital bed at the Ritz-Carlton with cornflakes and pizza. Nunn and her crew whisked it away.

“My staff and I check the room very carefully,” Nunn said. “We know what to look for: booby-trapped beds, missing bathing suit tops, and buttons removed from clothing.”

To get through a wedding day, Nunn and her staff use two-way radios. They came in handy before a recent wedding at the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach when the fire alarm went off.

“Announcements were coming over the speakers that the hotel was being evacuated,” Nunn said. “I messaged one of my assistants to get the bride into the hotel garden so she wouldn’t panic. The wedding guests were able to remain seated and the bride didn’t hear a thing. But she’ll find out all about it when she watches her wedding video.”

Sick brides and grooms are another challenge for Nunn. “Recently, a groom passed out three times during his wedding ceremony,” Nunn said. “And I had a bride get very sick before a ceremony. They get on these liquid diets so they will look thin and beautiful on their wedding day. Unnecessary. “ (Nunn notes that she has never had a bride or groom pass out at the Ritz-Carlton gazebo.)

Nunn is confident that the Fortson-Davis nuptials, which will be attended by locals and a slew of Texans (some of them friends of President Bush), will unfold without a hitch. Karen’s beautiful mum is a perfectionist. Consider: Kay Fortson has also retained a wedding coordinator from Texas. Recently, that coordinator flew to Orange County via private jet to check out wedding cakes and sample food.

And Kay Fortson is concerned about detail right down to the rehearsal-dinner plates. She has asked Nunn to send her a sample plate so that she may inspect “the blue,” Nunn said.

One of the social highlights of the Fortson-Davis celebration will be the rehearsal dinner for 180 people given by Kay Fortson’s dear friend, Anne Marion, wife of Sotheby’s auctioneer John Marion (he’s the genius who hammered down $53.9 million for Van Gogh’s “Irises”). It will be quiet and elegant, with a pre-dinner reception taking place in the Ritz-Carlton’s only seaside party room with a wood-burning fireplace.

But with all of the planned grandeur, Karen Fortson--who is deeply religious--cares most about one thing, Nunn says. “She wants her marriage to be blessed, to know God is smiling on her and Tom.”