On Friday evening, hundreds of spouses-to-be descended on the Denver Botanic Gardens’ annual wedding showcase, navigating a swarm of florists, musicians, cake purveyors, wedding planners, photographers, dressmakers and others involved in the great American bridal industry.
For it emphatically is not the groom industry.
Which brought us to a novel stop at this year’s wedding expo, the Man Lounge.
It was a dim, sprawling room dedicated to guyness: A vast movie screen showing “Tombstone,” a Wii player boasting a bevy of games, miniature golf, basketball hoops, TVs tuned to sports channels, overstuffed chairs and a fine selection of free beer, served in proper pilsener glasses.
The Man Lounge premise was simple. It was a tacit acknowledgment that for all the talk about gender equity in 21st-century America, guys — specifically, grooms — tend to be marginalized at the average American wedding.
Just show up with a nice suit and shiny ring, son. No one but your mom will be looking at you, and if the bride’s dress is particularly gorgeous, even that will be in question.
Groom-to-be Brent Hall was at the showcase with his fiancee, Christine Miller. Soon enough he drifted into the Man Lounge, thoughtfully located a good football pass away from the frou-frou. Hall pronounced it an idea whose time had come.
“It’s kind of nice to get away from it all, and the food’s good,” said Hall, who is eyeing a June wedding.
Still, he saw the possible pitfalls of the concept.
“I think a lot of guys might get in trouble and spend too much time here,” he said.
Spoken like a young man already wise in the ways of domestic tranquility.
Braxton Kelley, who is set to wed in July, agreed.
“It’s great,” Kelley said. “It’s better than being outside, and the games are on.”
That was the reaction the Man Lounge creators sought.
“The wedding showcase is a really good event, but at some point it might appeal more to the brides,” said David Rubin, brand manager for the gardens, which hosts scores of weddings each year. “We wanted to create something everybody could enjoy.”
Thus a retreat for the Y-chromosome set.
Mike Patrick, who was at the expo with his bride-to-be, was impressed with the Man Lounge.
“I love it,” he said. “It’s amazing. It gives us (us being guys) a chance to get away. You can find your own level and relax.
“The women have their thing, and we can come in here and rejoin them at our leisure.”
But the brides-to-be who wandered into this den of masculinity seemed taken with it, too. After all, hunky actors Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell were up on the big screen in “Tombstone,” and within a 15-minute span you had Kilmer drawling “I’ll be your huckleberry” and a shot of a shirtless Russell. So life was good for both sides of the aisle.
Something for either gender
Rachel Rosa sat on a sofa with her fiance, James Langley, who was happily popping tortilla chips into a pile of dip. “It’s cheese, and that’s always good,” he said, echoing one of the cardinal beliefs of guydom.
Rosa was delighted to be in the Man Lounge, too.
“I didn’t wear the right shoes,” she said. “I didn’t realize how big this would be. The sad part is that even though I should be outside, I want to be in here with him.
“This place is overwhelming. It’s so go-go.”
Up on the vast movie screen, Wyatt Earp and his sidekicks were taking withering fire from Curly Bill Brocius and his gang of dry-gulchers. Suddenly, Earp was up and wading across a creek, where he promptly unloaded a load of buckshot into Brocius’ belly. Ouch.
It was exactly the sort of bravado that would have earned Earp a rightful place in the Man Lounge.
The Old West legend might not have understood why grown males in 2011 would gyrate around a contraption called a Wii player, but he certainly would have enjoyed the cold beer.
William Porter: 303-954-1877 or wporter@denverpost.com
