Monday, October 14

In the ‘Christmas City,’ Yuletide Weddings Are the Main Event

Ms. Marshall, 48, a private practice nurse practitioner, was excited to show off the Christmas town to the couples’ families. “It’s like you’re stuck in a snow globe,” she said. “It’s just like this perfect little bubble.”

Ms. Marshall added that weddings during Christmas time “kill two birds with one stone. We get to see the family during the holiday time.” Mr. Clancey, 61, an independent business coach who recently moved to Plainfield Township, Pa., from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, hadn’t seen his entire family for the holidays in years. “So this was a nice way to be able to do that,” Ms. Marshall said.

On their wedding night, the couple rode on a horse-drawn carriage, with a sleigh attached to it, to Moravian University for their ceremony. Afterward, they took the sleigh to city hall for photos in front of the town’s Christmas tree, and they then returned to the hotel for the cocktail hour and reception. Their flower girls, Ms. Marshall’s two nieces, who were dressed in burgundy dresses with silver bows and shoes, joined the couple for a sleigh ride.

On the day after their wedding, the couple and 41 of their guests dined at the hotel’s weekly “Brunch with Santa,” which features a pianist performing Christmas tunes. The couple plan on going to New York for their honeymoon to visit the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and attend a Lauren Daigle Christmas concert at the Beacon Theater.

“There was a tremendous amount of enthusiasm,” Mr. Clancey said about his guests’ responses upon finding out about the wedding theme. The couple kept a small guest list of 52, and they couldn’t invite all their friends. “We’ve had people banging on the door, asking, ‘Can we come, can we come, can we come?’”