Volume 2, No. 23. December 13, 2002
Fast
track to marriage
Checklist of things to do in one week: Check—conduct a seminar at the IAAPA
Convention and Trade Show; Check—pick up a Brass Ring award for your radio
commercial; Check—launch a licensing arm of your business; Check—host
a manufacturer reception; Check—stage the first-ever go-kart wedding.
To say Fun Spot Action Park in Orlando, Florida, had an eventful week in November
is to say the Shuttle launch is a big jet taking off. The International Drive
venue with the multilevel wood go-kart tracks—a concept patented by owner
John Arie that he started licensing via the Shaller Enjuneering booth at the
trade show—was already gearing up for a busy IAAPA when two fans from Great
Britain showed up requesting that the park host their matrimonial nuptials.
Not wanting to look a wedding gift horse in the mouth, Fun Spot agreed to the
unusual November 25 ceremony uniting Martin Smith, 18, of Dundee Scotland and
Lynda Kennerly, 20. of Warrington, England. How unusual? Steve Hix, director
of the International Recreational Go Kart Association, does not recall any other
such go-kart wedding.
“They were willing to allow us to give it to them for free and provide
a free reception for publicity sake,” said Mark Brisson, Fun Spot’s
marketing director. “So we were responsible for securing the music, the
flowers, the veil and the ‘Just Married’ sign. The groom was more
interested in apparel more appropriate for go-kart riding than getting married.”
Fun Spot also provided the minister, Juan Garnica, an ordained pastor at the
Church in the Son in Orlando and part-time photographer at Fun Spot. Garnica
was the catalyst for the wedding. Smith and Kennerly visited Fun Spot on a vacation
a year ago and met Garnica, learning then that he is a minister. When they returned
with Smith’s family (his mother, sister, brother, and his mother’s
boyfriend) this year, they asked him to marry them. “He said, ‘Where
do you want to get married?’ and they said they wanted to get married in
the park, and that got the ball rolling,’” Brisson said.
For the ceremony, the groom’s mother and the bride drove a kart around
the track and hid in one of the helixes. When the “Wedding March”
started playing over the park’s loudspeaker, the mother drove the bride
down the helix and into the loading area, parking alongside the groom. A Fun
Spot employee then turned off their engine so the couple could hear Garnica
do the ceremony. During the nuptials, the bride transferred to the groom’s
cart, and after they kissed at the conclusion of the vows they drove off around
the track with the ‘Just Married’ sign and trailing paper cups attached
to the kart.
For the reception the park donated pizza and soda, and the wedding party toasted
with Sierra Mist rather than champagne “because we don’t believe in
drinking and driving with go-karts,” Brisson said. The event received extensive
coverage on the local CBS and NBC television affiliates, with the latter broadcasting
across the country. “We’ve gotten phone calls from New York and Indiana
saying they saw the go-kart wedding,” Brisson said. Still, the park does
not plan to pedal more such events. “We’re not trying to tap that
market, no,” he said.
Nevertheless, Fun Spot would do it again. “It was a lot of fun,” Brisson
said. “We’re glad we did it, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat.
The fact it came on the heals of IAAPA was hard.”
©2002, Minton Enterprises
LLC
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