Hefner Wedding: Strictly Top Hat, Tails

When perennial bachelor Hugh Hefner meets his bride-to-be Kimberley Conrad at the altar on Saturday, he won’t be wearing pajamas, she won’t be in a skimpy negligee and there won’t be a hidden bunny logo anywhere.

The two will be married in an elaborate but traditional ceremony at the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills, witnessed by 400 guests who will then party the night away under a tent of 15,000 yards of white satin twill, inhaling the wafting scent of 10,000 white roses, eating imported cheese and smoked fish flown in from Europe and dancing to a 25-piece band.

It’s all under the control of 27-year-old Colin Cowie, a dapper, tanned former model who was brought in (via a Playboy exec who knew his work) a scant five weeks ago to organize and cater the affair.

“Originally they were going to do the wedding in-house,” he explains in a clipped British accent while sitting in his small but tasteful office across from the Beverly Center. “There was no real focus as to someone taking control, making decisions, getting the ball rolling. I had one interview with Hefner and Kimberley, and she said, ‘You must go and do what you have to do.’ From then it was like 24-hour days, preparing the budget, concept and plan, running around with swatches of fabric.

“One thing I must say,” he adds, “is it’s not at all Hollywood. It’s not glitz. It’s like taking a little piece of Europe and putting it in Beverly Hills for eight or nine hours. My background is totally European in terms of entertaining, and I think we’ve come up with a very tasteful and elegant ambiance the way the whole thing runs.”

Cowie declined to discuss the cost of the wedding, or reveal the guest list with the exception of one name on it, Bill Cosby.

According to Cowie, guests will enter the mansion from the Mapleton Drive entrance (garlanded) after being carefully screened by security. Following light drinks and serenading by a string trio in the pool pavilion, they’ll be escorted to the front lawn and the wishing well, where Hef proposed to Conrad last year.

They’ll be led to their seats by ushers dressed in uniforms with white tunic tops trimmed with gold braid, gold epaulets and brass buttons, while a string quartet plays off to the side.

The 63-year-old Hefner, wearing a vested tuxedo, will walk to the wishing well from the side. Conrad’s entrance down the mansion’s grand staircase (also garlanded) will be heralded by trumpeters playing Jeremiah Clarke’s “Trumpet Voluntary.” It’s the same music that filled St. Paul’s Cathedral when Princess Diana strolled down the aisle.

Traditional Ceremony

Conrad, 26, will be given away by her father, Robert Conrad (not the actor), and her matron of honor will be her sister, Resa Miller (there are no bridesmaids). Hef’s best man will be his brother Keith, and the Rev. Charles D. Ara will perform the nondenominational ceremony described as traditional, meaning there won’t be any original vows or recitation of Kahlil Gibran.

The bridal gown was created by New York designer Jim Hjelm, whose gowns wholesale for $600 to $2,000. Conrad’s is a slightly off-white dress of taffeta-style silk with a drop waist and full, gathered skirt. The strapless brocade bodice is decorated with pearls and bows. For the ceremony she’ll wear a jacket with a high neck and sleeves that are puffed at the shoulder and tight from the elbow down. The chapel-length train is embroidered with the couple’s initials, and Conrad will have a short veil with a wreath-style headpiece dotted with pearls. Her blond hair will be worn long and slightly curled.

Her sister will wear a rose gown and a wreath-style hairpiece braided with lily of the valley. Both bouquets will feature white roses and lily of the valley.

After the ceremony guests will go through the house to the party tent with its rug of Astroturf for champagne and canapes before the multicourse buffet dinner begins.

Cowie describes the buffet set-up as having “elements of change on a regular basis.” Two buffet tables will be set up on opposite sides of the tent, decorated with urns of white roses (the only decorative flower) and busts of women on garlanded pedestals (being custom-made in Palm Springs). After each course a curtain of white satin twill will be electronically lowered while the food and the settings are changed. Ceiling lights will be fitted with different color gels to alter the mood as well. Each table, draped in white taffeta with a centerpiece of white roses, will have a copy of the menu displayed inside an antiqued silver frame.

Starts With Caviar

For the first course of caviar the top of the buffet will be draped in purple satin and accented with purple orchids. Waiters--wearing those white and gold uniforms--will have matching purple sashes.

The cheese course features imported cheeses flown in from Europe, served on sheet of glass that will rest on a bed of real oak leaves. Red wine and port will be served alongside.

The fish course will include smoked salmon, smoked halibut and watercress salad; the background will be a white trellis laced with ivy.

For the meat course (barbecued boneless lamb, New York steak, grilled baby chicken, haricots verts and baby potatoes) the buffet will be draped in red satin and gold braiding, there will be bouquets of red roses and waiters will have traded their purple sashes for red ones. The backdrop will be a trompe l’oeil scene of an “opulent and decadent dinner.”

Once again the curtain will descend and then rise on the Viennese dessert table trimmed in silver. Diet-busting desserts include a Black Forest torte, Pithiviers, opera cake and Napoleons. Cowie has also had Teuscher champagne truffles flown in from Switzerland.

Cowie wanted to end the dinner with cigars and Cognac, but will have to settle for just the cognac since the mansion is in a fire zone.

And then there is the wedding cake, a five-tier chocolate cake with white chocolate icing scrolled on top and a filling of strawberries and whipped cream.

‘They Wanted Chocolate’

“For me the cake is not the right thing,” said Cowie, who prefers the traditional dense British fruitcake, of which guests are supposed to take a piece and place it under their pillow. “But they wanted chocolate cake so I’ll give them chocolate cake.” He chuckles. “If you stuck chocolate cake under your pillow can you imagine what your laundry bill would be?”

When asked if there would be little bride and bridegroom dolls at the top, Cowie stops for a moment and stares. “No,” he sniffs. “I actually think it’s corny. I prefer those fresh white roses, you know, those big garden roses that open to this size,” he says, his hands estimating the circumference of a hefty grapefruit. “We’re having those flown in from Northern California.”

There will be no assigned seating, although the happy couple and their families will take the three tables nearest the black-and-white checkerboard dance floor. “My concept I think works very well with a California wedding,” Cowie says. “People are not going to be seated at a formal dinner; they’ll get to move, to dance. It’ll have a very good flow to it.”

Cowie, who has planned and catered parties and weddings for socialites, celebrities and prominent business people in other parts of the country, Europe and Africa, said he’ll be working with his own staff along with the Playboy Mansion’s staff and chefs.

Detailed Instructions

He has mailed out detailed manuals to the crew so there will be nothing left to chance. Ushers, for instance, “will know not to wear strong cologne, no jewelry and they ought to be suntanned.”

Ought to be suntanned?

“Yes, I think people look better when they have a nice glow to their skin.”

The wedding will be videotaped as well as photographed, the latter being done by former White House photographer and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Hume Kennerly.

The wedding and reception are strictly off limits to the media. A two-page advisory sent out last week details when photographs, press releases and “video news releases” will be available. Playboy personnel are hoping that by allowing limited coverage they’ll avoid the “Apocalypse Now”-style helicopter invasions that occurred at Madonna and Michael J. Fox’s weddings.

Cowie’s detail-oriented mind has thought of everything, down to having an extra pair of shoes a half-size larger on hand for the bride should her feet swell during the party. He’ll be communicating via a walkie-talkie with his staff the day of the wedding to make sure things run smoothly.

“Kimberley has wanted to keep it as traditional as possible,” he says of the Playmate of the Year. “I think she has a good eye for good things, and when she sees something that’s done in fine taste she recognizes it immediately and will respond to it. Hef has a very refined eye for detail as well, and he knows what he likes and doesn’t like. I tuned right into them, and everything I’ve proposed to do they’ve given me the go-ahead.”

There will be the standard throwing of the garter and the bride’s bouquet, and the couple will honeymoon at the mansion (Hef is a known homebody).

The one thing Cowie hasn’t decided on is a wedding present. “I wanted to purchase the Bulgari drinking cups, but someone already purchased other cups for them. So I’m back to Square One again. Can you imagine trying to find them a wedding present? I’ve been racking my brain for quite a while.”

One thing he does know: After the wedding he’s going on a nice, long Caribbean vacation.