David Tutera, the Celebrity Wedding Planner

The man with the wedding plan dishes on his reality show, new daughter and bridezillas

Written by Andrea Piamonte

Published in Vital VOICE Magazine, November 2013 Issue

David’s design style, innovative techniques and passion for creating extravagant celebrations have gained him tremendous success in just about every realm of the wedding world. The Celebrity Wedding Planner has become well known for his hit shows My Fair Wedding and David Tutera Unveiled, the newest season of drama and wedding transformation.

“My favorite aspect of wedding planning is bringing two families together,” he says. “I love the fact that there is this moment in time when two people are so in love with each other that they wanna tie the knot and celebrate their union. If you think about it, there’s no other celebration like that. Weddings are truly a standalone moment in time for people and I love being able to create that memory that lasts a lifetime.”

David sits on an award-winning event planning empire that includes: a wedding dress collection with Mon Cheri, a stylish and elegant shoe collection with Anetbi Footwear, a fashion jewelry collection (“Embellish by David Tutera”), a line of fabrics for home sewers (“David Tutera Social Occasion Collection”) and seven published books.

His impressive client list includes the Post Grammy Parties in New York City, Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey, Elton John and the Rolling Stones.

Of course, the success didn’t happen overnight. David truly built his now event planning empire from the ground up, starting with planning a barmitzvah 27 years ago.

“I actually got into the business accidentally,” he said. “I was asked to do a party at the age of 19 and I did it. I fell in love with the business of celebrations.”

Event planning came so easily to David and so was coming out as an openly gay man.

At the same age he organized his first party, he decided to come out to his parents about his relationship with a boy.

“I really never made a statement that I came out,” David recalls. “I have a different philosophy on how I perceive coming out. I just made it very simple. I think that it was such an easy transition in my life and it was just a natural thing.”

His beliefs on coming out are synonymous with how to approach an LGBT wedding. It shouldn’t be overanalyzed or dramatized just because it is a same-sex marriage as opposed to a heterosexual marriage.

“I feel, as I have always felt, in the execution of weddings, whether straight or gay, is that there is no difference between the two,” he proclaims. “I think we need to stop asking the question ‘what do we need to do differently,’ and see that this is a celebration, it’s a wedding. Why does it have to be different?”

Regardless of sexual orientation, he pushes to focus on the union of two people and equalize the differences with planning weddings. According to David, a wedding is not that time to be an activist trying to prove something.

“It’s a place to embrace the person you are in love with,” he says. “So put a party together, celebrate it with love and celebrate it with your family and friends. And if you wanna be different because that is the kind of wedding you wanna have, that’s fine. But this is not the moment where you should have to prove that this is acceptable.”

“This is about the two of you, loving one another, getting married and being able to do it.”

And after all these years, weddings are still David’s favorite type of event to plan. Even with all of the chaos and drama that comes with it, he always manages to keep the desires of the bride and/or groom in mind.

It can’t be easy because he’s worked with some unusual (and a little crazy) themes. In his previous show, My Fair Wedding, David steps in two weeks before a couple’s wedding and changes everything. The show takes you on a step-by-step wedding transformation that shows you can take anything from “blah” to “ta-da.” David changes the look, the dress, venue, décor and even theme into something extraordinary.

Now in the new David Tutera Unveiled, the show name has changed and all the chaos is revealed.

“The biggest change that I’m so happy we’ve done and have wanted to do for the past two seasons is that it’s much more reality based,” he says. “We’ve always had drama but we’ve just never showed it. Now, we are actually showing what I go through and what most people go through in planning events.”

Sure, weddings are all about love and celebration but that doesn’t mean you don’t encounter some serious drama. Every week, Tutera and his event team encounter over-the-top demands, outrageous themes and the inevitable bridezillas.

“Bridezillas just seem to exist. I think it’s sort of that moment in a woman’s head and it’s funny. And I say this where I don’t mean to be specific on female versus male, but women become much more emotional,” admits David.

“I have so many stories that I sometimes black them out so I can move on,” he laughs.

The show also takes a closer look into the inner constructions of his home and personal life. He kicks off the season exposing the turmoil behind his current divorce with Ryan Jurica, his husband of 10 years. But he also shows the excitement of having his first daughter, Cielo.

A few years prior to the divorce, David and Ryan agreed on having children through a surrogate. The two decided to raise the twins, Cedric and Cielo, separately after the split.

When asked about his daughter, he had a lot of good news to tell.

“She’s amazing! She’s my little angel,” he said happily. “I have to say, of all the things I’ve been through personally and professionally, she’s the easiest, calmest and most incredible experience I’ve ever had or will have.”

Cielo, meaning heaven and sky in Italian and Spanish, is keeping up with her busy dad and frequently makes trips with him.

“When she was in the NICU, I said to her everyday, multiple times, that her and I are a team and we were going to having journeys and adventures everyday,” he said. “We are going to embrace them as her and I would as friends and as father and daughter.” As for his wedding planning career, he plans to expand into men’s fashion, accessories and necessities. He also plans to extend his company focus on more solutions for the bridesmaids.

“It’s continuing to grow. I’m very fortunate and blessed to have all the success I’ve had on my television shows and my brands and its clothes,” he said. I’ll continue provide product for wedding couples.”

David has high hopes to continue strengthening the Tutera Brand and is excited to see the reactions to his new show as he stumbles across new problems and tries to fix them with innovative solutions.

“You know, if the show came to me 15 years ago, I’m not 100% sure I would be able to do the uniqueness of the show. I think it’s because of my experience of what I’ve done and what I’ve seen. I’ve traveled literally all over the world and that comes to me through my clients, not because I was able to do that personally. My inspiration and my ability to always recreate things is from what I’ve experienced.”