đź’’ The micro-wedding of your dreams | Morning Newsletter
And Old City’s restaurant row.
The Morning Newsletter
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Good morning, Philly. This Thursday brings a slight chance of morning showers and thunderstorms, with high temps near 87.
Summer is wedding season. Don’t want to spend $30,000 (or more) for your big day? Philly micro-wedding venues offer packages for $1,000 or less and are growing in popularity. The trend comes as others are dropping the same amount on wedding content creators tasked with capturing candid moments from their events.
And Old City’s restaurant row is getting a new tenant, as the neighborhood looks to the future — one that features a park over I-95. Read on for these stories and many more.
— Julie Zeglen (morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
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Call it the tale of two wedding trends.
💒 On the affordable end of the spectrum is the micro-wedding. Couples can spend as little as a few hundred dollars to tie the knot, in front of just a few dozen guests — or none.
💒 Philly has several venues dedicated to the micro-wedding, including the brand-new Philadelphia Elopement Co. in Kensington. Owners Angela Gaspar and Avi Rubinsky — the first couple to get married at their softly decorated loft space last week — are part of a small but growing national trend of engaged folks who would rather spend the money on a house or elaborate honeymoon.
💒 On the pricier end is the wedding content creator. In Philly, these social media pros charge between $500 and $2,000 to snap hundreds of photos and videos of the couple’s big day, usually on an iPhone. The selling point? The images are ready to be shared almost instantly.
💒 One of those creators told McCarthy that she explains her job to older generations as “not that much different from their homemade wedding video.”
What you should know today
After a group of House Democrats concerned by imminent plans to officially nominate President Joe Biden for reelection, including the Lehigh Valley’s Susan Wild, called for a delay of the planned roll-call vote, the party on Wednesday announced the vote would indeed be postponed. Meanwhile, Biden tested positive for COVID while campaigning in Las Vegas Wednesday and flew home to Delaware to self-isolate, the White House said.
Two U.S. congressmen from Pennsylvania — one a staunch advocate of Donald Trump and another who has distanced himself from the former president — are absent from the Republican National Convention this week. Both are out on official business reasons, their offices have said.
The “Kensington Beach” Instagram creator, Michael Coyle, spoke at the RNC about fentanyl overdoses. Community organizers say his videos exacerbate exploitation of the neighborhood.
A New Jersey man was charged with endangering the welfare of a child this week, officials say, after his 8-week-old daughter died due to being left alone in a hot car.
The Pennsylvania state university system voted to freeze in-state tuition rates, which means the cost of a year of undergraduate schooling will remain at $7,716 per year, officials said.
Parents and advocates have been pushing for districts to adopt structured literacy, which favors more explicit, systematic instruction. But a measure to mandate it in Pennsylvania is on hold.
Drivers using the Betsy Ross, Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, and Commodore Barry bridges will see tolls jump to $6 from $5 starting Sept. 1. Amtrak just raised prices, too, on all of its multi-ride tickets on the Northeast Corridor.
The Inquirer’s Olympics coverage continues: Meet Matt Fallon, a rising senior at the University of Pennsylvania who is headed to the Paris Olympics as an American record holder, and Haddonfield’s Audrey Derivaux, the 14-year-old who’s swimming’s next rising star.
What’s it like to sing in a choir? Listen up — we’ll show you.
The 100 block of Chestnut Street has been a restaurant row since the 1970s, and at times a rowdy one. It’s now undergoing a wave of change that biz owners hope means more foot traffic.
🚶 At Front Street, an 11½-acre park is being built over I-95 to link Old City with Penn’s Landing and the Delaware River. The $329 million project is expected to be completed in three to five years.
🍴 More physical connections should bring more people walking around, which “could only help our business and our neighbors,” one restauranteur told The Inquirer.
👶 The plans come amid a residential surge, prompting demand for more family-friendly fare.
Restaurant reporter Mike Klein has the story.
🧠Trivia time
Starting in April 2026, Norwegian Cruise Line will stop by the Port of Philadelphia to pick up passengers for voyages to which country?
A) Norway
B) Bermuda
C) Canada
D) England
Think you know? Check your answer.
P.S. Yesterday’s trivia answer linked to the wrong story. Thieves got away with around $15,000 of frozen meat in Southwest Philadelphia.
What we’re...
🎂 Taking: A cake-decorating class from the queen of Philly’s buttercream scene.
👑 Following: Philly drag performer Lasha Cristál’s advice.
🍅 Eating: BLTs, all summer long.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram
You might know this red-haired funny lady as a second-grade teacher at a made-up Philly school.
ALAN SILENT WAR
Email us if you know the answer. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here.
Cheers to Bradley Philbert, who solved Wednesday’s anagram: University of the Arts. The suddenly shuttered institution was hit with new unfair labor practices charges the day before a federal court hearing where UArts reps revealed that the school may — but may not — be able to pay 700 employees’ health care and salary, as it’s legally mandated to do.
Photo of the day
🌳 One last contaminated thing: Bartram’s Garden officials say an adjacent former industrial site is being tested for possible chromium contamination, leading them to close part of a widely used trail.
Enjoy your Thursday. I’ll see you back here tomorrow to close out the week.
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