Gay Weddings are Good for Business

Research, data, advice and tips on the business of same-sex weddings from Bernadette Coveney Smith, the nation's leading gay wedding expert. In 2004, Bernadette opened 14 Stories, the first company in the U.S. to specialize in planning legal same-sex weddings.

Coming Out

Bernadette Coveney Smith - Monday, January 25, 2010
Coming out (of the closet) is the ongoing process of telling people that you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.  It may start with friends, continue on to family, then co-workers, then neighbors and so on every time new people enter your life.  Being LGBT is not as obvious as being a person of color, for example, so the process of coming out is ongoing.

As a wedding vendor, why should you care?

Each wedding involves 43 different vendors, on average.  Everyone from the hair and makeup people, to the limo driver, to the coat check guy.  And when gay couples are planning their wedding, they have to come out over and over and over again - to all of these people.  The ones they hire and the ones they do not.  Every time they visit a venue or taste cake, they must come out.  Every time they interview a florist or a wedding planner, they must come out.  This could mean coming out 100+ times over the course of wedding planning.

In many places (about half of the US states), it's legal for vendors to say, "I can't help you.  I don't do gay weddings."  

If you want to work with gay couples, you must keep this in mind every day and come out on behalf of your clients.  What are you doing to make it safe for your gay and lesbian clients to come out?



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