In 2002, my girlfriend at the time and I were guests at a friend's commitment ceremony in South Carolina. The couple was from Atlanta but 100+ of us traveled to South Carolina because Edisto Island was a favorite place of these girls. They used all local vendors and even hired a local DJ. It was a beautiful event. Sometime that evening, the DJ began to make obnoxious, rude and homophobic statements and had to be kicked out of the wedding. Can you imagine kicking a DJ out of a wedding? It seems almost unfathomable.
But that's one thing my clients would never ever ever experience - because I screen vendors. They don't want to deal with discomfort, assumptions about the bride and groom, or downright rudeness.
(I put lifestyle in quotes because we don't call it that - it's not a lifestyle, it's a life - but some people refer to being gay as a lifestyle)
If you are a wedding planner and want to start marketing yourself to gay and lesbian couples, you absolutely must identify a list of gay-friendly (or preferably gay-owned) vendors in your area. You must ask them the hard questions about their experience with gay couples and you must use your instincts to determine whether or not they are telling you what you want to hear because they want the business.
It's critical to your success in this market. Your reputation would be ruined if you had to kick a DJ (or any other vendor) out of a gay wedding for being hostile to the guests.
Are there a lot of gay-friendly or gay-owned wedding businesses in your area? Are you planning to start screening vendors in preparation to reach this market?
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Comments
here!
My partner, sidekick Gilles (french Canadian) and business partner Brenda and I admire you greatly and I can't thank you enough for all the ideas and education we have gotten from you. I wonder if you know how important your site is. I personally think it the best in the industry.
I relate so well to this article. I can't tell you how many sad stories I hear from my LGBT couples that plan their own event. Just this month I interviewed and booked a fabulous lesbian couple here at my home studio that told me about the rejection they had received from different vendors including DJ services. This couple was so distraught by the reaction they received from one DJ company that I could clearly see the hurt on their faces. It upset me so much that I went onto my website builder and changed the whole opening to my LGBT wedding and reception page. Because this couple could only afford so much, they are
planning their wedding and reception with out a wedding planner. I have been able to help by directing them to your site and a couple gay friendly vendor sites I work with. They have since been able to plan and coordinate their upcoming event scheduled for September 11, 2010 in a much more comfortable manner. We feel so honored that they have invited us to their wedding ceremony
as well as booked us for their entertainment.
I am seeing more gay friendly vendors putting themselves out there but few are advertising LGBT on their sites. This is very true of DJ services in our area. I research a lot and so far I am one of the only DJ company's advertising to both the LGBT and Heterosexual communities on its website in the DC metroregion. I admit my site is not the best since I am still learning website design. So far the results are mixed in the heterosexual community but positive in the LGBT community. I am fairly sure I have lost 2 straight receptions
recently due to my website content. I guess that makes sense. It bothers me a little since I consider myself a nice individual. None the less I am happy we are talking the talk and walking the walk. As the wedding market explodes here it will be interesting to see how wedding vendors react.
I hope you don't mind that I have added a link to your site from my LGBT page highly recommending my LGBT website visitors and others as well to visit your site.