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my Kate Parker Wedding is featuring many firsts in the world of online wedding resources by teaming up with a Massachusetts wedding planner to develop the first wedding resource inclusive of all couples.
my Kate Parker Wedding is a new online wedding resource guide launching in January 2010 geared towards directing brides and grooms toward quality vendors. Since we are based in New England, where 4 out of 6 states have legalized same-sex marriage, we will be the first wedding resource to be completely inclusive reaching out to all couples. To make this possible, a Massachusetts wedding planner, Bernadette Smith, the owner of 14 Stories, is teaming up with my Kate Parker Wedding to help neutralize the language and photos on my Kate Parker Wedding. And for vendors who are members of my Kate Parker Wedding, educational sessions, either in-person or by phone, will be offered to help train them on effective marketing to gay and lesbian couples. The first session will start in December 2009.
If you’d like more information about this topic, or schedule an interview with Kate Parker, please call Liz Sullivan or E: liz[.]kateparkerweddings.com.
A little more about Bernadette Smith: Bernadette and her former business partner launched It’s About Time in 2004 as the first and only firm in Massachusetts and in the US specializing in planning legal same-sex weddings. It’s been about 6 years since the launch, and now with the name of 14 Stories, Bernadette helps all couples and clients looking for a thoughtfully designed event with over 130 weddings in her grasp. Bernadette is an Americorps alum with an undergrad degree in Film, an MBA, and loves volunteering and spending any free time traveling, and playing with her pups. Bernadette was recently married to her partner, Jen, who is also working with her as Creative Director. And among all of this, Bernadette is the author of an upcoming book, Gay Wedding Confidential: Adventures and Advice from America’s #1 Gay Wedding Planner.
my Kate Parker Wedding (kateparkerweddings.com) will be featuring a lot of firsts in the world of online wedding resources. Since we are based in New England, where 4/6 states have legalized same-sex marriage, we will be the first wedding resource to be completely inclusive of all couples. To us, a wedding is a wedding, and to quote my own blog post from yesterday, according to dictionary.com, a wedding is the act or an instance of blending or joining. Because of this philosophy, we are so excited and honored to be working with Bernadette Smith, owner of 14 Stories, the first company in the U.S. specializing in planning legal gay weddings, to neutralize the language and photos on my Kate Parker Wedding and to train our vendors on effective marketing to gay and lesbian couples. Unlike other sites where anyone can pay money to say they are gay friendly (even if they are not), ours will require that you attend either an in-person or phone training and do a little bit of homework afterwards.
Here’s how it will work: Any of our vendors who indicate their interest in inclusivity will have to attend a training by Bernadette. The goal of this is to be inclusive – and that means of straight couples as well. Bernadette will show each vendor how to reach gay couples without alienating their straight client base. They can either attend a 3-hour in person training, or they can schedule a phone training. The in-person training will teach the value of the gay wedding market, explain language, terminology, traditions, mistakes to avoid and helpful tips. The phone training will involve a dialogue about each vendor’s experience with same-sex couples and a review of their website and materials. In both cases, they will have to have the language and photos in their website and contract approved by Bernadette. Once a vendor completes a training, you will see the 14 logo in their vendor directory. This logo will be visible to couples and indicate that you have been trained by 14 Stories.
I thought I would end this post on a positive note, giving you some statistics on same-sex marriages in the US.
• The first state in the U.S. to legalize gay marriage was Massachusetts, in 2004.
• Now, gay marriages can legally occur in Connecticut (2008), Iowa (2009), Vermont (2009) – and as of January 1, 2010 New Hampshire.
• Massachusetts has had 12k+ gay marriages since 2004.
• Connecticut has had about 2,300 in one year.
• Iowa has had about 1,400 gay marriages in 7 months.
• Vermont #s aren’t out yet – they just started Sept 1.
• $111 million was spent on LGBT weddings in Massachusetts in the five years they have been legal, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
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mykpw[.]kateparkerweddings.com 
