Gay Weddings: A Booming New England Industry :: EDGE Boston

Gay Weddings: A Booming New England Industry :: EDGE Boston


by Kilian Melloy
EDGE Contributor
Monday Apr 14, 2008




As acceptance, and availability, of same-sex unions grows, so does an industry devoted to servicing gay and lesbian families formalizing their relationship.

In an Apr. 11 Travel section story the New York Times reported that gay and lesbian coupled getting hitched now have more choices than ever before when it comes to planners and other wedding vendors.

And those vendors are not waiting for the other 49 states to catch up to Massachusetts, currently the only state in the union to offer full-fledged marriage equality. Civil unions (available in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New Jersey) and domestic partnerships (provided for by the states of Washington, Hawaii, and Maine, along with the District of Columbia) are reason enough for couples to throw a party-and for vendors to solicit their business.

With same-gender unions proving to be a bonanza for business, companies that were skeptical a few years ago are suddenly taking note, according to Kathryn Hamm, a consultant for same-sex ceremonies based in Vir. The NY Times article quoted Hamm as saying, "When my mom started our business in 1999, she would go to stationery shows and people would just look at her like she was crazy."

No more: "A couple years later she went back and all of these vendors remembered her, and now they are begging her, ’What can we do to help?’"

As other states have observed that Mass. has neither been buried by a falling sky nor swallowed up by volcanoes, more limited forms of familial recognition in the form of civil unions and domestic partnerships have begun to take root. That has had an impact on business, too; said wedding planner Bernadette Smith, who owns a company called It’s About Time, "The number of out-of-state couples contacting me has diminished."

Added Smith, "The novelty of Massachusetts being the only place with gay marriage has worn off a bit."

Even couples living in states that do not recognize their families in any capacity are making their way to states that do-not to live there, but simply to join with one another, and with their extended families, and say their I Dos. That translates into beaucoup bucks for the travel and hotel industries.

The NY Times article cited an exposition from spring of 2007 which took place in New Jersey: vendors and couples converged at an event that showcased goods and services specific to same-sex ceremonies.

But showing off the goods is not the limit of the expanding industry. Once a couple has decided to move forward, accommodation and all the other necessities of a wedding need to be seen to; creative hoteliers have stepped in with package plans to address the overall needs of same-sex couples headed for the altar.

In Vermont, for example, Moose Meadow Lodge has seen about 185 same-sex ceremonies celebrated since that state became the first in the nation to allow civil unions. The lodge’s management offers three different package plans, with prices ranging from under $3,000 to over $4,000.

Savvy innkeepers in other states have kept an eye on local laws; when new Hampshire approved civil unions earlier this year, the owner of the Rosewood Country Inn lost no time in offering a package for couples looking to celebrate their nuptials, the paper reported. With two civil unions celebrations to its credit, and two more coming up, the Rosewood is finding the new venture to be a promising one.

Then there is the favorite town of many gays and lesbians, Provincetown, on the Massachusetts cape.

Said the owner of Provincetown’s White Wind Inn, Rob Tosner, "Summer is so busy that if couples want to marry then they have to plan well in advance."

Stephen Mascilo, the owner of the Oxford Guest House, another Provincetown inn, was cited by the article as saying that his inn is not just booked with wedding parties planning to come and celebrate; in fact, his inn is overbooked and he’s had to decline the business of some interested couples.

Different factors collide in the gay-wedding market to make it more profitable than the mixed-gender variety, the Times reported. First off, gay men travel more than their heterosexual counterparts to begin with; also, the fact that same-sex familial recognition is the law in so few states means that interested parties often have to travel if they wish their exchange of vows to carry any legal weight. According to the Times, a School of Law of the University of California, Los Angeles, study indicated that the annual influx of money from same-sex ceremonies could top $102 million... in New Jersey alone.

There’s also a halo effect that comes with a state’s laws evolving to accommodate gay and lesbian families. The Times referenced a study published in 2007 by Community Marketing that revealed that, for gay travelers, hospitality toward gays is an overriding factor in deciding where they will do business.

Observed Hamm, "Legalization of same-sex unions does have a financial impact," reported the Times.

Continued Hamm, "Legal validation helps couples feel more confident about ’coming out’ with their relationships and leads them to celebrate their commitments in larger fashion."

Said Moose Meadow Lodge owner Willie Docto, "More and more gay and lesbian couples inquiring about civil unions are from the South."

Added Docto, "Perhaps that’s the geographic target: red states with little chance of having same-sex marriage."


Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.