Weddings Redefined

In our line of work, as wedding producers, the "hub" of a wedding production process, I hear from a lot of wedding industry vendors.  It only makes sense for vendors like photographers, DJs and so forth to reach out to wedding producers - we are the link to couples.  And for our company in particular, we are the link to same-sex couples.  When I first started this company six years ago, we got tons of press and my phone was ringing off the hook - but mostly from vendors looking for referrals.

It's frankly annoying to be constantly approached by the same-old, same-old vendors, nothing particularly unique or engaging. For about three years, I avoided local wedding industry networking events because I was tired of being offered dull business cards.

I've changed my approach in part because now I have something to sell these vendors in return:  knowledge about LGBT couples the unique aspects and challenges of gay weddings.  I launched my GayWeddingInstitute.com site over six months ago and it's been getting some great traction from vendors who care about educating themselves so they can better serve the LGBT community.  Any vendor who emails 14 Stories soliciting business gets a solicitation in return.  If you want to be brilliant with same-sex couples, I can show you how.  There are lots of dos and don'ts.

If you are a vendor, how are you educating yourself on the unique needs of gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender couples?