On Sunday, the fiancee, the best friend and I all attended a LGBT Bridal show in Atlanta. It was my first time going to a bridal show not to mention it being of the LGBTQ persuasion. I had been looking forward to it since seeing it advertised this year, mainly because being that we are in Atlanta – which is seen as the gay part of the bible belt (if such a thing exists); I believed that it would be a huge assortment of LGBT vendors to at least talk to about our upcoming nuptials.
Well, sadly – that was not the case. Truthfully, I’m glad it was on Sunday, which means that we didn’t have to pay the meters because I was literally in there for about 30 minutes. The bridal expo seemed to fit into the tiniest room available at the hotel and we all felt that most of the vendors didn’t want to be there. I’m not sure if it was due to the time that we arrived or something but the energy was way low.
I don’t want to bash the expo, I appreciate that they put on a service catering to the community but I didn’t see a lot of things that catered to me being a POC (person of color) bride – to – be. I just found it a bit disheartening, even though I did get to see a lot of photos of mainly straight couples but the photos were nicely done.
I think reality officially struck because I realized that even though we are technically in liberal Atlanta, weddings of the LGBTQ variety are still not advertised well around here. Even though, I appreciate companies that want to do business with our community and that are accepting, it still would be nice if we were accepted more down here. It was a tad bit upsetting but I don’t plan to let it rain on my parade!
So, what were the positives? I went to my first LGBT bridal expo, I was surrounded by other gay couples that were engaged or wanting to be married and that was awesome. Also, I briefly spoke to a woman who is an officiant that travels out of state so I plan to poke around a little bit to see what her site is all about. Oh, I can’t forget – I found out about a LGBT travel company, so I will see if they do anything special for honeymoons and things of that nature.
Overall, the layout was not that impressive but I don’t regret going. I am looking forward to doing Running of the Brides this year and I will DEFINITELY be documenting my time there. If anyone knows of any good bridal shows that happen in the southeast, feel free to share. I’m always open to insider tips especially when it comes to wedding preparation!
I am in the process of planning a GLBT wedding show in Columbus, OH. Thank you so much for your insight. It helps to hear what works and what doesn’t.
Awwwww Cynthia! I was looking forward to that expo too! I have a friend who’s going to the same one in PA in March. That sucks. I’m glad you were able to get something out of it. And I can’t wait to hear about Running of the Brides!!!
Will you tell us who the officiant was? Still on the lookout for our Decatur wedding in April!
Hi Cynthia,
Thanks for the post…as the promoter of the Atlanta LGBT wedding expo I want to respond to some of your comments.
You are right this Atlanta expo had a low amount of exhibitors this was due in large part because business owners are still unwilling to provide their services to LGBT couples for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that they just do not support marriage equality and the second reason is that they feel the LGBT community won’t spend the money to hire wedding professionals so they are unwilling to take the risk of exhibiting.
I know it sounds crazy and we try to work around their objections but for many companies they simply will not budge, even when we reduced the rate to participate at the event.
To be honest we felt lucky to have so many categories represented at the Atlanta expo maybe only one in each category but at least we had someone in their category willing to exhibit for the day.
One other comment that we heard from many attendees and this could also help with increasing the amount of exhibitors was about the marketing of the expo.
As you may know Rainbow Wedding Network has produced 6 LGBT wedding expos in Atlanta and over 50 expos across the U.S. since 2003. All of our expos have been a free walk in event, we never charged the LGBT community to visit our expos. As you know most bridal fairs charge anywhere from $10 – $20 per person to enter their shows.
This year we attempted to charge a $5 per person fee to visit the expo, this fee would have helped us produce a fashion show, bring in entertainers or simply buy more advertisement and we could have included more exhibitors. When we announced that we needed to charge a small fee for attendees we received very strong push back from the community. So instead we offered free tickets and asked for donations.
At the Atlanta expo we had over 400 attendees and the donation total was less than $300. This means on average attendees paid less than a $1 per person to enter. Many people gave a donation of $5 or more and we were very thankful for their donation. But I must be honest until the LGBT community is willing to meet us halfway it is very hard to grow an event and bring in more exhibitors, bring in more entertainment or produce a fashion show when producing any size expo is a financial loss.
Rainbow Wedding Network is the only company in the U.S offering this vital resource for the LGBT community and we will continue to strive to produce exciting events where LGBT couples can find wedding & family resources they need for their special day free of discrimination and we hope that we can continue to grow each expo and include more exhibitors.
We welcome any ideas you may have on how to grow the 2012 Atlanta LGBT wedding expo or how we can get the LGBT community on board so that we can bring in the much needed resources that will make for a fun and exciting event.
Thanks again for your feedback!
Your friends @ Rainbow Wedding Network
Would love to hear about the LGBT honeymoon company! Deborah and I didn’t officially have one (we had a honeyday due to work). Would love to see what a community specific company advertises!
I did want to mention that the Rainbow Network is not the only group involved in LGBTQ wedding expos as we did a review of the Illegal Wedding Fair in spring. There are many many people out there running and contributing to new wedding fairs and expos targeted at and including LGBT couples.
@ Cindy,
I will gladly share my thoughts with you about the expo. Being that this is supposedly the gayest city in the South (which I’m not inclined to agree but that is for another post), I do know that it is hard to find support in within the community here. I know, I personally support in whatever way I can but I know that is not always the case.
I am in marketing (that is what pays the bills) so I would love the chance to talk to you and help. I will send you an email over the weekend, if you don’t read this! Oh, and thank you for responding – I appreciate your insight.
To the rest, I will reply back with the names and contacts once I’m at home. Thanks for responding!
Wow,
My partner and I were at the Expo on Sunday too, and our perception was quite different. I want to defend the vendors first. Because, although there weren’t many of them, every vendor that my partner and I spoke with (which was almost all of them) was really friendly and genuinely happy to talk to us, many of them darn excited. Not only that, but since the event, I have emailed several of them and received responses promptly. It’s a sad fact that the majority of people in the deep south are not yet ready to embrace LGBT equality, but I felt very pleased at the number of exhibitors, and especially pleased to speak with a few that were repeat exhibitors. There were also a large number of attendees in the room when we got there as well. Overall, I felt the energy in the room was great.
That’s not to say that there isn’t room for improvement. As a professional photographer based in the Atlanta area, who is also a member of the LGBT community, I would have loved to be an exhibitor at the event. Unfortunately, I only found out about the Expo a few days beforehand. After reviewing the limited amount of information available online, I decided to simply attend as a guest and preview the Expo rather than throw together a crummy exhibit and take a chance on an event I knew little about. After attending, I will say that I definitely plan to have a table there next year. And I will be actively working to convince other pros I know to attend as well.
I’m also very curious, and please don’t take this negatively because it is only curiosity with which I ask this, how could the vendors have more specifically catered to you as a POC bride to be? As a potential vendor myself, if there’s a way to be more inclusive, I’m all for it.
So, Cynthia, please get with them and help them out with marketing and maybe next year will be huge. I know I’ll be doing whatever I can to get the word out.
Happy Weekend!
Amanda
Okay here are the deets for the folks I talked to at the expo!
@lindsey – The ladies name is Rev. Jann Murray. She seemed really cool and we liked that she traveled out of state, if need be. Her email is: rev_jann[at]altantamarryme[dot]com :)
@Michelle – The traveling company was The International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association. http://www.iglta.org – Maybe you have heard of them? Either way, I hope it is at least a starting place for you.
@Amanda – I’m glad your experience was better than mine. Regarding, your POC question – I know for me, I like to see representations of people that look like me. It is really that simple, heck, sometimes I’ll even settle for a couple that falls under the “people of color” umbrella, if finding a black couple is hard to come by. I’m a very visual person (being that I’m from a creative field as well), so it is much easier for me to see it, instead of hearing about it. If that makes sense. I might expand on some of this in a new blog post. Again, I’m only speaking for myself – others might see it differently.
I plan to talk with Cindy on Wednesday and I’m looking forward to it.
@Cynthia, I think we were probably all in the same boat. There were very few images of LGBT couples at all, and I know I would have been much happier seeing more visual representation of the community. On the flip side, as I’ve been working to build my portfolio over the past few months, I’ve had unexpected difficulty finding couples, especially lesbian couples, who are willing to allow me to use their images on my blog and in my marketing. There are still a large number of LGBT people in this area who just aren’t all the way out of the closet and they fear losing their jobs or worse. It’s probably different in other metro areas, at least I hope so.
At any rate, I totally get what you’re saying, and I completely agree. I like to see people like me too. It makes you feel less isolated.
I can’t wait to see what you and Cindy come up with!
Have a great week!
Amanda