Kirsten Palladino and her partner Maria live in Georgia, where same-sex marriage is prohibited. It didn’t stop her from creating the just-launched online gay wedding magazine Equally Wed, carving out a niche market that Conde Nast’s entire bridal unit has ignored. And if it can survive the usual plagues hurting the ad-supported content industry, this book has all the markings of a home run.
Quick: When you pick up the Sunday Times, what’s the first section you flip to? The Weddings & Celebrations section, of course. Sociologists have spent thousands of interviews explaining the appeal of hearing about other people — complete strangers! — getting engaged and hosting their dream wedding. Which is why Equally Wed, which is devoting plenty of space to fairy wedding tales, should also generate interest.
But no wedding magazine is complete without its service journalism: Caterers, wedding halls, photographers, cake wizards, and tuxedo and gown designers must all be represented. The magazine offers a directory for all the finest accouterments for your day of bliss. And it arrives as more states continue marching toward marriage equality, opening up an entire new market every few months; in its debut issue, the magazine breaks down for readers the current legal standing across the country.
And then, of course, there’s travel. Whether it’s a destination wedding or your standard honeymoon, Equally Wed can attract lucrative travel industry advertisers hoping to woo cash-flush gays.
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Do the gays need their own wedding magazine? Not exactly. There’s already Brides, Modern Bride, and Elegant Bride (each of which usually devote a quarter- to a half-page for men’s attire), and gays planning their special day have made do with them. (There’s also Bond Magazine, launched in 2007 “to include unions of all loving couples, gay and not-gay,” though its latest news udpate is from May 2009.) But the luxury aspects of weddings have never been about needs; they’ve been about wants. And Equally Wed is definitely a publication for wants. Why else would they have an entire photo gallery devoted to simple sugars?
J. Clarence
Well in our consumer culture the question of whether or not gays need their own wedding magazine is irrelevant, the question really is whether or not that it is a successful business plan.
From the look of the magazine it looks fairly assimilationist, so I don’t think queer liberationists will be buying a subscription–then again that is just me judging the book by its cover, or in this case the homepage.
However, that being said maybe enough gay couples would like to have a magazine all their own. Plus there is the strong possibility of certain areas being of particular interest to gay couples that might otherwise be glossed over in one of the conventional wedding magazine, for example conventional ideas about budgeting weddings are largely out the window (i.e. the husband (i.e. “man”, “breadwinner”) is out the window) and many gay couples will undoubtedly have to pay for their wedding themselves as their families are not on good speaking terms because of you know the whole gay thing.
It’s a nice cute idea to say the least though. I wish them all of the success in the world.
J. Clarence
Also I completely forgot to mention another area that would do well with some LGBT perspective on weddings is travelling and the honeymoon destinations, as heterosexuals largely do not have to worry about being beaten, arrested, or worse put to death for their sexuality if they planned their honey is say Ughanda or something. And so conventional magazine might say going to Jamaica is great, but that clearly wouldn’t be a good spot for you to go on your honeywoon, unless you had a death wish.
Hyhybt
@J. Clarence: Do that many people want to honeymoon in *Uganda* of all places anyway?
J. Clarence
I’m sure they have some jungle like attractions which might attract the more adventurous set of newlyweds. Personally the fact that I probably would have to get vaccination shots probably for weeks on end is a deterrent enough to stay clear of most African countries, oh and then there is is the fact that they might want to kill me. Though that is only a close 2nd to the needles. Bleh!
Wade MacMorrighan
Hell, I’d subscribe to that! I’m not seeing anyone, but ever since Iowa expanded my rights and liberties to those of my heterosexual peers, I’ve been secretly planing my own Handfasting (a Pagan wedding) which might look something like Martha Stewart meets the rural Victorian era, with plenty’a Paganism to boot!
Say, anyone know if I could fly in a dear friend of mine–a High Priestess–from England to officiate, and still have it legal, here?