You might not know it, but we’re not the only equality-minded LGBTQ+ inclusive wedding website. We’re one of the oldest though, which is kind of incredible considering we launched Equally Wed in March 2010 after we realized there was a serious void in the wedding media industry when it came to gays and lesbians, and especially trans, queer, bisexual and nonbinary folks. We’ve been called pioneers, and hey, we’ll take it because we’ve been working hard in elevating the wedding industry and working hard for marriage equality (only six states in the United States offered marriage equality when we launched). Even The New York Times wrote a full print feature on Equally Wed and even mentioned us on the front page. But it’s meaningful to us to share the same-sex wedding websites that came before us: the Rainbow Wedding Network, launched in 2000, and Gay Weddings (now owned by Wedding Wire), launched in 1999, and merged with twobrides.com and twogrooms.com in 2000. Purple Unions is an important one to recognize too, having launched in 2003. All of these pioneers really started the movement of offering resources and visibility to gay and lesbian weddings.
The summer before we launched, there was a really cute site called So You’re Engayged, which sadly stopped publishing, as some of the others have that launched after us but are now defunct, including Queerly Wed, 2Brides2Be, F* Yeah Gay Weddings, 4 Real Equality Weddings and a smattering of others.
When Maria and I launched Equally Wed, we brought our journalism (me) and design (her) experience to the table, as well as a wider scope of inclusivity to not just talk about two brides or two grooms or gay weddings or same-sex weddings, but to speak to the entire LGBTQ+ community, with all of our variances in gender, sexual orientation, races, identities and abilities. We do this through our real weddings and engagements, honeymoon and travel spotlights, and news about marriage equality and LGBTQ+ parents and families, as well as an exclusive directory of equality-minded wedding vendors and venues and Equally Wed Pro, our educational certification and training program for wedding and event professionals to learn how to be fully equality-minded and inclusive.
When we launched Equally Wed, our mission was two-fold: increase visibilty of LGBTQ+ weddings and thereby increase acceptance and tolerance of LGBTQ+ love and hopefully add to the fight for marriage equality as well as help LGBTQ+ people feel that their love is just as true and valid and deserving of recognition as our straight counterparts; and to introduce our LGBTQ+ readers to equality-minded wedding vendors and venues.
Eight years later, we’ve been joined in the wedding industry by some pretty amazing websites and content-driven resources, and we want to take a moment to shine a light on them. We’ll also share sites that are intentionally inclusive but not LGBTQ+ owned nor exclusively LGBTQ that either launched before or after us. All of these sites feature gorgeous content and have shown their genuine interest in supporting the LGBTQ+ community without tokenizing us or capitalizing on our minority status, and we encourage you to support them.
Equality-minded LGBTQ-owned-and-operated wedding resources
Black Lesbian Love Lab
Dancing with Her
Equally Wed
Equally Wed: The Ultimate Guide to Planning Your LGBTQ+ Wedding (the world’s first and only gender-neutral LGBTQ+ wedding book)
Gay Weddings and Marriage Magazine*
H&H Weddings
Men’s Vows
On a Bicycle Built for Two
Purple Unions
Rainbow Wedding Network
Super Gay Weddings podcast
Equality-minded hetero-owned wedding resources that are intentionally inclusive of LGBTQ+ weddings
*It needs to be noted that practically all wedding publications now publish LGBTQ+ weddings. We’ve reached a point in society where it’s more notable if a publication won’t publish LGBTQ+ weddings, which is what we’ve been working for all along. This wasn’t the case when we launched Equally Wed, which is why we came onto the field. The following list highlights ones we’ve noticed that are doing it right in terms of being a wedding publication that openly and frequently includes LGBTQ+ couples but doesn’t capitalize on or tokenize our community. The resources listed on this post are not the only ones out there, and we will continue to expand our lists as we continue our research. See someone missing? Add them in the comments below and we’ll take a look! We applaud the resources below for the efforts they’re making to include LGBTQ+ couples.
A Practical Wedding
Bridal Musings
Bridechilla
Brides
Catalyst Wed Co.
Gay Weddings
HuffPost Weddings
Love Wins USA, California + Texas
Martha Stewart Weddings
MunaLuchi Bride
NuBride
Offbeat Bride
Pridezillas
Rock N Roll Bride
Smashing the Glass
Style Me Pretty
The Knot
The Wedding Biz podcast
WedLuxe
Wedding Bee
Wedding Wire
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We’d love to be included as you update your list! Ceremony, a free wedding app, fully supports (and does not capitalize on) LGTBQ+ couples. We look forward to the day when wedding inclusivity is a normality worldwide. Until then and beyond, we’re committed to promoting our belief that love is love. Cheers!