April 2012
Spring truly is a rebirth and sign of new life. We see it in nature: the way buttery lips of daffodils unfold for the sun, the nurturing nuzzle from a mare to her newly born colt, trees sprout new leaves, grass returns to its glorious shade of green and lovers take to the parks strolling hand in hand with a renewed devotion to each other.
As we celebrate the changing of the season, Team Equally Wed has been hard at work infusing new aspects into EquallyWed.com. We are thrilled to announce the addition of our comprehensive, unparalleled suite of wedding tools exclusively built with our readers in mind. The budget manager, guest list manager and to-do list are all LBGTQ-oriented sans any heteronorative terms or antiquated assumptions about who you are as a couple. We hope you’ll enjoy planning your wedding with them!
Another fantastic component we’ve created is our new blogs. We know our readers love our Real Weddings features more than anything else, and we thought how fun would it be to follow real brides, grooms and brooms along in their process of planning their weddings. From the cake tasting to the shopping for attire to the romantic engagements to the expected stresses and dealing with struggles, our bloggers are going to share everything with you in Approaching the Aisle. In Pro Prose, our vendor blog, a special selection of seasoned experts in the wedding industry will share their behind-the-scenes stories, from humorous recollections of moments when weddings didn’t go as planned to times when they did. I’m thinking we’re going to all be entertained and educated from reading these blogs. We’re continuing to grow our pool of contributors, too, so if you think you’ve got what it takes, please drop me an email!
This month is full of announcements, and I’m over the moon to announce that as pioneers in the media covering same-sex weddings, we’re making new history with the introduction of the very first LGBTQ photo shoot to be published in an online magazine. Spearheaded by our New York-based Senior Editor Brittny Drye, the romantic scene of two women in love celebrating their wedding day in Central Park captures vintage, metropolitan, Old World and sultry all rolled into one. The photo feature also tells the story of incorporating eco-friendly items into a wedding, celebrating our first annual eco issue.
We love pushing boundaries, and so I was excited to be contacted by Fida Chaaban from RAGMAG Magazine based in Beirut, Lebanon, a couple of months ago. Ms. Chaaban reached out for an interview for her editorial coverage of gay and lesbian weddings in their annual weddings issue, on newsstands this month. But what transpired was much more interesting. We opted to have a conversation over email about some of the differences of what it’s like to be gay and planning a wedding in the United States and in Lebanon, and turn it into a feature we’re running in both our magazines. Stateside, we’re concerned about equal rights and wanting our marriages recognized by the government. In the Middle East, people—gays and straights—are more concerned with not being killed—or at the minimum, being harassed by the government if they even take part in helping a gay wedding take place. The frank discussion was eye-opening, and it certainly made me grateful for where we’re at in the U.S. Of course, our work in this country is far from being close to finished when it comes to fighting for marriage equality.
XO,
Kirsten
 |
Join me on Facebook |
 |
Follow me on Twitter |
