There’s a new wedding portal in town and it’s MM FF friendly! The site aims to connect Gay-Friendly vendors with gay couples.  We interviewed the girls behind “So You’re EnGAYged” and they share with us their reasons for filling a void in the wedding industry.

So You’re EnGAYged is the brain child of  (DWF PRO Member) Kelly Prizel! Kelly was married in 2008 to her wife Natalie, and had a very difficult time finding pro-LGBT vendors in the DC area. In fact, she couldn’t find a single wedding photographer that had a gay couple on their site. Lara and Kelly met soon after that, and while shooting a ton of weddings together, they often commiserated about the lack of LGBT-friendly vendors and resources for gay couples and the subtle heterosexism that pervades the wedding industry. When Kelly approached Lara with the idea of So You’re EnGAYged, Lara leaped at the chance to be involved! Kelly is our head creative person, in charge of bloggers and our Real Gay Weddings series, and Lara is the head logistics person, in charge of all things web and the vendor lists.

We ask Lara what the response has been so far.

The response has been amazing. It’s been clear that there has been this void in the wedding blog world for a long time, and LGBT couples have been incredibly receptive to the site. Vendors, too, are eager to not only be listed, but also find more ways to be open to same-sex couples. We love being the cross between the two worlds, and hope we can continue to serve both well!
One of the reasons the response has been so positive is that So You’re EnGAYged addresses the tough questions that same-sex couples face. As much as it would be nice to think we’re all the same, the issues for same-sex couples planning a wedding are very different than for straight couples. What do you wear? Who pays? There are no blueprints for same-sex couples and having a community that allows LGBT people to see people like them grappling with similar issues is extremely important.
Also, it helps vendors understand not only the importance of equality, but the significance of the differences between same-sex and heterosexual weddings. Just as there are lots of books, blogs, etc. for planning a Jewish wedding, for example, so should there be resources for all kinds of weddings that fall outside the majority culture. Differences should not be elided; rather they should be celebrated and understood.

So where is So You’re EnGAYged heading?

Our primary goal is to be a resource for same-sex and allied couples. This comes before all else to us; every decision we make is calculated by “how will this benefit our readers?” This is the big reason why we have such a competitive pro-gay vendor list – we thoroughly vet vendor applications to make sure that those vendors we referred to are well-reviewed and inclusive. Our tagline is “Socially responsible investing…for your wedding.” People are spending a lot of money on their weddings and they are looking for vendors whose values align with their own. We believe that the marketplace, including the wedding industry, is a viable means for people to express themselves politically (example, the trend of green weddings or not buying conflict diamonds), and we are proud to be a part of that movement with the LGBT community.

So if a photographer or vendor wants to be listed on your site how do they go about doing that?

They fill out a form here, and then Lara strikes up a conversation! There are two main requirements: you must have reviews on a third-party site (like Yelp or WeddingWire), and you must use 100% gender-neutral language in your client-facing materials (website, contracts, shotlist, etc.). We know that these requirements can be really frustrating to some, but we believe that mandating them is in the best interest of our readers. Most of our applicants are approved immediately, and if they’re not, Lara works with them to update their language or encourages them to ask clients for reviews.

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