Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Pop up Chapel NYC: sweetest sentiment the wedding industry has produced



Say what you will about The Knot and the wedding industry as a whole, when they backed the work of 5 non-wedding industry and fantastic people to hold LGBT weddings for free at Merchant's Gate in Central Park - no matter what the reasons - they did a good thing.

Sure, The Knot gets publicity - but they and many other wedding industry people provided cash and gifts in kind for a bunch of lesbian, gay and bi couples to marry. This might not sound like much, but consider that after the legislation was passed this June venues in the city start to book up - and couples who have waited years for the right to marry were booked out entirely.

The Pop-up Chapel project was the brain child of 5 everyday people - just like you and me - software developer, an editor, two writers and a director. They saw the window open for lesbian and gay couples to marry and decided to do something fundamentally loving and kind for 48 strangers. The Pop-up Chapel project held customized weddings for 24 couples on July 30th. Couples had a choice of two beautiful pop-up chapels (designed by fancy architect people), and were treated to hair/make-up, flower design, music, cupcakes, professional photography, and officiants along with discounted celebration sites. Amazing. Check out the pics here.

Many vendors jumped on board, but all additional donations were directed to Sylvia's Place, an emergency homeless shelter for LGBTQI youth (I'm actually having trouble finding a url for Sylvia's Place. I'm working on it. I'll post it when I find it).

All told, a good deed indeed. My sincerest hope is that it inspires other people to assist engaged LGBT couples who can't find a venue while the backlog of loving couples is resolved.



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