I just received an email from someone asking for advice on how to find a good gay wedding planner. Unfortunately she did not include her city information but it did bring up a good topic: How do you find a gay wedding planner in your city. My advice may sound unconventional but it really does work - first seek out local gay friendly or gay owned bed and breakfast/hotels in your area. You would really be surprised at how many cities have them. If you’re not sure where to start try one of my favorite sites - purple roofs.

Next visit their web sites. Does their site mention weddings? You will find that many list wedding services right on their web page. If they perform weddings call them up and ask to speak with their wedding coordinator. If they do not have a wedding coordinator ask to speak to the person that handles weddings. Be honest with them and tell them you are getting married but don’t know where to start. Here’s the key even if you do not plan to have your wedding in their bed and breakfast they can usually steer you to gay friendly vendors. The world of weddings is a strange one in which everyone knows everyone else. Our minister was great at steering us to and AWAY from certain vendors. This does help to cut out the worry of dealing with people who are not into doing gay weddings (boo on them!)

OK so recently I’ve been getting questions about where people can find custom handmade wedding invitations for gay couples. You’ve got 3 options:

1. a local printing company

2. an online vendor

3. Do it Yourself.

My wife and I chose to make our invitations ourselves. We chose the DIY route for several reasons: 1.Availability - there weren’t many people around making gay friendly invitations 2.Cost - the companies doing it were very expensive 3.The look - The feeling we were going for was French old New Orleans and that’s not so common. Although we created beautiful invitations for ourselves, they was ALOT of work involved. One thing we did was to look at wording and design of the online guys. If you are wanting to have them printed I’d suggest that you find a local printer or take a look at this site, Outvite, they offer custom handmade wedding invitations.

Tip #1
Providing your guests with disposable cameras is a wonderful way to add candid shots to your album. Make them available at your reception (never at the ceremony since a flurry of shutters snapping will distract from what is really important… your vows) by placing them at the entry table, at dinner placesettings or in baskets around the room. Make sure you get them back before guests leave by having a wedding party member collect them, or designating a camera return location by the door.

Tip #2
Most photographers retain ownership of the negatives. Ask your photographer if or when you might be able to purchase the negatives and what the cost will be.