🔒Gay marriage law fuels new startups

Maine companies are lining up to take advantage of the state's new same-sex marriage law, a change that some observers anticipate will bring $15 million in new wedding spending.

In November, the Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law, estimated total spending for same-sex weddings in Maine would be $15.5 million in the first three years. The overall boost could be higher since the estimate doesn't include out-of-state couples who might come to Maine to get married. New York City reported a $259 million boost in wedding-related spending following its legalization of same-sex marriages in 2011.

According to CNN Money, the city collected $16 million in tax revenues from same-sex marriages, but the vast majority of that figure

came from weddings themselves — reception venues, hotels, catering and other wedding-related services.

In Maine, weddings tend to be on the modest side — about $23,000 versus the $25,631 national average in 2011, according to marketing research firm The Wedding Report. But it's a growing market, and event planners, venue operators, caterers, photographers, DJs and others in the wedding industry are preparing special promotions and services to cater to gay couples who can now legally wed in Maine.

Among them are Raymond Brunyanszki and Oscar Verest, a same-sex couple who own the Camden Harbour Inn and created a “Maine is for ALL” wedding package to expand the inn's offerings and also invite same-sex couples to wed there. As part of the $16,000 package, the inn will make a donation in a couple's honor to the Human Rights Campaign, which supports equal rights for all couples.

The idea for the promotion might have been spurred by the same-sex marriage ballot initiative, but Brunyanszki says it's something he and Verest have been working on for quite some time.

“We're both from the Netherlands, where same-sex marriage has been legal for over a decade, so we've always been thinking about it,” he says.

Brunyanszki says Maine's lack of a same-sex marriage law has to some extent kept gay couples from choosing Maine as a destination, which is why the inn never offered this kind of promotion, which includes 20 guestrooms for two nights, a cocktail reception, four-course dinner, open bar and wedding cake. It is offered during the inn's off-peak season.

“We've learned from the gay community within Maine and from out of state that they're not really interested in a package unless Maine allows same-sex marriage,” Brunyanszki says. “We spoke with people in Vermont and Massachusetts who said they didn't want to visit Maine all that much if there was no same-sex marriage. This law is a good thing for Maine and it's going to help Maine.”

The promotion drew mentions in the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post and other news agencies across the country, an indication that it will be popular, says Brunyanszki, although no reservations had been made as this issue of Mainebiz went to press.

New services

Hospitality professionals aren't the only ones preparing to service a new market. There are at least two new websites offering service directories for companies that want to cater to gay marriages.

The first, launched very shortly after the Nov. 6 vote, is Gay Weddings in Maine, the brainchild of Sid Tripp, president and CEO of Portland-based marketing firm Proactive Resources Design and president of the Downeast Pride networking group. As its name suggests, the site is geared specifically toward same-sex couples, allowing vendors to submit listings and/or purchase premium listings.

The second, which will be launched in February, is called We Do. It was founded by Chris Weber, owner of The Black Tie Co. in Portland, and Catherine Frost of Freeport-based Folio Marketing & Creative. The two are friends, says Frost, and the combination of Weber's wedding industry experience and her marketing background seemed like a natural fit for a new venture.

We Do and Gay Weddings in Maine are for-profit ventures that also aspire to create an awareness of all that Maine has to offer betrothed couples — things that are missing from a lot of the national directories that dominate the marketplace, Frost says.

“We're trying to build a sense of community, not to be just a data dump,” she says. “Yes, we're a business, and yes, we're looking to make a reasonable profit, but we're not of the ilk where we just want to be making money. We want to help bolster Maine's image. We're a business with a mission, which happens to be targeting what's now an open market.”

That open market includes all couples, not just same-sex couples, Frost says.

“We want to include everybody,” she says. “It sometimes gets tricky with same-sex couples when they meet with a vendor. We want to strip out that uncertainty. The net effect is that a same-sex couple knows that 100% of the vendors are inclusive.”

As such, the two have chosen not to use the rainbow that's become an iconic symbol for the gay community, Frost says.

“We know how strong that brand is,” she says. “We're consciously choosing not to include [the rainbow] because it labels the site in a way we'd prefer not to be. If we identify it that way, straight couples wouldn't feel included or feel confident about using the site. They might think, 'That's for gay people, it's not for me.' We want to raise the bar to include everyone.”

In keeping with the mission-based goal for the site, the company will donate 2% of the site's profits to a nonprofit organization that supports inclusion, Frost says.

Several municipalities kept their clerks offices open past midnight Dec. 29 to accommodate license applications. As of press time, nearly 50 marriage licenses for gay couples were issued. n