Wedding expo reflects growth in same-sex unions

Friday, March 21, 2003 | 8:25 a.m.

What: Las Vegas Gay and Lesbian Wedding Expo.

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Alexis Park Resort.

Admission: $10; $15 for couples.

Information: 655-8180 or idowithpride.com.

After a few years of trial and error, Las Vegan Christopher Penland launched his gay and lesbian wedding consulting service more than one year ago.

He organized wedding packages, created idowithpride.com, and began networking with different support services. In its first year G & L Ceremony Consultants would serve more than 20 couples.

But with more gay and lesbian couples walking down the aisle each year, Penland decided to find another way to directly introduce same-sex couples to gay-friendly vendors.

Sunday his G & L Ceremony Consultants will present the Las Vegas Gay and Lesbian Wedding Expo at Alexis Park.

Featuring more than 40 exhibitors from local wedding chapels, tuxedo rentals, jewelers and floral services, the afternoon will be topped off with a public commitment ceremony for a Connecticut couple at 2 p.m.

"It's the same thing as going to Bridal Spectacular, but a little more," Penland said from his home office where he works as consultant and expo organizer.

The Las Vegas Gay and Lesbian Wedding Expo is the first local effort of this magnitude. Similar expos are popping up throughout the country. Los Angeles was host to its first expo last year and Penland said wants to begin wedding expos into four new cities each year.

"It all goes back to pushing the concept of the wedding itself," said Penland, who has custody of his two children and his been with his partner for five years. "Love is not bound by gender alone. Everybody wants to be married. And we're not looked at as the family type."

But that perception is slowly changing. Some newspapers, such as The Boston Globe, Orlando Sentinel and the Oregonian, now announce same-sex unions. Websites, such as twobrides.com and twogrooms.com, market to same-sex commitment ceremonies. Planetout.com lists commitment ceremony basics, useful books and tips for planning the ceremony.

Ron Decar, owner of Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel, said his chapel performs roughly 100 same-sex commitment ceremonies each month.

The chapel is gay-owned and operated and has performed commitment ceremonies for gay and heterosexual couples since it opened four years ago, offering traditional and themed weddings.

The number of gay couples participating in ceremonies has increased following Vermont's decision to legalize same-sex unions within the state, Decar said. (The Civil Union Law went into effect in 2000).

"Couples want to make a commitment for themselves and their families."

Gina Houts, wedding coordinator for Cupid's Wedding Chapel, which she said performs an average of 15 same-sex ceremonies each month, said, "There's more of a coming out and greater acceptance in the community versus back in the day it was a very hush-hush, quiet thing.

"Cupid's used to be only one of two chapels that did commitment ceremonies. Now more and more chapels are opening their doors and realizing there's a market there."

Additionally, Houts said, "Markets that are wanting to get involved in retailing to that market -- tuxedo shops, catering entities, florists, photographers."

For gay and lesbian couples walking into formal wear shops, Penland said, "You face that uncertainty of them asking who's getting married and when you say, 'we are' they don't take you seriously for who you are.

"You want to make sure that special day is important."

Even a State Farm Insurance representative will be at the Expo, because, Penland said, "It's not just about weddings. It's about life itself. We wanted to go the whole range from the beginning of the ceremony to the end, to life after."