Why it’s important for me to offer LGBTQ+ inclusive service

Hi there, I’m Hannah from Wedding Stories by Hannah Quinn. And for those of you who know me, I’m currently planning my own wedding at the moment with my partner, Becca. We’re getting married on the 22nd of August, so obviously things are kind of heating up a little bit in terms of the wedding planning.

But what I just wanted to share with you is how my experiences planning my own wedding have really shaped the service and the experience that I want my clients to get from working with me. I think a lot of queer and same sex couples navigating this would be able to share that there are quite a few microaggressions and little constant niggles and reminders that, you know, the wedding industry is set up for cisgender heterosexual couples.

So it’s things like getting a wedding planner and it was for a bride and groom; having to go through and alter all the bits where it said stag party or groomsman outfits, that kind of thing.

Also, I remember I was going for a suit fitting and I Googled: ‘what do I need to take for a suit fitting?’. And the first line of the article was “ladies, this one is one to share with the man in your life”. And it’s like, no, the suit is for me. There’s no man in my life.

I’ve got a friend who also currently planning for his wedding and he’s discounting any venues which describe the preparation area as a bridal suite, because, you know, obviously there are no brides in that relationship.

But, you know, I don’t want to focus on the negatives because I have also had some absolutely fantastic experiences when planning for the wedding.

For example, I’ve had my wedding suit from a tailoring business called King & Allen. And as you go on that website, there’s an entire section for LGBTQ+ weddings. There’s an entire section for women’s wedding suits. So straight off the bat, you’re feeling included. And that service continued when you actually went in store as well. I’ve had a brilliant experience with them.

And also this sharp trim is courtesy of a gender neutral hairdressers in Manchester, a fantastic organisation called Human First. And it was such a warm and inclusive experience from the second you step through the door.

And that is the experience that I want my clients to get. I want them to know from the second step on my website or they see any of my social media pages, or they hear about me through word of mouth, I want them to know that it’s gonna be an inclusive experience for them. They’re not going to have to worry about any of those little microaggressions that I talked about earlier. Not going to be making any assumptions like ‘oh, who’s walking down the aisle’ and like, ‘which one of you is wearing a suit’ and all that kind of thing.

There’s absolutely none of that. The experience that I provide for my clients is as bespoke and personalised as their wedding day itself, which means a million multitude of options. That’s exactly what I want them to get from working with me.

And obviously it’s not just LGBTQ+ couples that benefit from that, you know, that is an experience and a service that I think benefits a lot of couples. From people who just want a really chilled out and relaxed day, right through to couples that are ditching every single tradition in the book and just doing things their own way. I think it’s a really beneficial service for a lot of different people.

Why it’s important to me to offer an LGBTQ+ friendly experience for my clients from Wedding Stories by Hannah Quinn on Vimeo.