After gay marriage ruling, Houston wedding planners already see boom
Just a few hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality across all 50 states, Houston wedding planner Pomp & Circumstance received its first inquiry from a same-sex couple.
“It’s the first in the history of the company,” owner Christina Landrum said. “I think that (the ruling) is definitely opening up a new market. I don’t know if it’ll hit immediately, but it’s definitely going to hit.”
There’s now a $51 billion dollar industry that’s readying for a boom. The Williams Institute at UCLA, which researches public policy and law regarding sexual and gender identity, reported in 2014 that same-sex weddings could bring in around $2.5 billion throughout the first three years of legality.
See All Bizspace PropertiesHouston-area wedding planners like Landrum are already seeing the impacts of the Court’s historic ruling. She said that her company had experienced an “amazing” number of inquiries in the days leading up the ruling.
She didn’t know if the hike was attributable to the Court, but summer traffic for a wedding planner is usually in a lull, she said.
And planning a wedding differs based on a couple's sexuality, just like it would from couple to couple, said Chastity Christian, owner of Sophisticated Event. Since the ruling, she said her website has seen its highest traffic. Demand will grow for resources such as specialized training courses for planning a wedding for a same-sex couple, she said, and predicts more planners will sign up for them.
