Wedding Women in Business ~ Feminism and Fluff

I went to a wedding show yesterday, The Wedding Party, a high-end event put on by The Wedding Library, in collaboration with Martha Stewart Weddings. I met Martha Stewart. She was having tater tots from one of the funky catering trucks in the courtyard with her grand-daughter. As normal a grandma moment as ever was.

I reflected on how the wedding industry can feel like a nexus of feminism and fluff. There are so many super-savvy women in business here. We are blogging, organizing multitudes of vendors, negotiating, trend-setting. There are men in the wedding industry. I respect and recommend some passionate and professional male photographers, officiants, dj's, venue owners and more. Yet, when I go to wedding business development events, it's largely a sea of entrepreneurial women. Women ready to help you feel like a princess or prince ~ if that's what you want. Women determined to thrive in their own businesses, local or national. Women wanting to make a mark with their creativity.

At bridal events, the wedding ceremony can feel sidelined, though hosts near-always remind the gathered brides, grooms, and families that the ceremony is "the reason for it all." I say "fluff" above because it's fun to coo over a fashionable shade of lavender ties (lovely!), a giant heart made of chicklets (zow!), or a cake in a real birdcage bedecked with images of birds (loved it!). Details matter in the wedding world; detail means devotion. The stuff of weddings is vast... because identity is vast, and the trend is to be unique. It's joyful to reach far into your creativity on your special day. Brides and grooms may not realize how much choice they also have in a modern wedding ceremony ~ a place to showcase your uniqueness, too.

I leave wedding events like this inspired by the ideas-made-businesses. I also leave full of cupcakes, wine (local), cheese (grilled), and yesterday, a tiny taste of McCclelland's single malt scotch. The women (and men!) in these rooms all decided, "I'm going to run with it." And the wedding industry makes space for each voice, each vision. Mine is Jester of the Peace.

Here's to 2012... what are you going to run with?