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pink weddings magazine » 7
TEN yEARS Of PROGRESS
Ten years ago Gino and Mike Meriano
launched Pink Weddings to give gay
couples desperately needed equality
in planning their wedding. It became
much more, and as they celebrate a
successful decade,
Gino
looks back
on how it all started
ory
T
en years ago things were a lot different, but I never planned to enter the
world of gay rights. It all started back in 2001. This was the year I wanted
to propose to Mike, so I thought I’d find out what options were available
for us to start planning our wedding – assuming Mike said yes! He did,
and our research began. A er a few glasses of wine, several takeaways
and very late nights it became clear there was nothing in the marketplace to help us as a
gay couple to do this.
A er researching many wedding sites and books, it was clear there was a need to
create a concept to help same sex couples show their love and commitment to each other.
So in 2002 Mike and I launched Pink Weddings, a gay company, offering wedding services
exclusively to the gay and lesbian community.
Why Pink Weddings? Well it certainly wasn’t for all the fluffy bits you add, or the
stereotyped illusions of gay people. Pink had a far more specific meaning, reflecting the
struggle for gay rights and how gay people have been subjected to discrimination and worse.
It started with the pink triangle – ‘Rosa Winkel’ in German – one of the concentration
camp badges used by the Nazis to identify male prisoners who had been sent there
because of their homosexuality. Every prisoner had to wear a triangle on his or her jacket,
the colour of which categorised them according to their ‘kind’. Our use of pink represents
the solidarity of the gay community and shows our respect for all those who have fought
for us to enjoy equal rights in society today.
The word ‘weddings’ represents a social event at which a ceremony is performed, a
party of people celebrating a wedding, and a civil or religious ceremony – hence Pink
Weddings was born.
Over the next few years we saw some dramatic changes that neither Mike nor I would
have imagined possible within our lifetime. There was a major shi in society and in 2004
we saw the start of a new piece of legislation called the Civil Partnership Bill. Mike and I
continued our journey of campaigning for the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act, and
a er receiving royal ascent, the date was announced. Civil Partnerships were to become
legal on 5 December 2005, with the first registrations to be held on 21 December 2005.
During all of this work and planning, Mike and I attended a meeting with a major
company in the wedding exhibition industry and by the end it was very clear that
homophobia was alive and well in the world of weddings. Our chats on the way home
concluded with the idea of launching the UK’s first ever Gay Wedding Show.
So we began to plan how best to make this work, what it should include and how we
could make a show that was very different to the many mainstream ones around the UK, in
that it would inspire couples and exhibitors alike.
On 14 November 2004, the UK’s first Gay Wedding Show became a reality and led the
way for change in how wedding shows were planned for the future. The show was like no
other. Same sex couples, their families and friends came from all over the UK, from as far
afield as Scotland, Nottingham and Ireland. Visitors even flew in from Italy and Spain.
Hundreds of couples came to see the one-day event, with its four elegant
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