A woman was unable to hire the services of a photographer whose work she admired because she was told the wedding would make the photographer uncomfortable. A couple who work in the wedding industry felt they had to hide the fact that they were a couple from their clients. Two women wanted to put their names on a vendor’s sign-up sheet during a recent big wedding show, but there was nowhere for them to sign. The form had the words “bride” and “groom” and no room for any other combination.
These are just some of the reasons behind the existence of the Union LGBT+ Wedding Show held Saturday at Beaumont Studios.
“This is filling a big hole,” said portrait photographer Belle Ancell who joined creative forces with event planner Cristie Rosling to create the first wedding show of its kind in Western Canada.
“LGBT couples are not represented at the standard wedding show. One of our attendees was saying it was nice to come here and not have to explain yourself, not have to worry what the reactions are going to be — they can be their true selves.”
Ancell and Rosling were floored by the fact nobody else had done such a wedding show in the city. So, after joking about doing their own, they got serious. Nine months later the Union LGBT+ Wedding Show was born.
The women chose the name “Union” because their intention was to bring the community together. The word was also picked as a nod to the gay rights movement. (Before 2005, when same-sex marriage was legally recognized nationwide, gay people in some provinces had to settle for civil unions, which didn’t carry the same social weight and legal benefits as marriage.)
It was also important to Rosling to create a show that not only looked different from the typical convention centre wedding show, but one that also felt different. Enter Beaumont Studios with its warm lighting, wooden floors with streaks of turquoise, and rolls of white, seamless paper hanging near the exposed ceiling.
“I didn’t want it to look like any wedding show I’d ever been to,” said Rosling. “They’re focused on a very specific wedding,” added Ancell. “They’re always orientated towards the bride. Even today with heterosexual couples, a lot of males want to be involved with the wedding.
Here, it’s for everybody. We have some just exceptional vendors.”
Peau De Loup was one of those. The North Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»company makes masculine-influenced clothing tailored for the female frame. This means designer Adelle Renaud’s beautifully made button-down shirts are smaller in the shoulders and wider in the hips. They also won’t gape across the chest thanks to the box pleats Renaud has sewn in her designs for adjustability (they can be “let out” if the wearer gains weight or sewn back if the wearer loses).
Peau De Loup also uses sustainable fabrics, sourced from leftover materials at garment factories that would otherwise be tossed.
When Renaud worked as a production manger in these factories in Asia, she noticed unused heaps of scrap material from men’s clothing manufacturers. She asked about it and was told she was welcome to what was considered to be unusable.
“Now I obviously get charged for it,” she said.
Renaud and business partner Erin McLeod, who is also a veteran keeper for the Canadian women’s national soccer team, designed the sharp, black suits the players wore off the pitch during the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Now, Peau De Loup has its own wedding attire line.
Being at the Union show was the right fit for Renaud who remembered venue hunting for her own wedding a year ago. At one of the locations, she was asked where her husband was — in front of wife-to-be Robyn Renaud, who was also at the Union show.
“We weren’t upset at them for not knowing,” Robyn recalled. “It was just... awkward.”
The two dozen vendors in attendance at Union included jewelry from Tien Neo Eamas, a man of many firsts. He was the first Asian transgendered man to publicly come out in Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»and is the first (and only, to his knowledge) trans jeweller in the city. Union is also his first wedding show.
“I don’t honestly want to go to mainstream wedding fairs because, first of all, my designs are minimal and accessible. As an artist I’m interested in speaking heart-to-heart with people and I’m interested in hearing those stories.”
Eamas has been smithing since 1996, also spending his time as a feng shui consultant, performer, inspirational speaker and alchemist. His “love bands” are designed together and made together, because Eamas said it’s important they reflect, and hold, the love and care they were made with.
“There’s all that magic in there,” he said. “People feel it.”
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