On Leap Day in 2008, Kirsten Palladino got a dream proposal in Central Park from her future wife, Maria.
When the couple returned home to Atlanta, still on cloud nine from the excitement, Kirsten settled down in a bookstore, eager to start her wedding planning by digging into the wedding section of the shop. But what she saw in those wedding planning books dismayed her. Either all of the books were exclusive in their use of heteronormative terms of ?bride? and ?groom? when referring to the couple getting married, or they talked about same-sex couples in terms of civil unions and not as legitimate married couples.
This sadness, anger, and frustration from being ignored by an entire industry drove Kirsten to create a new space for herself, her future wife, and others in the LGBTQ+ community who might have felt excluded while reading these wedding guide books or magazines. It was then that the idea for Equallywed.com was born. After Kirsten and Maria returned from their honeymoon, they started creating their LGBTQ+ wedding planning website?with Maria in charge of the web development and graphic design, and Kirsten handling the writing and editing. The site launched in 2010, providing happy LGBTQ+ couples their very own space on their journey to matrimony, offering advice on everything from invitations to food to booking equality-minded wedding vendors (a trademarked term by Kirsten herself).
Five years after the site launched, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage wa...