Your wedding day should be everything you’ve ever dreamed of! If you are part of the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual) community, it can sometimes feel challenging to navigate the wedding planning process.
At Tahoe Wedding Sites, we’re accepting of all couples at any of our six beautiful Lake Tahoe wedding venues and try to make the planning process as easy and possible. We love love, and we’re here to help you celebrate yours. Here are a few tips to help make the day extra special.
Hire Vendors That Show Inclusivity
You want to feel comfortable as you’re planning your wedding, and hiring LGBTQ-friendly wedding vendors can help you to achieve that.
Take a look through social accounts and scroll through their website, reviews, and testimonials to see if you can find images and feedback from couples that look like you. If you can, this is an excellent indicator that the vendor understands your goals and the love you share.
As you go through initial consultations, take note of how they engage with you and ask specific questions. For example, vendors that ask for you and your partner’s pronouns is a good sign they support the LGBTQ+ community and want you to be as comfortable as possible.
When you’re hiring your wedding photographer, ask them how they would pose you as a masculine, feminine, or non-binary couple. They should be able to provide examples and discuss how they have worked with similar couples in the past. If you aren’t sure how you want your photos to look, ask the photographer for ideas and examples of what they believe will work for you after they get to know you better. With open communication, you’ll have a better idea of whether or not this photographer will be a good fit for your wedding.
At Tahoe Wedding Sites, the vendors at each of our venues are more than happy to discuss your wedding goals to understand your vision for your big day.
Create Your Wedding Exactly as you Want it
It can sometimes feel uncomfortable asking for what you want or sharing ideas since the LGBTQ+ community has continuously faced discrimination. But your wedding day is meant to be exactly as you want it to be.
It’s totally ok to step outside the box. In fact, more and more couples of all orientations and backgrounds are veering away from wedding traditions and doing things their own way.
We do our best to encourage couples to be their authentic selves as much as possible. Here are a few things we discuss with our LGBTQ couples:
- Dress in what you feel most comfortable and confident in. Don’t choose a big poofy wedding dress if that doesn’t feel right to you. Same goes with makeup, hair, shoes, etc.
- Decide whether you want people to stand with you on your wedding day and whether you want to walk down the aisle separately or together. It’s all about who makes you feel loved and supported, not what tradition says a “wedding party” is supposed to look like.
- Personalize your wedding ceremony with readings, songs, or music that best fits your relationship.
Lock down every detail you can imagine to make your wedding your own. The wedding planning experts at each of our Tahoe wedding venues can help you figure out the details that you forgot or wouldn’t have even thought of yourself.
Throughout the planning process, stay grounded in what you love and what makes you and your partner feel most like yourselves.
Last Name Changes
There’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to deciding who takes who’s last name. You and your partner may want to keep your own last names, hyphen them together, or blend the two names to create your own unique last name. This step is completely up to you and your partner.
This decision is a big one for any couple, but often goes deeper than tradition for LGBTQIA+ couples. According to Brides 2022 research, “Because there is no precedent, same-sex couples are forced to have intentional conversations around values, identity, and family before choosing how to approach the last name issue. These conversations may go unspoken for opposite-sex couples, but many opposite-sex couples are having those difficult conversations these days, too.” We recommend having those open and honest conversations early on in the wedding planning process.
If you do opt to change your name, there’s a legal process to follow in both California and Nevada.
Celebrate Those That are Surrounding You and Your Partner
Your wedding day is about making official love that you share, surrounded by the ones who love and care about you and your partner.
Our venues are designed to accommodate all wedding sizes, allowing you to create a space that welcomes all guests who celebrate you. Almost all of our wedding venues, like the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Lake Tahoe, and Tahoe Ridge Resort, for example, have locations for both your ceremony and reception, minimizing the amount of back and forth that guests have to coordinate between locations.
You and your guests can feel free to stay longer to celebrate your love by enjoying on-site dining options at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel, or a few of our other fabulous locations.
There are countless activities year-round for you and your guests to do while you’re in Lake Tahoe for the week or weekend as well. You all can arrive a few days before the ceremony to enjoy some skiing or snowboarding that Lake Tahoe is known for. Or treat the wedding party or your family to a day of rest and relaxation at the Lake Tahoe Spa at The Landing Resort and Spa.
There are endless ways to enjoy the beauty of Lake Tahoe with loved ones and your partner. Keep the focus on the love and relationships that have been supporting you, not the ones that haven’t.
Tahoe Wedding Sites is Here for you
Planning your wedding is a stressful process for anyone. With so many details to look into and vendors to hire, it can be overwhelming. At Tahoe Wedding Sites, we’re always here for you to help you start planning and guide you to find the perfect venues for your wedding. Any time of year, South Tahoe is the beautiful destination for a wedding with lakeside, outdoor settings to, extravagant ballrooms, and more. We can’t wait to see the love that you and your partner share as you plan your wedding with us and say “I do” on the big day!
