Keene, New Hampshire, is celebrating its first-ever LGBT wedding festival this Sunday, December 3. The LGBT Wedding Festival of New England takes place from 1 to 4 p.m. at Stonewall Farm, 242 Chesterfield Road, and it’s going to be something different in all the best ways.
Along with more than 40 vendors including florists, wedding cake, tuxedo for men and women and other businesses, there will be live music, food samples and raffles. Plus educational breakout sessions featuring nuptial experts who legally perform marriage services.
“This is going to be fun, joyful and safe,” festival founding director Holly Long told the Sentinel Source. “One of the last weddings I did was for a lesbian couple that told me a lot of [vendors] did not want to speak to them at all after they found out they were gay,” said Long, who owns Keene’s Naturally Elegant Designs, a wedding and floral designer. “That’s ridiculous, I thought. We need to do something here.”
“So many people in the gay community have come to me when thinking about getting married, and said, ‘We don’t know who to go to, who to trust,’ ” said Annie Card, festival committee member and the owner of Hilltop Golf Course in Peterborough. “It doesn’t matter who you love. This festival is going to show the gay community there are quality vendors for your wedding, people you can trust, and people who will make your wedding day what you want it to be.”
