Same sex weddings could boost California's economy

It'll be a big wedding season as same-sex marriages become legal in California beginning next week, experts say.

A UCLA study projects that same-sex marriages will pour nearly $684 million into California's economy over the next three years, with more than 118,000 gay and lesbian couples from California and out of state exchanging vows.

That includes nearly $64 million going to state and local government coffers. It will be fueled by spending by both California and out-of-state couples and related tourism, according to a study on the financial impacts of same-sex marriage by the Williams Institute at UCLA.

That's assuming voters this fall don't opt to restore the gay marriage ban that the state Supreme Court struck down.

"The potential is incredible," said Richard Markal, director of the Sacramento-based Association for Wedding Professionals International, a wedding industry trade group. "It will be a boon to California's economy, no question. The impact's going to be in the millions, easily."

The state Supreme Court's May 15 ruling is both landmark and a gateway to a lucrative, untapped market, said Donna Hoffman, a marketing professor and co-director of the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing at the University of California, Riverside.

She sees gay-centric online retailing growing as more Web sites emerge to cater to the new market, joining sites such as Massachusetts-based gayweddings.com and invitation and announcement Web site, outvite.com, which cheers on its home page, "Congratulations, California!"

"This is a multibillion-dollar business and (gays and lesbians) are virtually shut out from this commercial enterprise," Hoffman said. "I think we can expect a lot of weddings, and these people need to be served commercially. This is a huge opportunity for Internet retailers."

The relative confidentiality provided by the Internet is a chief reason, Hoffman said.

"The Internet is able to provide a cloak of anonymity but also offer close to full participation in the accoutrements of celebration," Hoffman said.

Weddings are an enormous business in the United States, accounting for a $65 billion-plus industry, according to wedding industry researcher The Wedding Report. More than 2.3 million weddings are expected to be performed in the United States in 2009 at an average cost of $30,860, Wedding Report estimates.

Business is already robust at outvite.com, said its president, Micah Chase, whose Massachusetts-based firm was formed in 2003, just months before gay marriage was ruled legal there.

"We haven't seen this sort of increase since (Massachusetts)," Chase said. "We've seen a significant spike in traffic."

However, the timing of the California high court's decision has had an effect on wedding plans, he said. With wedding options scarce in June and beyond, couples are asking solely for announcements or are planning their big days as smaller, more casual affairs.

Some California businesses such as Freeport Bakery in Sacramento are anticipating more business even though June, the traditional month for weddings, is all but out for many prospective marrieds, said Janice Selby, wedding cake consultant.

The bakery for years has fashioned celebratory cakes for commitment ceremonies.

"It's tough to plan a short-notice wedding in June," she said.

Selby already has taken orders for July and August and remembers how business rose when San Francisco briefly allowed gay marriages four years ago.

"We're getting phone calls. We've taken a couple of cakes for the summer. Part of our clientele is getting commitment cakes. We were baking graduation cakes. Now this is the next step."

The downtown Sacramento event planner Event Architects is also anxious to tap into the new market, talking with Rainbow Yellow Pages and other advertising links to Sacramento's gay and lesbian community, said sales manager Trisha Nadal.

For Nadal, her interests are as much personal as financial.

Nadal played matchmaker for her sister and her sister's partner and hopes someday they'll marry.

"Now that it's legal, I'm hoping she'll be my sister-in-law," she said.

E-mail Darrell Smith at dvsmith(at)sacbee.com

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)