California dreaming of gay nuptials

Wedding planners, bakers and hotel representatives say they began booking more business almost immediately after the state Supreme Court's May 15 decision overturning a ban on gay marriage.

Citing years of pent-up demand, one University of California, Los Angeles study projects that same-sex unions could provide a US$370-million (Bt12 billion) shot in the arm to the state economy.

"Being in West Hollywood, we've been inundated," said Tom Rosa, owner of the Cake and Art bakery. "After the ruling, the phone calls really picked up."

Rosa said couples who had waited for decades to marry legally were splurging on 5-foot-tall confections shaped like carousels and cakes featuring handcrafted birds of paradise.

Mike Standifer and Marc Hammer had been planning a commitment ceremony for October, but when the court ruling came out, they decided to throw an even bigger bash.

They plan on spending about $25,000, which includes renovations on their Hollywood home so they can have the party in their back yard. The new cost includes rings, their suits and those of their wedding party, and the cost of flying in Standifer's priest from Tennessee - all things they wouldn't have done if they were just having a party.

"The wedding dynamic in the last two weeks changed everything," Standifer said.

By some estimates, weddings and commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples generate $1 billion a year in revenue.

PlanetOut, a media and entertainment company that conducts surveys about gay and lesbian consumers, says gay consumers earn 20 per cent more than their straight counterparts, on average, and spend about 10 per cent more on nuptials.

Things really slowed down in February, said Michael Willms, owner of Entertainment Design Events, an event planning company, but they have picked up now. The day after the ruling, Willms booked a $55,000 same-sex wedding.

MV Lee Badgett, research director at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at the UCLA School of Law, estimates that gay weddings could provide a $370-million boost to the state economy.

That estimate presumes that half of California's 92,000 same-sex couples will tie the knot, multiplied by $8,040, the amount of new spending each wedding will generate. The average wedding in California costs $32,000, but the study presumes that same-sex couples spend less than that, and that couples would spend some of this money on other goods and services anyway.