Welcome and Intro

Welcome to Gay Wedding Planning!

My wife and I founded GayWeddingPlanning.com to create a community for engaged LGTBQ+ couples to find a place for support, information, guidance and fun! 

We’re Cathy O’Connell and Dorry Winham: married gay wedding planners based in Palm Springs, CA.  We love weddings and celebrations and we're passionate about serving our community with love and support! 

Our wedding planning company COJ Events, has been creating fun and fantastic weddings for all couples for over 10 years.  As we’re in very gay supportive Palm Springs, we have had a large number of LGBTQ+ wedding every year since we started, even before gay weddings were legal in the US.  On June 26, 2015 (we should have a holiday that day) gay marriage was legalized in the US and from that day forward we have been blessed to have been able to help more and more gay couples with their wedding planning. 

We’ve realized, however, that while we love our gay couples who journey to Palm Springs for their wedding, or bring us with them to Mexico or Hawaii, there are many other LGBTQ+ couples around the world that need support and guidance on their wedding planning journey.  Many gay couples around the world live in areas that are not gay supportive and inclusive, or that don’t have access to vendors who understand and/or are willing to work with LGBTQ+ couples. 

LGBTQ+ weddings are similar to traditional weddings, and at the same time they are very different. The similarities are based in love - two people who come together to share a commitment to join their lives together with family and friends.  But after that the similarities can diverge. There are no rules for anything that comes after love in a LGBTQ+ wedding and slogging through the options can be daunting! 

Family dynamics can also be a challenge for gay couples. Everyone could have parental issues, but some gay couples don’t have the support they deserve from family members.  Even navigating loving but insensitive relatives can put a stress on relationships and the process of wedding planning. 

That’s why we are here to help. Our goal with GayWeddingPlanning.com is to be a source of information, support and inspiration for you on this exciting journey of planning your wedding! Through our blog, guest interviews, our private FaceBook group, workshops and community membership we are here to give you a safe haven as you navigate the journey!  

We are so very lucky to be living in this time and place. Dorry & I didn't expect to be able to grow up and marry each other.  In fact we were both married to men early in our lives before we came to full awareness of who we really are as people, and how we needed love and support from a same sex companion. We joyfully found each other (long story for another blog) and took the leap into each other's arms! That was long before gay marriage was legal so we had a mini ceremony with just ourselves in a tiny church in Varena, Italy (across the lake from George Clooney). 

Ten years later, gay marriage was legal in California for a nano second. After the most romantic proposal ever (another long story), we were married by our best friends on a beach in Tulum.  We were two of the 1800 humans who were able to legally marry before the elections in 2008 stopped them. It took another 7 years before that ruling was overturned giving all of YOU the right to get legally married! 

We have walked the walk and can talk the talk.  We know about families who aren’t sure what to think, we know about friends who don’t want to talk to you any more, we know about inclusion and acceptance and we know about LOVE! 

We're here to honor and support YOU on your journey with LOVE and HUGS when we can meet in person!!

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