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"Children raised by same-sex couples do better in school, new study finds"
Gay Wedding Blog
It's hard to believe, but situations like this do happen even now, in 2019... THANK YOU, Aaron and Jeff, for sharing your experience to help let other couples (and business professionals... and voters) stay aware that discrimination is still taking place. By staying informed, we can continue to take action!
We wish the two of you a much happier planning experience from here forward! BEST WISHES for a wonderful life together!
Here at RainbowWeddingNetwork.com, we are so proud to announce that our LGBTQ Wedding Expo in Jersey City this past weekend marked the 225th event that our company has produced! Since 2003, we have traveled the nation with our boutique-style Expos, building bridges between LGBTQ couples and wedding, home and travel-related professionals who wish to support them in creating their Dream Weddings, Receptions, Honeymoons and Committed Lives together.
It has been such an amazing journey, meeting so many tens of thousands of couples and business professionals across the country, especially during this remarkable time in our nation's history with regard to the ongoing pursuit of Equal Rights.
Here is an article by Jersey Journal reporter Corey W. McDonald about our Jersey City event on January 6, 2019... It includes 40 images, so take a look and enjoy!
Image Courtesy Corey W. McDonald, Jersey Journal
Throughout the years here at www.RainbowWeddingNetwork.com, we've had the opportunity to work with several organizations that support LGBTQ couples and singles as they strive to achieve their dreams of having children. In fact, given the wonderful experiences we have meeting and getting to know so many LGBTQ couples across the country at our dozens of Wedding Expos every year, we often find ourselves saying, "Wow! It seems that growing a family is an even more passionate desire for couples than having a wedding!"
And now that we are fast approaching the holiday season, when family is so often the focus, I wanted to take a moment and share info about one of those organizations that has long been involved with us here at RainbowWeddingNetwork... and even longer than that has been an avid and active supporter of the LGBTQ community. I hope that those of you who are considering your options with regard to having children will take a moment to look at the resources Cryos has to offer, such as their free web access to extended donor profiles!
With 30 years’ experience and delivering to over a 100 countries, Cryos International Sperm and Egg Bank aims to ensure a wide selection of high-quality, extensively screened frozen donor sperm and frozen donor eggs from all races, ethnicities and phenotypes for both home insemination and fertility treatments. Cryos International is an industry leader, and is the world’s largest sperm bank and first free-standing, independent egg bank in the United States. Through medical partnerships and evolving research, Cryos continues to improve and expand its global services of helping to provide the gift of family.
Cryos has always supported the LGBTQ community and attends numerous Pride and LGBTQ related events, including RainbowWeddingNetwork.com's ongoing national tour of Wedding Expos. If you’re looking for a cryobank that provides top quality customer service and extensively screened donor options, Cryos is right for you.
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More info: Cryos International Sperm and Egg Bank
Direct Phone: +1(407) 203 1175
Great Tips from our friends at David's BBQ!
For more info and tantalizing details, visit http://www.DavidsBBQ.com
Don't miss the Live Your Life Production's Atlanta Pride Jump-off Party on Friday October 12, 2018 at the Morrow Conference and Event Center. Party from 10pm-3am as you kick off Pride Weekend with friends!
TICKET AND INFORMATION LINK
https://liveyourlifeproductions.com/
Crisis of faith leads to acceptance... "I Choose Love" by Rory Feek
http://tasteofcountry.com/rory-feek-once-upon-a-farm-daughters-lesbian-atheist/
To all those who parent, or grandparent, with love in their hearts... Happy Dad's Day!
Consider favors and keepsakes, or a wedding gift, that support honey bees! Waxing Kara® is a Chesterhaven Beach Farm in Maryland, where 40 acres have been dedicated to providing bees a healthy place to create extraordinarily wonderful honey. All genetically modified crops have been removed from the farmland and instead high-nectar, indigenous wildflowers, lavender, fruit trees, sunflowers and more have been planted to keep the bees healthy & thriving.
In turn, Kara and her staff then make the honey into nourishing, Farm to Body® spa products such as honey scrub and body balm, lip care, candles in delightful scents such as "Glory Bee Honeysuckle" or "Peace on Earth Lavender", splendid teas and more. Ideal as favors for rustic weddings are honey samplers or Waxing Kara's original honey lollipops, which come in a variety of flavors like "Cinnamon Honey", "Lavender Honey", "Bourbon Honey" and "Dark Chocolate Dipped." -A scrumptious way to indulge your wedding guests!
When asked about her support of the LGBTQ+ community, Kara told us: "The bees don’t judge-so why should we? At Waxing Kara, we believe in supporting and upholding the fundamental rights of every person, no matter an individual’s background. America is a melting pot of people from different cultures, backgrounds, and identities-this is intrinsic to who we are as a people, and standing by as others challenge these standards is not something we believe in.
We proudly stand behind and support everyone in the LGBTQ+ community, not because it is a trendy business decision, but because it is fundamentally the right thing to do. LGBTQ+ people are our family, friends, workers, and community; without them, we would not know the strength, beauty, and resilience that we are so privy to now."
-Check out Waxing Kara's website for more gift ideas, beautifully unique, original artwork (from beeswax!) and further information about the company's commitment to the honey bees!
www.WaxingKara.com
Kara Brook, Founder
Waxing Kara - Bee Inspired®
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Q&A with Rebecca Frazier-Smith, Texas Master Florist
Bella Fiori of Austin, TX
RWN: As a floral designer, what are some of the current trends you're finding popular with regard to florals for weddings and receptions?
Rebecca: Cascade bouquets are back in a big way! The trending favorite look is pretty wild, natural, fresh-picked-from-a-field, etc., with asymmetrical lines and lots of textures. Same feel for receptions: wild lines, looking like they were just picked and simply arranged in a footed bowl right before everyone turned up… Needless to say, the underlying mechanics that make it look so freshly-picked are anything but simple! Personally, I love the current trend. So different from the tight little round bouquets that were trending ten years ago!
RWN: What are some of your personal favorite florals or design styles to work with?
Rebecca: I do love starting with hydrangea as a bouquet base, and then adding other things to create the character of the piece. Hydrangea works so well with every other kind of cut flower, and even takes a light spray tint well. So versatile. And since I can’t grow them here in Austin, it makes me super happy when I get to work with them and be around them!
RWN: How did you get started as a floral designer?
Rebecca: I grew up on a family farm just outside Springfield, Missouri. I was the oldest of four kids, and was four years older than my nearest sibling, so my parents relied on me quite a lot to help out on the farm. I learned so much about gardening (the veg kind and the flower kind) and while I didn’t appreciate it as a kid, I do SO appreciate that knowledge now, and I have a deep love and respect for growing things. In college I took a design course and realized I had an aptitude for spatial relations and color harmony, so I continued to develop those gifts at the Benz School of Floral Design here in Texas and the Floral Design Institute in Seattle.
RWN: What inspires you with your work?
Rebecca: There are so many things I find inspiring in working with flowers; too many to name. Today, it is the magnificent sunshine coming through my studio window, making the colors of these coral snapdragons and blue cornflowers just POP so exquisitely. They don’t even look real.
RWN: How long have you and your husband been advocates for the LGBTQ community? Why?
Rebecca: Fairness and equality are big issues in our house. As humanists, we believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, responsibility. We strive to work for the common good of humanity and we attempt always to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, class, orientation, ethnicity, etc. There is no “Other,” there is only us. Our LGBTQ family is no less deserving of the rights and protections afforded to legally married couples. We have fought for marriage equality since long before we were married.
RWN: Tell us about one or two of your favorite LGBTQ wedding experiences.
Rebecca: There was this darling couple who’d been together for over 30 years who could finally legally marry, and I took them a couple of surprise bouquets over to the courthouse on their wedding day. One of the ladies was an alto in my community choir; she was just the most darling lady, always a smile, always a kind word. I have to admit, watching the two of them say their vows to each other was SO powerful… To think these two darlings had been denied the right to marry for so long made my blood boil, and to see them wed was such an incredible joy… I admit I sobbed like a ninny! 😊
RWN: A favorite quote you’d like to share with our readers?
Rebecca: I have this on the back of my business cards and elsewhere in my marketing materials; if you think about it, it applies to so much in life, not just what we choose to do in our vocation but also how we conduct ourselves daily: ”Let the beauty we love be what we do,” - Rumi
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Bella Fiori of Austin, TX
Rebecca Frazier-Smith, Texas Master Florist
512-933-9243
www.bellafioriofaustin.com