The wedding-gift industry is a gazillion-dollar market, give or take a few dollars, but anyone who’s ever organized or attended an LGBT wedding can tell you that options for gifts geared toward such a joyous occasion aren’t as plentiful as those for traditional weddings.
Yes, there are some companies that offer gifts and services for same-sex couples tying the knot, but the pickings can be slim or non-existent around your local retail stomping grounds. But with a little foresight and preparation, you can celebrate the same-sex nuptials of your friends, family and acquaintances in fine and appropriate fashion.
Cards
If you, like us, end up shopping for greeting cards at the local drug store or superstore, it’s kind of frustrating that, out of the massive walls of wedding cards, maybe one or two — if any — cards are for same-sex weddings. And we’ll be damned if someone is going to show up at the wedding with the same card as us!
If you can’t make it to the LGBT bookstore to peruse its selection, take a look online, as there are quite a few companies that offer or specialize in same-sex wedding cards. Papyrus has some delightfully artsy and quaint his-and-his and her-and-hers wedding cards. Zazzle and Funky Pigeon feature some hipper and more stylish offerings. But for something close to traditional, everybody’s favorite monolithic greeting-card titan Hallmark has its own line of LGBT offerings from (http://bit.ly/2mXIblW).
Gifts
Esty.com specializes in a wide selection of creative gifts, and its LGBT wedding section is inspiring, with ideas including wine bottles, wine glasses, coffee mugs, decorations, jewelry and more, most of which can be customized with the couple’s names, dates, Mr. & Mr. or Mrs. & Mrs. inscriptions and other sayings. Check out the offerings at http://etsy.me/2lOMi1Z. Also take a look at Custom Gay Wedding Gifts and Red Bubble for their selections of LGBT (and quite a few bear-themed) wedding gifts like throw pillows, wedding albums and kitschy household items and knick-knacks.
Or just buy a ‘wedding’ gift …
Listed among all the LGBT-themed invitations, cards, stemware and T-shirts on Gay Wedding Gift’s website are the same offerings you can get at any department store: juicers, coffee makers, food and wine gift baskets, etc. There are also Elton John and Rufus Wainwright CDs on the site too. (Don’t … just, don’t. Give a gift card if your imagination is failing you that much.). This goes to show you that LGBT weddings are just like any other wedding in that the lucky couple may like big, shiny, opulent household items they never would buy for themselves. You probably can’t go wrong getting them something they could make good use of, even if there isn’t an image of a rainbow or two women or two men locked in an embrace airbrushed on the side of it.
So make the happy couple glad they invited you — and then make them regret having an open bar at the reception.