Gay Marriage Boosts Some Businesses, Ignores Others

The legalization of same-sex marriage has been good for Evan Uribe’s business, Lumen Photography in Minnetonka. He’s had more consultations and picked up a couple extra weddings from same-sex couples—including a wedding he’s shooting Aug. 3, just two days after the new law goes into effect.

“It gives me a demographic that I did not have before,” Uribe said.

Uribe is hardly alone. One wedding planner predicted that the Twin Cities would have an additional 5,000 weddings over the next three years that added as much as $130 million to the local wedding industry.

Not every business is seeing such boosts, though—at least not immediately. Patch talked with churches, invitation stores and other businesses that reported no visible increase.

Kathy Dixon, co-owner of Invitations For Less in Minnetonka, said her business is one of those. Part of the reason her sales have remained level is because she and her husband Dan Dixon already worked with same-sex couple for commitment ceremonies and marriages elsewhere.

But she thinks it’s also because of the short time between the governor’s signing of the same-sex marriage bill May 14 and when the new law took effect. She thinks many couples who are getting legally married now are having their receptions and events later.  Dixon expects to see more of a bump six months to a year from now.

“They didn’t have a lot of time to plan that because it came so fast,” she said.

Uribe, though, has no doubt the law has benefitted his business.

“From my point of view, it has been a boon,” he said.