Same-sex marriage: wedding bells ringing, along with cash registers

With the historic legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia, wedding businesses are feeling the love.

The Ever After expo in Sydney. Source: Supplied

For the newly engaged, a trip to a wedding expo is often part of the joyous processes of planning a wedding.

With the changing of the Marriage Act, same-sex couples now have reason to take part.

In Sydney, the Ever After Wedding Expo for same-sex couples recently rolled into town, bringing venues, photographers – even mermaid stunt performs – all under one roof.

“They know what they want,” says Jennifer Grayson. “We find gay couples are double income, so they do have a lot of incidental money they can use to go on nicer holidays.”

Jennifer is the Director of Sales at the Nanuku Auberge Resort in Fiji, where accommodation starts at about $1000 a night.

Inquiries from same-sex couples have started coming in. With the expo, she’s hoping to lock in some bookings.

Western Sydney-based Celebration Cakes has also started getting inquiries and has already baked for a same-sex couple’s engagement party.

“That’s why we want to showcase here, to show we are inclusive,” says head decorator Kim Watt.

Economic impact

While it’s too early to know for sure what the overall economic impact of same-sex marriage legalisation will be, there are some estimates.

ANZ's research suggests there could be a $650 million spending boost this year alone.

That’s based on the assumption that about a quarter of Australia's approximately 47,000 same-sex couples (according to the 2016 census) will opt to get married this year, and that they'll spend around $55,000 each - the average cost of a wedding in Australia.

It adds up to a nice boost for the weddings industry, though minor overall.

“This is small part of the population,” explains ANZ Senior Economist Cherelle Murphy. “And that means the impact on the economy overall will be quite small.”

Source: Supplied

Happily ever after

But legalising same-sex marriage is about more than economics, of course.

For couples at the Ever After Expo, getting married in Australia has been a years-long dream.

“I’d been lobbying behind the scenes for years and years, and we got engaged because you could tell it was coming,” Nathan Thomas told SBS. He and his partner Maikol Nobrega have been together for five years. They met when Maikol came to Australia from Venezuela to study English.

“I popped the question on his birthday in September last year - and then the 'yes' vote came and now it’s time to organise the wedding!”

Couple Don and Grant have also been waiting to make their union legal in Australia.

“We actually had a commitment ceremony in December four years ago,” Don says. “But now that’s it's actually legal we want to make it legal... it had to be in Australia. ”

And like all the couples at the expo, they hope to live happily ever after.

Watch this story at the top of the page, or catch the full episode on SBS On Demand.