• Ten years after the opening of marriage to lesbian and gay couples, 20 Minutes devotes a series of articles, videos, podcasts... around this anniversary. From political, societal, cultural or economic angles.
  • Figurines at the top of the mounted piece, costumes and dresses or wedding rings. Even though the event may seem similar, some details had to be changed, adapted or even forgotten to celebrate the union of two people of the same gender.
  • In 2013, some wedding professionals foresaw the emergence of a "juicy" market thanks to the passage of the law. Forecasts too ambitious? 20 Minutes put the question to the people concerned, with a decade of hindsight.

Its adoption in the law was to develop "a juicy business" and promised to "pay big", headlined the press at the time. Wedding planners, jewelers and DJs, according to forecasts, professionals in the sector would take advantage of the adoption of the law of marriage for all to increase their business. What about ten years later? What place do LGBT+ celebrations occupy in this already very lucrative market?

3% of all marriages

The answer lies first and foremost in the numbers. According to the regulars of the estate, a wedding costs - according to many criteria specific to each - between 15,000 and 40,000 euros. And 20% more for same-sex couples, who would have a higher budget, according to mon-mariage-gay.com, the queer equivalent of mariages.net. A hypothesis confirmed by Christelle Cosson, a specialist in wedding cakes in the Lyon region. "It's often smaller parties. The resources devoted to other aspects of the event are therefore greater. »

Exit then the "toppers" who seem "kitsch" today. "Every year I equip myself with a dozen figurines representing two men and two women, but I rarely use them. futur.es marié.es always come up with their own idea. »

At the scale of her business, she does not see any difference since the vote of the law. She elaborates: "About 10% of orders are for weddings of the same kind. That is about 4% of the services for local caterers from what they told me. So, indeed, it allowed to have a new demand that did not exist because of the legislation, but it did not allow an explosion of the market in proportion to the other celebrations. »

Same observation on the side of wedding salons. In 2013, a few days after the adoption of the law, the first "G-day" was held in Paris, exclusively for unions between men. A first... Which did not have the expected success. "Not surprising", for Philippe Steed, founder of the largest organizer of wedding fairs, ID organization.

A specialist in the field for fifteen years, he finds it "stigmatizing" to do separate events, or even to have labeled stands. "If you put a rainbow flag – identified as the LGBT+ flag – it sends the wrong message and heterosexual couples think the salon is not for them," he says. Especially since the latter still represent the vast majority of visitors, even ten years after the law. According to Mariages.net, of the 244,000 unions carried out in 2022, 7,000 were same-gender couples. This is on average, the same data every year for a decade.

Specialized providers to avoid judgment

The salon expert concludes: "And then, when we look at marriage as a celebration, nothing changes. Providers perform the same tasks. A DJ has to make people dance, a caterer has to provide food and a photographer has to convey emotions. »

Maybe. In any case, in reality, this is not always the case. "In 2019, during a wedding between two women, the DJ launched "but then when we are bi, we marry three?" thinking to make a joke, recalls Sophie, still embarrassed. This is typically the kind of detail that LGBT+ couples don't want to stumble upon. Sophie is part of the Sophie wedding planner team, specialized in LGBT weddings "but not only". From the launch of her company, she exposed this "skill", herself part of the community, but without "the idea of making money from it," she says.

"When I launched my company, I was given a place on the pride float, I had the right to a booth at each event," she says. My work and my notoriety have really grown thanks to the community. But I didn't want to lock myself in by only dealing with gay and lesbian couples. In the industry, we advocate everyone's freedom, so I was not going to refuse clients because they were straight. »

OUR DOSSIER ON MARRIAGE EQUALITY

Rewarded every year by Mariages.net, the expert quickly becomes "the reference" in France, with "almost no competition". "We have about a hundred requests a year and we do about twenty," she says. Of those twenty, four or five will be LGBT+ when my counterparts will have one every four years. »

For Sophie, specialization is not a question of business, but of feelings. "Today, all the organizers take gay couples. And luckily! But when it's someone in the community who takes care of the happiest day of your life, LGBT+ yourselves, it's more believable. We know. We support each other. And then, you are sure that there will be no judgment. »

67% of new secular ceremony officiants

But not all providers have to be LGBT+ to make a marriage of a same-sex couple, nuances Sophie. "And with the new demand, some are adapting," she continues. In recent years, a boutique in Lyon originally specializing in men's clothing has ended up integrating women's suits after many requests from customers for their wedding. Today, mon-mariage-gay.com has referenced 345 gay-friendly partners.

Finally, the only area that has really exploded since the vote is that of secular ceremonies. According to Mariages.net, marriage equality has led to "the rise of the officiant profession" with "67% of new professionals" recorded in one year.

The economic impact of the adoption of the law is not directly felt within the marriage market. But the opening of these rights to gay and lesbian couples has unconsciously had consequences on French economic growth. This is proven by the Open for Business report, published in April 2020. The more LGBT+ rights policies a country has, the more it prospers. Conclusion? Long live the marié.es!

  • Economy
  • Marriage for all
  • Marriage
  • LGBT+ Movement