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Two days before the 154th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment, spokespeople for a few of the largest wedding planning resources in the country confirmed their publications will take steps to distance themselves from plantation weddings.

Pinterest and The Knot were two multimedia platforms that initially responded to a campaign launched by the civil rights advocacy group Color of Change, which asked companies to end features for plantations that had ties to slavery, according to a report by BuzzFeed News on Wednesday

“Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity,” a Pinterest spokesperson told FOX Business. “Plantations represent none of those things. We are grateful to Color of Change for bringing attention to this disrespectful practice. We are working to limit the distribution of this content and accounts across our platform, and continue to not accept advertisements for them.”

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Moreover, the representative at Pinterest clarified that the company has already begun implementing changes, which include limiting the distribution of plantation wedding content in autocomplete, search recommendations, email notifications and search engine optimization.

People will still be able to search for plantation wedding inspiration, but it will now show an advisory that some results may violate Pinterest’s policies. Ads also won’t appear under these specified pins or search queries, which is a significant step for the website’s 300 million monthly users.

“We’re doing this because everyone deserves to feel welcome and inspired when planning their wedding on Pinterest.”

The Knot and its former parent company, XO Group Inc., merged with global marketplace WeddingWire Inc. in December 2018 and officially became The Knot Worldwide, a resource that welcomes over 20 million visitors and serves over 700,000 wedding vendors – some of which are plantation venues.

“Our goal is to ensure that the content of all of our vendors on our sites is respectful and considerate to everyone,” a spokesperson at The Knot Worldwide told FOX Business regarding plantation weddings. “At The Knot Worldwide, we pride ourselves as a company by being inclusive to all — all sexes, genders, races, sexual orientations, religions, and more,”

“Color of Change brought an issue to light about the way venues with a history of slavery describe their properties to couples,” the spokesperson continued. “We’re currently working with Color of Change to create additions to our current content guidelines that will ensure all couples feel welcomed and respected on our sites.”

“These guidelines will prohibit any vendors on The Knot or WeddingWire from using language that romanticizes or glorifies a history that includes slavery. We will remove any vendors from our sites that do not comply. By creating these guidelines, we are providing a respectful experience for all couples, wedding professionals, and employees.”

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The Knot Worldwide isn’t the only mainstream wedding publication that’s taking a stand against plantation weddings. Brides, which was acquired by former 20th Century Fox CEO Barry Diller and his media company Dotdash in May, is working to scrub away the plantation weddings that were featured by its previous owner Conde Nast.

“Brides is an inclusive place where everyone can feel celebrated. Content glorifying plantations is not in line with our core values,” a Dotdash spokesperson wrote in a statement sent to FOX Business.

“We have removed these references and are actively working with Color of Change to evolve our guidelines to help ensure all our couples are supported, respected and inspired.”

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Although the response from major wedding resources to Color of Change’s campaign is well-intentioned, the issue has been largely painted as a binary racial divide that completely leaves out the African American couples who also wed on plantations, especially for those living in the South where these types of weddings are more common.

Ebony Horace, an event planner for Addictive Avents, was tasked with putting a wedding together at the Southern Oaks Plantation in New Orleans for her clients.

Considering that this was her first destination wedding, Horace was not offended by the request and was more than happy to take it on.

“I think because of how people feel about plantations in general and the overall backstory of it, but to be honest in planning this wedding, they didn’t give us that vibe at all,” Horace explained. “I think it was more so the experience and it gave the bride a theme that she wanted in terms of being a Southern gal and being from Louisiana herself. It didn’t give a vibe of being racial or anything like that.”

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The Claytons married at the Southern Oaks Plantation in New Orleans, Louisiana.

When it comes down to plantation weddings in general, Horace believes they are an amazing choice for couples who like the look of a Southern estate. However, she did note that if a facility or location feels disrespectful, people have the right to look at alternative venues.

Horace also noted that for some African Americans, getting married on a plantation is a well-thought-out reclamation of power. This was very much the case for her bride, who provided the following statement regarding her choice of venue:

“Being from the south, plantations, cotton fields, sugar cane fields and etc. are just a part of our heritage. Sometimes a painful part, but we must embrace it. Think of the joy this day would bring to those that once worked on this plantation! I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams.”

Additionally, the bride and groom celebrated their nuptials by jumping the broom in their ceremony – a tradition that has some roots going back to American slavery but is not undergoing editorial censorship at this time.

For wedding photographer Kate Hampson, who captured the event, the experience was a positive one. Though, she recognized that a venue such as this isn’t for the faint of heart and shouldn’t be selected to solely fulfill a “princess” fantasy.

“For my couple to be married at a plantation is a huge deal, considering it was not allowed in the past,” Hampson said. “I feel plantations are a beautiful choice of venue, however, I think couples planning to marry at one should know about and respect the history behind them”

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Not all wedding platforms are rushing to adopt changes.

Martha Stewart Weddings told FOX Business, “We thank Color of Change for bringing this valid concern to us. We feature how couples have chosen to wed and celebrate their special day. We will give this careful thought and attention.”

Wedding planning and online registry Zola did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment, but a spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, “After reviewing this complaint we determined it did not violate our non-discrimination policy. While we may not always agree with couples on all of their wedding details, we also respect their right to choose where and how they want to get married.”

By Thursday, the same Zola spokesperson updated BuzzFeed News that the platform is reevaluating its policies and has removed plantations as a wedding venue option for users.

FOX Business reached out to a number of Southern publications and platforms dedicated to featuring people of color that have highlighted plantation weddings in the past but did not receive confirmation whether there will be policy changes there as well.

It is not clear how public disavowal from top platforms and subsequent limitations will impact the business model of plantation venues and the overall representation of African Americans in these spaces – particularly for the couples and wedding vendors from Southern states who are submitting plantation-affiliated content for feature consideration.

Color of Change did not specify how guideline revisions are going with participating wedding platforms, but the nonprofit’s vice president, Arisha Hatch, did offer an impassioned statement to FOX Business on how the campaign came to be.

“The wedding industry makes hundreds of millions of dollars in profit by promoting plantations as romantic places to marry, and in doing so, routinely denies the violent conditions Black people faced under chattel slavery,” Hatch wrote.

“Plantations are physical reminders of one of the most horrific human rights abuses the world has ever seen, which, over the course of the Atlantic Slave Trade, enslaved 10.7 million Black people in the Americas.”

Hatch asserted that the wedding industry’s flowery language around plantation venues that have connections to slavery “fails to recognize plantations as sacred spaces where the bodies of many Black people’s ancestors are buried in unmarked graves to this day.”

“It would be a great sign of social responsibility for these platforms to rectify how they feature plantations as wedding venues,” Hatch continued.

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For some plantation venues that have no ties to slavery at all, Color of Change’s campaign is still proving to be an effective one. The Texas-based Kendall Plantation is one such example.

“The Kendall Plantation located in Boerne, Texas, was built from the ground up in 2011 and has no historical link to slavery whatsoever,” the venue’s owner, Kristin Voss, told FOX Business. “The building was designed and inspired by the architecture of a southern antebellum home of the 19th century. Our 100 percent woman-owned business has been made aware of the sensitivity to the word ‘Plantation,’ and we are evaluating such concerns.”

Music can transform your wedding, especially when you work with musicians who can jive with your vibe. Weddings are all about the bride and the groom, and the melodies should define their personalities and embody vital phases of their relationship.

Music can amplify the big moments of the ceremony into something even more meaningful, like the father and daughter’s walk down the aisle, exchange of vows and rings, and the newlyweds’ first kiss. These events may even be those that take place at the reception.

During downtime or when the couple is busy doing the rounds at the reception, performances will be directed toward the guests. Not everyone can guess the guests’ mood at any given moment. It takes a professional to read an audience and respond to the kind of entertainment they prefer.

You are at a vantage point to know the shared sentiment of your guests, including your entourage. While you’re thinking about beautiful presents for your bridesmaids, great groomsmen gifts, and excellent wedding souvenirs for guests, also factor in their common musical inclinations. It can be a daunting task because there are just so many choices out there. Here are a few tips you need to know before hiring musicians.

Check Their Availability

You’ll know straight off the bat if you’re dealing with professionals—they immediately check their schedule the moment you say wedding. This means they care about their prior commitments and don’t want to waste your time.

Check if they have a scheduled gig after your nuptials. Ask if they’d be willing to charge overtime fees in case the party mood carries on well past the end time of your contract.

While you’re at it, ask how many wedding events your music providers commit to in a year. You’ll be able to determine how often and how experienced they are in performing. It will give you an idea of how good they are in handling events and whether or not they’re passionate about them.

Ask Them to Describe Their Style of Music

Figure out if their style of music matches the feels you’re going for on your wedding. If your ceremony is leaning toward elegance with plenty of quiet and casual conversations, you want to avoid those whose musical prowess leans toward rock or edgy. A DJ who has no qualms about playing soft and light classics may be more suitable to your taste. You may also go for an acoustic band that plays indie or folk sounds.

It’s customary for bands or wedding DJs to invite about-to-wed couples to see their live performances. This will surely help you get a more definite sense of their music and make the right decision to hire them or not.

You can also check if they play on-the-spot requested songs or they only stick to their own preselected list. Most musicians are willing to learn new songs for weddings and give you a list of tunes that they already know.

Equipment Requirements and Cancellation Policy

A professional band or DJ will not be averse to personally checking your wedding and reception venue. It will let them see if the place has the right equipment they need for the kind of sound they play.

Doing this will also help them determine the sound system they have to take with them during the event. Bands or DJs are mostly equipped to provide sound for a room the size of a banquet hall. Having this knowledge can also help them prepare a backup plan in case a system malfunction occurs.

Cancellation policies usually vary, but the standard rule is to notify musicians at least a month before the wedding. Most musicians will also require an up-front and nonrefundable deposit.

Ask How They Motivate a Shy Crowd

Most wedding would have fun activities, like creatively announcing the wedding party or wedding games, which at times, fall under the musician or DJ’s responsibilities especially when the crowd is shy. You need to ask the musical group or solo act that you’re hiring if they are comfortable with getting the audience to be participative.

Changing a crowd’s overall mood is not as easy as it sounds. Some musicians are not as eager to please an audience as the rest are. Make sure you ask this so you’ll have a better sense of whether or not they’ll flow well with your wedding reception’s theme and invited guests.

Remember

Music can connect people like no other. Strangers turn into friends after a night of dancing and partying to good music. Though the bride and the groom come up with the musical lineup, it’s the wedding invitees who get to listen in and experience the majority of the songs.

Being able to personalize a performance and adjust musical styles according to what the guests like take years to master. When considering the type of musicians you want to have in your wedding, make sure you factor in the general disposition of your attendees. Think also about whether or not your chosen songs are a good fit for the kind of wedding you have in mind.

Source:  groovygroomsmengifts.com