General announcement:

[redhillian]

It has been brought to my attention that the Confetti wedding planning website do not offer an option in their planning service to have any combination of participants in an wedding other than a Bride & Groom - in short, it does not fully allow for civil partnerships, same sex marriages or celebrations that are anything other than their own preconceived notions of 'a proper wedding'. The options for 'Bride' & 'Groom' can be set as Miss, Ms., Mr., Mrs, Dr., etc but still remain as 'Bride' & 'Groom'.

For the past 5 and a half years, we (ephrael & myself) have been advising people to use this website as we felt that they offered an excellent and adaptable free planning service and a good range of advice for people planning their own celebrations.

We do not support their current position, and no longer recommend or endorse them.

Thank you.

Comments

[endis-ni.livejournal.com]

You'd think they'd know better in this day and age. And honestly, why exclude potential custom?

[doctor-kaos.livejournal.com]

Write to them; tell them of your dismay. They may pleasantly surprise you.

I feel that we should think the best of people for their mistakes in the first instance – then when they let you down a second time – crush them utterly.

[kt-peasant.livejournal.com]

Yeah - tell them what you're doing, and why. Otherwise it will remain like the mass student boycotts of Nestle (f'r'example) of which for the most part Nestle was blissfully unaware.

[redhillian.livejournal.com]

This has already been raised with them - no appropriate response has been forthcoming.

[doctor-kaos.livejournal.com]

Then crush them with your skeletal army.

[kurenai-tenka.livejournal.com]

If you do get a reply I'd be interested to see it. Keep us posted! :)

[vondage.livejournal.com]

Firstly, thank you so much for this post Tom, wasn't expecting it but we were both really touched! It's really sweet, I've been meaning to reply for ages. Love you!

Secondly, hi kurenai_tenka! I'm Von, I'm going to be marrying Tom's sister. This is the communication we've exchanged with confetti so far:


> Hi there,
>
> I've just got engaged (Eeee!) and am trying to sign up to your website as
> it
> was recommended to me by a couple of people, but when I go to fill in my
> details I could only see an option to put me as a bride and a space for a
> groom. Is there anyway I can sign up with me as a bride and my girlfriend
> as another bride?
>
> Cheers,
> Fran (A very excited new fiancée!)

> Dear Fran Wilcox,
>
> Thank you for your email.
>
> I'm afraid this is how the website is set and cannot be changed. We will
> pass these comments on to our head office as a possibility for the future.
> Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Jade Goldie
> Customer Service Team
> Confetti

Hi there,

I'm really disappointed to hear this and would really appreciate hearing what the response from your head office has been. I do work in web development myself so want to reassure you that it can be changed, while I understand that it would require some work it would be minimal. There is currently an option to enter both the brides details as Mr and the groom's details as Miss, Mrs or Ms, so it's only the headings that would need changing to both be Bride/Groom rather than Bride and Groom which would take less than a minute to do. This may have implications for other aspects of the site if other places reference the details entered as 'the bride' and 'the groom', I'm unable to see that without signing up but regardless it would be easily changed by your web design team and I would hope that it's worth it to make your site accessible to all.

The civil partnership industry is expected to be worth £600million by 2010 with around 121 ceremonies currently taking place daily (according to John Lewis on 6th June this year), so aside from the moral issue I think it would be worth your website making an effort to cater to this market both to increase the inclusiveness and usage of your website but also in terms of your advertising opportunities now and in the future.

Please do let me know what the official response from your head office has been as I would really like to be able to use your website, as I said before it's been recommended to me by people who have used it's planning features, information and adverts and found them really helpful when planning their own big day. I'd love to be able to do the same but won't unless this text is changed as I can't bring myself to enter either myself or my partner as the groom, we're both brides and intend to plan our day with that in mind. I'll also have no choice but to let the friends and family who I know are currently recommending it to others about your decision, as I doubt that they would want to be promoting a site which takes this sort of view.

Thanks for your response, I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Fran

Haven't had another response yet but I only sent the last email a couple of days ago, will see what happens!

[kurenai-tenka.livejournal.com]

Hey Von, congratulation's on your engagement! I hope the wedding goes well.


As to the responce you received, how unpleasant. It's hardly a big change to make and it's incredibly alienating to it's potential gblt user base. Hopefully they'll pass your second e-mail on to a higher authority who can give me a better reply.

Once again, I'd be very interested to hear what their responce is. :)

[athena25.livejournal.com]

How boringly old fashioned of them.
Maybe they can't use the internet properly. I suggest we send killer robots to re-educate them and re-code the website.

[ephrael.livejournal.com]

I like this plan.