Black Girls Rock the Wedding + Event Industry

Being a young, black woman living in the suburbs outside of Los Angeles, California, and working as a floral designer throughout Southern California, I have longed to see black culture setting the wedding trends, gracing the covers of top wedding magazines and black women dominating the wedding and event industry.

Bringing diversity to the forefront of the wedding and event industry has been my goal over the last few years. The time is long overdue to see some COLOR on a larger platform. Not just a black model modeling a bridal gown in a magazine, or a black celebrity wedding, but real black brides and grooms, who are getting married like any other race of people, being showcased in a top wedding magazine. With the help of platforms like California Wedding Day, we have been able to embrace diversity and have brought more culture to the pages of the magazine.

I came up with “Black Girls Rock the Wedding & Event Industry” concept to get powerful black women based in Southern California together for a photo to help depict an accurate representation of black women, and multifaceted black women at that. As our business started to focus on bringing our diverse clientele to different publications, we started connecting with female wedding vendors. It became clear that it was not only important to show diversity with couples, but to show the talented black females behind those events as well.

 We have wedding planners, wedding designers, florist, photographers, hair stylist, makeup artist, wardrobe stylist, catering companies, chefs, videographers, bridal gown designers, venue execs, bakers, cake designers, DJ’s and MC’s. All black women coming together to celebrate US!

I’m not sure where this will lead us, but I am hoping that it will lead to unity among black creative vendors within our industry, as well as help bridge the gap between all cultures in the industry. The time is now, the conversations are happening, and we are headed towards positive change. People are realizing that not all things are equal for everyone, but they can be.

I’ll end with this: I believe in supporting all talented creative vendors no matter what race they are. I just want everyone else to know it’s time to even the playing field when it comes to people who share my skin color and are talented like me. My mother and I had to work extra hard to breakdown barriers within our industry. We have built many lasting professional and personal relationships throughout our career. My mom taught me at a young age to have FAITH in God, always “Follow your Passion,” and her favorite quotes are “Sisters, Each One Teach One” and “Sisters, Each One Reach One.”