The iconic Biltmore Hotel in South Florida is now actively campaigning to bring same-sex couples to its property to celebrate their unions.
According to The Miami Herald, the Biltmore launched its “Love is Love” campaign to attract couples of all orientations to the popular wedding venue. The Kikpton, W and Wyndham hotel chains have also marketed directly to same-sex couples.
“People think it’s a conservative area. It’s not. The Biltmore has welcomed [gays and lesbians] for years,” said Wendy Kallergis, president of the Greater Miami & The Beaches Hotel Association, who worked as catering director at the hotel in the 1990s. “The wedding market, we were No. 1. On a slow weekend, we did three weddings.”
But two decades ago, those marriages were only between men and women. Things have changed, despite Florida’s constitutional amendment outlawing the recognition same-sex marriages.
The Biltmore introduced it’s “Love is Love” gay and lesbian wedding campaign at a brunch for the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on May 5. The Miami Herald reported that each attendee received a postcard featuring romantic photos of three very different wedding parties: two gay men, a straight couple and two lesbians.
“I had people after the brunch come to me and say that instead of mailing them, they were going to frame them,” said Natalia Plasencia, the Biltmore’s associate director of catering. “They knew this was the beginning of something special.”
