San Diego’s first GLBT commitment and reception resource event will be held Jan. 9 at The Center, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. Commitment Expo Winter 2004 will include a fashion show, a vendor showcase, several workshops focusing on domestic partnership, family planning and commitment counseling, as well as notary publics onsite to certify domestic partnerships.

The Expo is the first tradeshow put on by new GLBT wedding planning company Commitment Expo, the brainchild of local wedding planner and caterer Andrew Haddock.

“The conception of the company came after [2003 San Francisco] gay pride,” Haddock explained. “I’ve been a wedding planner for about three years and I’ve been in the catering industry for seven to ten years, and there has always been a disconnect between the wedding industry, which is predominantly heterosexual, and the gay and lesbian community. So what I decided to do was to take all my experiences in San Diego and share the wealth — expose these amazing caterers and florists and DJs and photographers, and all the other vendors that have been working with me, to the gay and lesbian community. These vendors are ready and willing to work with the community, they just didn’t know how to do it.”

Haddock has been in the catering business with the highly acclaimed French Gourmet Catering and Wedding Cakes in San Diego for the past four years. Working in sales there gave him the opportunity to work with and get to know a large network of vendors, whom he has called upon to participate in the upcoming trade show.

“One thing that I can’t stress enough is that we’ve hand picked the vendors,” Haddock said. “We’re really being conscious about who we let into our shows; you need to prove to me that you’re a quality vendor, and you need to have all your licensing and insurance stuff, you have to have references that e will review.… If my name is attached to it, it’s going to be quality service; it’s going to be perfect, it’s going to be pretty, it’s going to be everything you want it to be and more, whether I plan it or not — that’s my rule for my vendors.”

Though not the first wedding tradeshow to cater to the GLBT market, Haddock said Friday’s event is going to be much different than past shows held in New York and Los Angeles.

“We’re doing some amazing things that a lot of people don’t do.… We’re making it very, very easy, if you’re gay or lesbian, to begin to do this,” Haddock said. “This is a new company, so we’re doing a lot this first show; we’re really going to go all out and see what happens.”

Haddock anticipates 200 to 500 people will attend the Expo, which will be comprehensive. Approximately 45 vendors, representing a wide selection of the wedding industry, will take part, including financial planners, insurance agents, caterers, florists, DJs and photographers. Participating vendors include The French Gourmet, Mindy Sonshine Photography, Call the Caterer, Brides by Demetrios, Friar Tux, Tim Altbaum Entertainment, Pamela’s Parasols, The San Diego Officiant Service and Macy’s. Though Robinsons May is not available to do this show, Haddock said they plan to take part in the next San Diego Commitment Expo, in June.

Commitment Expo has four company branches; along with the wedding planning portion and the trade shows, there is a magazine currently under development and a website.

Commitment Expo Magazine will be a bi-yearly publication that focuses on wedding planning basics as well as seasonal wedding ideas, vendor selections and fashions, and will debut in January 2005.

The company website is already a major tool for those interested in planning their wedding, providing web links to vendors and to agencies that can help with the legal processes of domestic partnerships, but it will be improved and expanded by April.

“The website right now is kind of a rough draft,” Haddock said. “The website went up officially in the second week of November, and we’ve had a phenomenal response.”

In creating the website, Haddock and the web expert he hired looked at hundreds of other GLBT websites across the country. “We saw that they were consistently very busy, with a lot of advertising, and kind of cluttered, not very straightforward, and hard to understand. So when we designed our website we paid attention to that; we made it very easy to use,” he said.

One of the things Haddock would like to add to the website is a section about traditions.

“There was a big article recently in The New York Times about the ‘gay wedding,’ what it is and whether they are traditional weddings or not,” Haddock said. “In the early ’80s through around 1995, things were kind of a joke. They would have their party, but they would mock the ceremony and make fun of the heterosexual tradition. Now we’re seeing a breaking away from that and we’re coming back to tradition. We’re seeing a lot more standard weddings, very spiritual weddings, which I am excited about, because it makes it mean more. It’s showing that we’re maturing as a community in this aspect and that we’re done making fun and we’re ready to actually do what we want to do. We’re asking for this right, and I feel we’re finally ready to live up to what we’re asking for.”

Though based in San Diego, Commitment Expo has also opened up offices in San Francisco, and will be opening offices in Boston and Seattle by the end of the year. Each office will hold a winter and a summer tradeshow every year.

For more information about the expo or to register, call (619) 255-1691 or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com and click on this article for a link to the Commitment Expo website.