To celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary this month, Sunday Paper editor Kirsten Ott Palladino and her wife, Atlanta graphic designer Maria Palladino opted to birth a national magazine.
With a heat index hovering around 100 degrees, the Palladinos, along with a few hundred of their closest friends, celebrated the launch of Equally Wed magazine on the AltoRex Rooftop Lounge at the Hotel Palomar in Midtown last week. EW is billed as the nation’s premier same-sex wedding and honeymoon publication.
The webzine, equallywed.com, features a comprehensive 24-hour interactive planning companion for gay, lesbian and transgendered couples organizing their nuptials.
“As we were planning our own wedding last year, we noticed there was this incredible niche that needed to be filled,” explained Maria Palladino. “As soon as we got back from our honeymoon, we hit the ground running.”
Instantly, gay and gay-friendly wedding planners, caterers, photographers, stylists, florists, DJs and bands were vying to be included on the site’s national “Local Wedding Resources,” a one-stop shopping guide that encompasses the entire United States and Canada.
The site also features romantic proposal stories and snapshots from readers and a state-by-state guide to where same-sex couples can get legally hitched.
“We’ve been completely overwhelmed by the response,” said Kirsten Ott Palladino. “We’ve been inundated with emails not only from gays and lesbians but from straight people as well thanking us for starting this. We’ve been moved to tears by their stories.”
Intel knew we had to check out the soiree after inspecting the party’s invitation. The evening’s host committee featured some of the most influential PR gurus in the city, including Melissa Libby & Associates, The Reynolds Group, Caren West PR, Red Clay Public Relations and Tucker Berta Brand Illumination, all lending their names to the event.
As the inimitable Caren West explained when we quizzed her about the rare convergence of some of the city’s chief corporate communicators: “Are you kidding? Being associated with something like this is just a no-brainer. And have you seen the couple?! They’re completely adorable. I can support anybody who can look that good in this heat.”
