I am so excited to share this news with you. The amazing women at the Wedding Chronicle have ignited the need for unity in their engagement issue of their wedding magazine. Advisory board member Drew and his partner Andy were included in the spread on engagement photo sessions along with the engagned hetero couples. What was so wonderful was that it wasn't blown out of proportion. It was slipped in along with the others as not to attract attention but give that sense of unity that we are fighting for. I thought it was beautifully done and am so proud that some of our FabUlist vendors also advertise with the magazine due to it's support in the LGBTQ community. I encourage you to check out their website for their online edition. Angie and the ladies at the Wedding Chronicle produce an amazing publication and all of us who support Mrster and rights for same sex weddings and marriages are so proud of them. I am looking forward to more of this in all of our wedding magazines very soon. Mark my words...others will follow.

Angelen VanDaele, publisher of the magazine writes "We wanted the Wedding Chronicle to be the first publication in Arizona to publish a picture of a same sex couple. So many of my friends and industry professionals are GLBT and we believe they deserve to be honored just like any other committed, loving couple. As soon as a beautiful commitment ceremony is submitted, the Wedding Chronicle will be happy and proud to publish it as well. We received lots of letters to the editor for this issue but I felt the following letter was typical of the responses we received and understood exactly what we intended to do by inserting Drew and Andy's picture." (see letter below)

Dear Wedding Chronicle,

Just wanted to say how pleasantly surprised I was to see the Drew Coleman - Andy Erickson engagement announcement in the "Engagements We Love" section of your May/June issue. With all of the debate around legal recognition of same sex couples, it was truly wonderful and refreshing to see Drew and Andy included with the other loving, committed couples. I also appreciate that they were not made into a spectacle or a statement, but rather portrayed just like any other loving couple. May your tasteful publication be a model for others to follow. Thank you!
Sincerely,
M. S.

When I asked Drew and Andy to comment about the layout this is what they had to say: "Andy and I are so proud of Angie and her team at the Wedding Chronicle for making the quiet statement of inclusiveness in their magazine. We were flattered that Sergio wanted to submit our picture and honored that the Wedding Chronicle posted it. We know that our photo and our story is only the first and excited to see that it won’t be the last."

What an impact it made across our state! So excited and so proud. Congratulations to Andy and Drew for sharing their engagement pictures and a big bravo to Sergio Photographer for being such a talented wedding photographer.

With all that Life has to offer,

Cicely