Gilt City, the discounts-in-daily-life-proferring arm of website Gilt Groupe—which often offers coupons for dinners and pedicures, as well as tickets to parties—recently offered a gay-marriage package in celebration of New York’s new law. The deal was called “Del Posto Celebrates Marriage Equality,” an “Exclusive Same-Sex Wedding for 100 Guests.” It was offered for $30,000, the same rate Gilt City charged for a recent Del Posto wedding package, pre-marriage equality, for straight couples.
The differences between the packages are instructive: the gay-marriage package, which went on sale after gay marriage was legalized in New York, in preparation for the soon-to-commence wave of legal gay weddings, is listed as taking place in “Chelsea, Meatpacking District.” The first photo in the slideshow is of generic stock-photo golden rings instead of a red-on-white wedding tablescape.
“We don’t ever disclose whether something’s sold or not,” said Sarah Sheehan, market lead of the gay-marriage offer, “but we’re really pleased with the way it’s turned out. We wanted to send the message that we strongly support this law being passed and really celebrate equality in a big way.” It helped that the original offer for weddings at Del Posto, pre-marriage equality, had been a big success. “There were 100 people on the waitlist by the time it was over!” Ms. Sheehan disclosed. As for whether any of those waitlisted straight couples could have taken advantage of the gay marriage deal, Ms. Sheehan said: “We would have opened it up to anyone—we can’t control it, the reason we did it and branded it the way we did was just to be in support of the law.”
As for whether they’d make political statements through their deals again, Ms. Sheehan said: “I would say as a company we shy away from such things. We’re not in the business of talking about issues—but in this one case, we feel strongly.” She cited Gilt City’s president Nathan Richardson, and his presence on The Observer’s New Power Gays list. “This is a very human issue. It’s about equality. Everyone should support this belief,” she said.
ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_
