Weddingbee

This post was originally published here, along with posts by Mrs. Bee, Mrs. Gingerbread, and Miss Sweet Tea.  The comments on all those posts can be found at the link above.

When Bee first shared with me that she had sold Weddingbee, I was thrilled for her.  She has worked long nights for years, making this site into what it is today, and I totally support her decision to sell.  After all, more resources mean more cool features for you guys and more personal time for Bee and Mr. Bee, which I think we can all agree is a good thing!  When I heard that Weddingbee had been sold to eHarmony, though, I was very concerned.

I don’t remember when I first heard about eHarmony’s Christian roots; it was many years ago, I know that.  Although I knew that the website matched non-Christian couples (heck, one of my bridesmaids met her husband through eHarmony!), I’ll admit that I figured they were still contributing financially to Focus on the Family.  Why did I think that?  After all these years, eHarmony still excludes gay people from their matching, and show no sign of supporting them in the future (see the last paragraph on the last page of this article, which gives a quote from eHarmony’s CEO: “…We have a lot of things to go after and the gay community is not a market we’re going to pursue and that’s it.”).  Although it seems clear that eHarmony is trying to move away from the Christian sector and appeal to heterosexual people of all religious backgrounds, their lack of support for the LGBTQ community is a deal-breaker for me.  No matter what their reasoning, excluding a group of people from their website is discrimination.  Until eHarmony provides equal matching for the LGBTQ community, I will feel that the company as a whole is discriminatory.That being said, I love Weddingbee, and I love all of you readers.  Being a blogger on this website has been so fun and rewarding:  I was honored to be chosen to share my wedding planning journey with you guys, and I am totally amazed and flattered every time I read your supportive comments.  I am almost done sharing my experience with you, and although I do have a lot more to say, what I really feel that I need to do is share the rest of my professional wedding photos with you.  I started this journey with you guys, and it’s only right to take this last step with you there as well.  I want to show you what came from all that hard work!

After I talked with Mrs. Bee, I realized that I had a very difficult decision to make: as much as I love Weddingbee and you readers, I felt like I couldn’t volunteer to make eHarmony more money.  I had no problem spending my time and energy blogging on Weddingbee before; it is so rewarding to communicate with you guys, and so fun to be part of the Hive.  Mr. and Mrs. Bee made their living from Weddingbee, and I was happy to help them.  eHarmony, however, is a different story: I could not in good conscience contribute to the wealth of a company which is so drastically at odds with my own morals and values.

At that point, I felt that I had two options: I either left Weddingbee and shared my reason for leaving, or I stayed on at Weddingbee, but somehow made my opposition to eHarmony’s practices known.  Thankfully, I have been allowed to do the latter.  To be honest, I am still on the fence about whether or not I will keep blogging for Weddingbee: one thing I know for sure, however, is that I do not want my name, even a moniker, associated with this company.  Please know that by choosing to stay on as a Bee right now, I am by no means making a permanent decision: I am still very much undecided.

Because this is a wedding planning website, politics aren’t generally discussed here (which is probably a good thing).  I know that many of you don’t have the same view on gay marriage as I do; you may be religious or not agree with calling a gay marriage “marriage.”  As a result, I am sure that this post will be very controversial.  I just ask you to remember one thing: this is how I feel, and I feel very, very strongly about it.  None of us are looking to create a firestorm in the comments section.  :)  Please respect the fact that we are standing up for what we believe in and are struggling with a very difficult decision, even if you don’t agree with it.

Thank you!
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