I am sad. I am exhausted. I can only imagine this is just a tiny version of what my black friends, family, mentors, clients and fellow wedding vendors feel every single day. To you, I say I am sorry. I have been silent for too long. We have now publicly stated that hate and racism have no place here or anywhere for that matter. But that's not enough so it is not the end of it.
I have reached out to each associate on our team to ensure they are on board. Compliance will be mandatory. We will be connecting with our preferred vendors as well to ensure they are in full support as well.
I am also reviewing our policies to ensure they properly align with our beliefs. The first thing that I have done is update our contracts to include the wording "discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated. If we experience this in anyway we have the right to end our services." We will not automatically end our services because we want to not want to just walk away and be silent. We want to have dialogue with our clients and see if we can help them understand why this is unacceptable. We want to be the change ally for our black neighbors who have had to carry this burden alone for far too long. We want to help. So we are actively participating, listening, and learning. We may make mistakes along the way, but we want to be better. We will do better because black lives matter.