Ali Waggy and Jessica Robinson, Kansas Lesbian couple learn valuable lesson about organizing weddings after receiving a tacit rejection letter from The Barn at Grace Hill wedding venue.
Not everyone shares the same moral beliefs. Not even in 2024. That might be the overarching take away for one Kansas same sex couple who posted about their ‘heart-break’ upon finding out that a local ‘barn’ wedding hall that they had their eyes on didn’t condone their lesbian relationship, albeit in the spirit of ‘legal’ inclusivity would not deny them use of should they still seek to rent the space out.
Ali Waggy and her fiancée, Jessica Robinson, said they were prepared to make a deposit on their dream venue, The Barn at Grace Hill, after touring it Sunday.
‘Their barn is beautiful,’ Ali told the Wichita Eagle.
After emailing the venue to discuss the deposit, the couple got back a response they weren’t expecting, leaving them very unsettled.
‘While our deeply held religious belief keeps us from celebrating anything but marriage between a man and woman, we desire to serve everyone equally and do not want to keep anyone from using our building who would like to,’ the email, written by the owner and reposted to Waggy’s Facebook page, allegedly stated.
‘Our hearts are to serve, regardless of race, creed, color, origin, sexual orientation, gender or marital status, while maintaining our convictions and beliefs as well,’ the venue’s statement continued. ‘If you decide that our barn is the location you want for your wedding, we have learned that it is most fair to you to know who we are and where our heart is.’
Although the site didn’t completely ban them from using the venue for their dream wedding, the couple forewent the option on the basis of inclusivity.
‘I think it’s more upsetting that we’re still dealing with this, and it’s 2024,’ Waggy told the Wichita Eagle.
The bride to be criticized the venue for being willing to take their money just because it was ‘illegal’ to tell the couple no, she said on Facebook.
Valuable lessons learned
Waggy, a preschool teacher, said she ‘cried all night’ after receiving the wedding hall’s email, saying she and the venue had been discussing the wedding for many months before they revealed their religious beliefs.
Waggy took to Facebook to discuss her heartbreak and to ask her friends if anyone knew of venues that could accommodate their July 2025 wedding.
The teacher said she wasn’t looking for publicity when she posted on her social media and never expected her story to blow up.
Despite dreaming of having a barn wedding and having to give up the Newton, Kansas, barn, the bride to be admits she no longer worried as she first was.
Since posting on Facebook, she’s been given plenty of suggestions for new wedding venues.
Now she says she hopes her post helps other LGBT couples to avoid going there for their weddings.
‘If I can help even one other person … not go through that, that’s a win,’ she said.
Which is a round about way of saying, if the wedding organizers don’t agree with a couple’s personal morals or lifestyle choices, one too, does not have to agree with their moral arbiters – and is free to look out for others who do agree – and thankfully in 2024- there are many who do, albeit not everyone. But that’s ok too. Right?
