AS ONE of Britain’s leading gay wedding planners, Richard Jones is sick of two questions: “Will the ceremonies be camp?” and, “How many of your clients are lesbians?” For the record the answers are “often but not always” and “about half”.

However, Mr Jones is far more interested in the creative opportunities of a ceremony with no traditions. “You can throw the Debrett’s guide to weddings out the window,” he said over coffee at the start of a day shuttling between prospective contacts. “It’s an unknown situation and that’s part of the excitement.”

Civil partnerships for same-sex couples will become legal on December 5 and the first ceremonies will take place at register offices in England and Wales on December 21.

Sir Elton John, and David Borrow and Chris Smith, the Labour MPs, are expected to be among the first gay grooms. Although not technically marriages, the partnerships will confer on the couple the same benefits over pensions, inheritance and capital gains tax that heterosexual spouses enjoy. The Government expects between 11,000 and 22,000 gay couples to form civil partnerships in the next five years.

Mr Jones, 33, is now at the forefront of a burgeoning gay wedding industry, which is frothing with anticipation at tapping into the “pink pound”. He formed Modern Commitments, a gay wedding planning agency, two years ago with his business partner, Lancelot Fougere, after working in the City, in local government and in the theatre. They are now helping 150 couples, charging them between £1,000 and

£2,000 for a full planning service and less for a consultation. Their clients’ budgets run from £5,000 to more than £100,000.

This weekend Mr Jones is organising the Modern Life Show, a gay wedding fair at the Business Design Centre in Islington, North London, where Habitat, Debenhams, Moss Bros and Bang & Olufsen will be among the leading brands exhibiting.

Two of his clients, Don Rainbow, 46, and Malcolm Higgs, 39, will become one of Britain’s first legal gay couples when they walk through the doors of Richmond Register Office on December 21 to the sound of Above the Law by Barry Gibb and Barbra Streisand. They will wear silk jackets in saffron and burgundy and the readings will include Thank You for the Years by Dame Shirley Bassey.

Mr Jones said: “It’s not just twenty and thirtysomethings getting married. It’s going to be people in their sixties and seventies using it to celebrate the time they have already had and as part of their estate planning.

“Some gay couples are looking to nod their heads at tradition so that family and friends feel more comfortable, but they also want to say, ‘This is our take on it’.”

The bride’s outfit and the groom’s speech are two obvious areas for experimenting. Mr Jones said: “Some lesbian couples are both wearing a dress, some are wearing a suit and a dress and others are going for two suits. Some want feminine versions of the male morning suit.

“There’s similar variety for the speeches. We’ve got two grooms doing a double act.

We’ve got both grooms and both best men giving speeches and we’ve got one with just one groom speaking. I talk to clients about the traditions of straight weddings and then we talk about which ones to break. We are having a lot of fun creating new ones.”

STANDING ON CEREMONY

Some members of the gay community have condemned the partnerships for not going far enough and are continuing to campaign for gay church weddings

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Wartime couple are reunited 68 years on
• 50 People of the Decade
• Book round-ups. Turkeys tarted up. I feel sick