A diversity pledge update

It's been three months since we did our last diversity and inclusivity pledge update. And we promised we would update you every quarter with our progress so here we are again with our report. Let's get to it. We'll remind you of what was in our pledge and cover off where we are at with meeting that pledge for the previous 3 months (Sept) - Dec 2020 and our plans for moving forward. We still have a strong focus on Black love and reinforcing that Black Love Matters and that Black Lives Matter. Because it does and they do. Now and always.

We promise you we are dedicated to this and want you to know this is an ongoing strategy for us.

Our diversity and inclusivity pledge

1. We are aiming for a minimum of 1 in 5 posts you see on Rock My Wedding to feature Black, Black multiracial or other BAME couples.

2. We are aiming for a minimum of 1 in 10 posts you see on Rock My Wedding to feature couples from the LGBTQ+ community.

Between the 1st September and 31st December we shared 160 posts with you. We exceeded our 1 in 5 target and shared 1 in 4 posts for this quarter that featured Black, Black multiracial or other BAME couples or suppliers. For those of you who like the numbers (we think transparency is key here), we had 46 posts in total. 21 of these featured Black or Black multiracial couples or authors. And 25 featured Asian or minority ethnic or multiracial couples.

Of those 160 posts, only 8 featured LGBTQ+ couples. To reach our target of 1 in 10 we'd need to have share a minimum of 16 articles. In order to help with this deficit we shared some archive weddings featuring LGBTQ couples and also IG stories using LGBTQ couples. There is still work to be done here and a focus for this quarter is actively seeking more LGBTQ weddings. If you are a supplier who has worked on any LGBTQ weddings we'd love to hear from you or indeed if you are a supplier who is part of the LGBTQ+ community, we'd love to hear from you and discuss the possibility of contributing to Rock My Wedding.

3. Having a more diverse selection of recommended suppliers on our supplier directory.

Similarly to last quarter we haven't been actively recruiting to our Recommended Supplier list. Simply because it didn't feel appropriate in the current climate. We have enlisted some Black owned businesses in the quarter which is great and we are aware of many more that we really want to approach and get on board, we will act on this when the time feels appropriate. If you're a Black wedding supplier and want to join our community of Recommended Suppliers we would love to hear from you and likewise if you worked with any Black suppliers to create your day then let us know who they are.

4. Having a more diverse voice across our features.

We had two brilliant articles this quarter from Black women in the industry. We also cross-promoted content from The Wedding Present Company too which had a series of features from Chenai Bukutu.

5. Increasing antiracism within our team.
The team continues to do their own independent anti-racism work. A book we have been looking at and sharing over the past quarter is 'This Book Is Anti-Racist'. We highly recommend it to everyone. It feels like a good place to start; to familiarise yourself with language and what different terms/references mean. 

Diversity In Business Course

At the end of November, we signed up for a Diversity In Business Course which was one of our goals for the quarter. We are slowly working our way through this course. From the course, we are hoping to get a better understanding of tokenism. A better understanding of language and what is appropriate to use and where. For example, we are looking to release a diversity filter in our Inspiration section. But we want to make sure the language we are using is inclusive and appropriate. We feel like one of the best ways to help increase the visibility of Black or LGBTQ love is to enable those communities to directly filter to find representation. But in the correct way. By the end of March, we hope to have made this change to the filters and will openly welcome your feedback on if it feels right or any changes you think would make it better. We're hoping to get insight into how we can broaden the diversity within our team too for when we are hopefully able to recruit in the future.

Here are a few photos from some of the incredible weddings and shoots we've shared over the last three months.

And that's where we're at. We continue to work hard at reaching out to suppliers to bring more Black weddings to the forefront and we are forging great relationships with suppliers and can see that we are becoming their chosen media outlet for sharing Black love. And we're so pleased about that. Hopefully, you are visibly seeing the change. We have so many incredible weddings lined up for you over the coming months too.

The next steps are to continue with our proactive outreach for Black and BAME weddings, improve on last quarter's numbers for LGBTQ representation, and work through the Diversity In Business course. And of course, we want to start more proactively reaching out to Black-owned businesses to increase their presence within our Recommended Suppliers.

If you’re a BAME or LGBTQ+ owned business and would to be part of our recommended Supplier community, please head to this page to find out more about how it works. And if you are a Black supplier and you feel you have something you want to contribute to Rock My Wedding, whether that be your experience as a Black business owner in the wedding industry or an article that you can contribute to our Planning section, please get in touch with us at becky@rockmywedding.co.uk. We would love to hear from you.

You can find a round-up of some of the diverse weddings and articles we've shared this quarter below. Enjoy! They are incredible.