How a Chapman alumnus turned his final project into inclusivity in the wedding industry
Chapman alumnus Frank Shaver-Burgess shares how his final project in graduate school catapulted him into the wedding industry and earned him OC Queer Activist/Philanthropist of the Year. Photo courtesy of Frank Shaver-Burgess
Completing a final project for your master’s program doesn’t always lead to attending New York Bridal Fashion Week, but for Frank Shaver-Burgess, an alumnus of Chapman’s leadership and development program, the two happen to directly correlate.
“(I) had a class called Leadership, Diversity and Equity, where we had a final assignment where we had to identify an issue of concern out in our community that needed some leadership attention from a diversity and equity standpoint,” said Shaver-Burgess, who graduated in 2021.
Shaver-Burgess carefully considered what would be the most impactful project to pursue and quickly realized a problem he was facing in his own, newly engaged life: the lack of LGBTQ+-friendly wedding vendors in Orange County. He felt if he didn’t spot same sex couples on a vendor’s website, there was always the fear of being turned away because of his sexual orientation.
“I was looking at vendors, and I didn't see a whole lot of representation of couples that looked like me and my future husband: two men,” Shaver-Burgess told The Panther. “I thought, ‘Well, maybe I'll do something around that experience.’ And so what I did for the final assignment was create an online Instagram wedding directory for queer couples in Orange County looking to get married.”
After the project was completed, Shaver-Burgess’ career quickly took off. His own wedding planner at the time pointed him in the direction of former nonprofit organization National Gay Wedding Association. Here, he quickly joined the board of directors and was guided to pursue a career in the wedding industry by the president of the association.
Upon ultimately deciding that wedding planning was the route he wanted to take, Shaver-Burgess told The Panther why it was so important to him to be available to queer couples living in Orange County specifically.
“To me, it was important (to) just start in my own backyard, so Orange County, because that's where I live,” Shaver-Burgess said. “That's where I spend all of my time. I thought, ‘Well, let me see if there's a need and a market for a planner like me to fully support and market towards LGBT couples.’ And I found that there was there was definitely that, so I thought, ‘Okay, let's give it a try.’”
“To me, it was important (to) just start in my own backyard, so Orange County, because that’s where I live. That’s where I spend all of my time. I thought, ‘Well, let me see if there’s a need and a market for a planner like me to fully support and market towards LGBT couples.’ And I found that there was there was definitely that, so I thought, ‘Okay, let’s give it a try.’”
In 2022, an online community of voters in Orange County nominated and ultimately chose Shaver-Burgess to win OC Queer Activist/Philanthropist of the Year.
“I thought, hopefully that (the queer-friendly wedding directory) is going to make a difference and even if it touches just one person and one person finds value in it, then all of this will have been worth it,” Shaver-Burgess said. “So to see it on a grander scale, like an official award, that just really brought it to the next level of, ‘Okay, this (is) the work that I'm doing. This is worth the time, the energy, the investment.’ I'm so happy to be doing it.”
“I thought, hopefully that (the queer-friendly wedding directory) is going to make a difference and even if it touches just one person and one person finds value in it, then all of this will have been worth it. So to see it on a grander scale, like an official award, that just really brought it to the next level of, ‘Okay, this (is) the work that I’m doing. This is worth the time, the energy, the investment.’ I’m so happy to be doing it.”
In addition to his valiant efforts to create a welcoming space fo LGBTQ+ couples, Shaver-Burgess brought attention to the prevailing skepticism some may have about ongoing societal issues.
“I think it's easy for some people to think that today in 2023, these issues are not an issue or (ask themselves), ‘Is this really happening in our neighborhood?’” Shaver-Burgess said. “Once I identified there is a lack of representation, at least from the vendors that I was seeing, that proved to me at the time there's still something that needs to happen here.”
Shaver-Burgess’ friend and work collaborator Todd Danforth met the wedding planner through the National Gay Wedding Association when they both served on the board. As an LGBTQ+-friendly photographer, Danforth is immensely appreciative of the work Shaver-Burgess has done for the LGBTQ+ community.
“He's always looking to incorporate and uplift and support LGBT vendors when doing events, which is really cool,” Danforth said. “I think having that in Orange County is really important because a lot of LGBT people live there, and they really need to see that there are vendors that support them and are affirming to the relationships and weddings.”
“He’s always looking to incorporate and uplift and support LGBT vendors when doing events, which is really cool. I think having that in Orange County is really important because a lot of LGBT people live there, and they really need to see that there are vendors that support them and are affirming to the relationships and weddings.”
Although the National Gay Wedding Association no longer exists, Danforth and Shaver-Burgess have still had the opportunity to work together on different projects. Danforth’s favorite collaboration was during Pride Month when Shaver-Burgess set up a contest online. The winner was randomly chosen to have a surprise proposal planned for them. Along with a few other vendors, Danforth and Shaver-Burgess gave the couple a moment neither of them will ever forget.
“Something that I really admire about Frank is that he's an advocate, and he shows up for the community,” Danforth said. “I really enjoyed working with him when we were with the (National Gay Wedding Association), sort of working to make the wedding industry more inclusive. And I think that if I ever had the opportunity to get to work with (Shaver-Burgess) to support the community in that way again, (I would). (It) is something that I always look forward to.”
After graduating in 2021 and launching his official wedding planning business and receiving his OC accolade in 2022, the past few years have moved quite quickly for Shaver-Burgess, but he wouldn’t change a thing about it.
“It felt like it happened in the blink of an eye,” Shaver-Burgess said. “I mean, truly, it felt like it was just yesterday that I was struggling to figure out what I (was) going to turn in for this final project and then to see what it's become and what it's turned into and now having my own wedding planning business — like all of that space in the middle, just feels like it happened so fast. Really, it's overwhelming. It's humbling. It's all of those things mixed into one. But more than anything, I'm just so proud of the way that it's taken off.”
To hear more about Shaver-Burgess’ story or to access his wedding services and resources, visit his website here.
