Eureka Springs to celebrate marriage equality

The town will hold a wedding reception during Summer Diversity Weekend

As part of the town’s Summer Diversity Weekend, Eureka Springs is throwing an open-to-the-public wedding reception for same-sex newlyweds married there during an all-too-brief window of opportunity in May.

Honored guests will be Jennifer Rambo and Kristen Seaton of Jacksonville, AR, the first couple to be granted a marriage license at the Carroll County Courthouse on May 10 and the first couple to be lawfully married in the state and in the southern half of the U.S.

Sponsored by Out In Eureka, the town’s LGBT visitor website, the reception will be hosted by one of the town’s newest restaurants, Farm To Table Fresh from 5:30pm to 7:30pm on Saturday, August 2. Other top local restaurants will provide appetizers and desserts. Local bakers are making multiple wedding cakes and Heart of the Hills B&B will provide complimentary weekend lodging for Rambo and Seaton.

Local and regional same-sex newlyweds along with their friends and families are specifically invited, said Out In Eureka spokesman Michael Walsh.

“A public wedding reception is our way of acknowledging and celebrating an historic event, the day Eureka Springs became the first city in the state in which same-sex couples could be legally married. We just aren’t willing to wait until the Arkansas Supreme Court rules on the state’s anti-gay marriage ban to have a celebration for these pioneering couples."

He said Summer Diversity Weekend, August 1-3, is the perfect time for a celebration. “Hundreds of LGBT visitors will be in town that weekend and the wedding reception will give them another festive event to attend.”

For more information, visit www.outineureka.com.

by Michael Walsh, Special to The Gayly

The Gayly – July 6, 2014 @ 9:30am