Workin’ It 2011

For spouses Cindy Sproul (right) and Marianne Puechl, love and equality are the foundation of their life and work. The two entrepreneurs behind RainbowWeddingNetwork.com, a Web site dedicated to providing carefully screened wedding-planning resources for the LGBT community, have been involved in the wedding industry since 2000—long before Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Within six months of its launch, the site received more than one million hits. Sproul and Puechl have expanded their scope dramatically since then: They produce their signature ‘Same Love, Same Rights’ LGBT wedding expos across 19 different states, while their book My Dangerous Commute: Witnessing Gay Marriage Rights Across America shares their insights regarding gay weddings as a viable industry in the United States. “Over the past decade, we have had to become very adaptable,” Sproul says. “As the community’s ideas about marriage have evolved, as the economy has shifted, as the political climate has churned—and as long as we have been willing to stay true to our fundamental ideals—we have been able to adapt our business plan to meet and create success.”