Are more of Minnesota's gay couples getting hitched, whether legally elsewhere or via commitment ceremonies at home? And will they, as has been predicted by wedding industry forecasters, spend a lot of money on their celebrations?

Neither question would be answered at a recent wedding expo for gays and lesbians held at the Park Plaza Hotel in Bloomington, a rather dismal affair tucked into half a banquet hall. If fates really can conspire, they certainly did against the six-year-old GLBT Wedding Expo -- miserable weather, a weekend closing of Interstate 35W, a last-minute fashion show cancellation and less than half the vendors of previous years. Attendance was sparse, as well, with fewer than 40 people walking through the doors.

What this relatively small group did embody, however, was normalcy. First off, what could be more mainstream than an expo? As pairs of mostly women looked over place settings and sampled cake and champagne, they resembled straight couples doing the same -- but for one notable difference: "At gay expos, you tend to see both partners," said Chris Westlund, a wedding planner and organizer of the event. "At straight ones, it's often just the bride or the bride and her mom and friends."

Danielle Petroske, who sells real estate, and Misti Germundson, a teacher, were listening to a sales pitch from a woman at the Botox and liposuction booth (apparently a new "look your best" staple of the wedding industry). Planning an August 2009 ceremony, they said their decision to start a family was their primary motivation for having a wedding. Mark Roske and David Potter of Plymouth said they had originally planned a church wedding and reception with 150 guests, but were putting things on hold and scaling back because of the economy.

Raeann Wynn and Melissa Diemert checked out a display of invitations for a commitment ceremony they are planning to hold at their Mounds View home next August. Together for nine years, the couple have spent about a year planning the ceremony and are inviting about 125 guests. Each will have three attendants.

"We want it to be simple," Wynn said.

Photographer Katrina Nesse, at the expo for the second year, said she has been hired for at least six lesbian or gay weddings a year for the past three years. "I've shot them everywhere from private homes, to churches, to country clubs," she said. "There's an exchange of rings and a party. They tend to be very much like hetero weddings, with less traditional ceremonies."

Tony Mills, representing the Gale Mansion in Minneapolis as a wedding venue, said the property hosted four gay or lesbian weddings in the past year.

"The rule that you expect about an 80 to 90 percent attendance rate at a wedding has skewed up to 100 percent for the gay ceremonies," he said. "People feel more like it's really showing support, not just attending a service."

While the latest census data state that more than 16,000 same-sex couples live in Minnesota, there are no figures on how many have had commitment ceremonies of any kind or what they spent on these celebrations. But Cindy Sproul cites a few related statistics. Sproul is co-owner of Rainbowwedding network.com, an eight-year-old company that hosted nine gay wedding expos in the past year, including events in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta and St. Petersburg, Fla.

"The average gay couple having a legal wedding spend about $20,000, not including honeymoon, which is actually a little less than for straight weddings," Sproul said. "In states where it's not legal, they still spend about $15,000, which is a boost to the local economy. After Massachusetts started allowing gay marriage in 2004, Forbes magazine calculated that if it were legalized tomorrow all across the country, it would add $18.6 billion to the wedding industry."

She noted two differences indicating that gay weddings still have a ways to go before being seen as mainstream:

"In a more conservative city like St. Petersburg, we have higher attendance because people need to feel sure they're talking with gay-friendly photographers and caterers. And gay couples tend to pay for their own weddings, where with straight weddings, it's often the parents."

Kristin Tillotson • 612-673-7046