At Most Curious we have style on our minds and creativity in our hearts. But we also celebrate unconditional love for all, passionately presenting a non-traditional, expressive and creative wedding fair that welcomes everyone.

The wedding industry hasn’t always been the most inclusive or diverse space. As you are aware we are determined to change that and Amanda, of Head and Hands, put together an overview of what you can do as an exhibitor to ensure that everyone who attends Most Curious feels represented and included.

When we say inclusivity - we mean outwardly representing the beautiful diversity of couples that are any age, sexuality, gender and race. We urge our exhibitors to explore accessibility and inclusivity in their work, helping all people to feel seen, supported and represented in our curation of style-savvy wedding suppliers.

As MCWF has grown, we recognise our important role in leading change, and have noted our own blindspots and missed opportunities to include and represent more diverse identities in our campaigns and at our exhibition. With this in mind, this checklist is for us too, as well as our exhibitors. Let’s all make the commitment to work harder to address this.

All races, sexualities, ages, body types, gender expressions and people with disabilities are welcome at our wedding fair. So let’s not hesitate in making sure they know it - here’s some tips to help you get started.

Inclusivity, Representation & Accessibility Check-list

Ask yourself:

• Is your stand, your portfolio or promotional materials race and gender diverse?

• Is the language you are using needlessly gendered, outdated or presumptuous? (think Mr & Mrs, his & hers)

• Is the design presentation you’ve used clear, legible and accessible?

• Are the beauty images you present realistic and representative of different body types and skin colours?

• Do you offer an inclusive range of sizes?

• Would non-white, non-cis gendered, non-heterosexual or disabled people feel welcome at your stand?

• Are you welcoming and representing people of all ages?

• Does your business have an equality and diversity statement?

A Word about Tokenism

Tokenism is believing you’ve done enough just by making small visible efforts towards diversity, or half-heartedly attempting to do ‘right thing’ and just leaving it there.

True Inclusivity is about continuing to widen representation so that it becomes the new normal. A business shouldn’t be content until their work and portfolio is truly representative of all gender expressions, sexualities, skin tones and bodies, and even then there is always more to be done to represent folks that intersect these identities.

Of course we all have to start somewhere, and being afraid of appearing tokenistic is a common stumbling block to making change. So pledging to do more than just ‘appear’ diverse is simple.

To avoid tokenism show a commitment to diversity you might ask:

• How can I move beyond merely presenting a picture of diversity in my business?

• How can I ensure my efforts are authentic and informed rather than assumed and perfunctory?

• How can I welcome diverse identities inwardly within my business as well as outwardly?

• How am I addressing inclusion - by working with diverse identities to actually inform and educate the decisions I made?

• As my business grows, how can I keep doing more?

We hope this guide marks part of the start of a step-change towards greater diversity and representation at MCWF and beyond.

We have much to learn still, so we commit to being open to learning, trying harder and doing better as we grow.