Update 5/9/20: Ryan Reynolds Calls His Plantation Wedding To Blake Lively 'Really F***ing Stupid'
Ryan Reynolds has apologised and expressed regret over the wedding venue he and Blake Lively chose for their 2012 nuptials.
The couple married at the Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina – where scenes from The Notebook were also filmed - formerly a working plantation that kept African-American slaves.
'It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for,' Reynolds told Fast Company in a recent interview. 'It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.'
The Deadpool actor then revealed that in the years since his wedding, he and Lively chose to get married again at home.
'Shame works in weird ways,' the 43-year-old continued. 'A giant f***ing mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action. It doesn’t mean you won’t f**k up again. But re-patterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.'
Last year, Pinterest shadow banned the venue following an increased focus on the uncomfortable use of institutions that were based on a social evil like slavery for glamorous and luxury events such as weddings (more on this below).
In July, following the death of George Floyd and resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, Lively shared a statement on Instagram announcing a sizeable donation to the NAACP's legal defence fund and sharing her regret for previous complicity in systemic racism.
The actress said she and Reynolds were committed to educating their children on being anti-racist, which includes discussing their own complicity.
'We look back and see so many mistakes which have led us to deeply examine who we are and who we want to become,' the mother of three said.
Last week, it was revealed that Reynolds has launched a diversity mentorship scheme where he will personally finance opportunities for people of colour to work on the sets of his movies.
Speaking to Fast Company, Reynolds doubled down on this commitment to improve representation and diversity in the films he is involved with, saying: 'It needs to be embedded at the root of storytelling, and that’s in both marketing and Hollywood. When you add perspective and insight that isn’t your own, you grow. And you grow your company, too.'
Original Story 05/12/19: Blake Lively And Ryan Reynolds's Wedding Shadow Banned On Pinterest Because Of Location
Pinterest is a bride and groom’s go-to website for wedding-planning inspiration.
From ‘naked’ tiered cakes, peony floral arrangements and fairy lights, through to Great Gatsby-inspired décor and candle-filled barn locations, the platform has become a digital ‘bible’ of the dos and don’ts for a nuptials.
However, one wedding that will no longer feature on Pinterest is that of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
In September 2012, the pair married at the Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina – where scenes for The Notebook were filmed - in front of friends and family including actress Alexis Bledel and singer Florence Welch. While photos from the couple’s big day were never released, the bride is rumoured to have worn a Marchesa ‘cloud-like’ dress and organised a 'dessert table' at the reception.
While the wedding might sound dreamy, wedding-planning websites Pinterest and The Knot have just announced that they are no longer going to be promoting this sort of content.
What sort of content? We hear you ask.. Well, ‘plantation’-style weddings sort of content.
In recent years, the wedding trend has been widely criticised for glamorising the history of slavery in the US, and Lively and Reynolds have had specific complaints levelled against them for choosing this as a wedding location.
As a result, Pinterest has decided to ban plantation wedding content and is currently working to de-index Google searches, meaning that they won’t show up in a user's feed.
While users can search for the keywords ‘plantation wedding’ on the website, the page will now show a banner explaining that the content may violate the brand’s policies.
A quick search on Pinterest showed us that the following warning: 'People have reported Pins from this search.
‘Let us know if you see something that goes against our policies,' it reads.
A Pinterest spokesperson explained to BuzzFeed News: ‘Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Plantations represent none of those things.
‘We are working to limit the distribution of this content and accounts across our platform, and continue to not accept advertisements for them.’
Dhanusha Sivajee, the Knot Worldwide’s chief marketing officer, told the publication that under the company’s new guidelines, plantations (and even former plantations branding themselves as manors or farms) will no longer be able to ‘use language that glorifies, celebrates, or romanticises Southern plantation history’.
‘We want to make sure we’re serving all our couples and that they don’t feel in any way discriminated against,’ Sivajee added, explaining that the new guidelines are intended to ensure that users don’t refer to a history that includes slavery using words such as "elegant" or "charming".
The Knot and Pinterest’s decision comes after Color of Change, a civil rights advocacy group, urged the companies to refrain from promoting former slavery plantations as wedding venues.
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‘The decision to glorify plantations as nostalgic sites of celebration is not an empowering one for the Black women and justice-minded people who use your site,’ the organisation reportedly wrote to the Knot Worldwide executives in a letter seen by BuzzFeed News. Pinterest is believe to have received a similar letter from the organisation.
‘Plantations are physical reminders of one of the most horrific human rights abuses the world has ever seen,’ the letter reads. ‘The wedding industry routinely denies the violent conditions Black people faced under chattel slavery by promoting plantations as romantic places to marry.’
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
