PHOENIX — As the saying goes, it was love at first sight for Matt Jacobi and Nick Caprio. They've been together for 12 years now and are planning their wedding for 2019. They moved back to the Valley from Los Angeles. Both wanted to be close to Matt's nieces, the oldest Natalie.
"They've always been with us," said Jacobi. "They only know that uncle Nick loves uncle Matt and uncle Matt loves uncle Nick." So last weekend the couple started shopping for Natalie's eighth birthday. They were hoping to find a doll wedding set.
"We wanted it to be meaningful and we wanted it to somehow be connected to our wedding," said Jacobi.
But the only wedding set they could find was Ken and Barbie.
"You just look at it from your perspective and you just realize that it's not connecting to us," said Jacobi. "Nor will it connect to our nieces because they know us as two grooms to be."
Matt and Nick bought the wedding set and an extra Ken doll to make their own wedding set complete. Natalie loved the gift but the couple started thinking something needed to change.
Since the 1960's it's always been Ken and Barbie. The two have been paired for 57 years.
So Matt and Nick started lobbying the makers of Ken and Barbie, toy giant Mattel, asking them to consider adding same-sex couples to their wedding sets.
Their plan worked. The two are now meeting with Mattel designers next week in Los Angeles. They're hoping this meeting could change toy aisles around the world.
"It's going to come up in your family no matter what," said Caprio. "As more same sex couples are having kids, your kids are going to have kids in a class that have gay parents. It's not that huge shock anymore."
"There are all kinds of families out there in the world," said Jacobi. "Everyone should be loved. Love is love and it's that simple."
