QUEER IRL PHOTO GALLERY: Queers in Celebration!

Malia and Lou / 41, 40 / Our Wedding / Yorkshire Dales, UK / 22 October, 2016

“These photos really embody our wedding day!  Our friends all said the love was truly palpable that day. From day one, our relationship has felt really right – something neither of us had previously experienced in our 20+ years of relationships.  I guess love just comes when it’s ready.
Photos by Harriet and Hayley, a queer married couple and photographers behind Weddings Vintage in the UK.”


Tamires and Rohanne/ Decided to Be Forever / Brazil / June 11, 2017

“From Canada to Brazil, 10,686 Km couldn’t keep us apart.  At sunrise we walked down to the beach hand in hand.  Exchanged rings and vows, in Portuguese and English.  Then strolled along the water, dazed with goofy smiles on our faces.  Suddenly, words like destiny and soulmate make sense. It really was the Best Day Ever!  Next challenge, the immigration process, send good vibes please.”


Emily and Bridget / 27, 35 / Engagement Photo Session / Knoebel’s Amusement Park / July 30, 2017

“Bridget and I have been together for 6 and a half years. We have been through a lot together – from our challenging comings out, living long distance for 4 years, and finally coming together to buy a house and live together after 5 long years of not. She proposed to me on May 5th, 2017 by carving our initials into my favorite tree. We are getting married on July 14, 2018 with the love and support of many amazing friends and family. She is an inspiration to me every single day with her kindness and compassion for others. These photos are a celebration of, not just our engagement, but of our lives together, and the way we have created happiness out of the most challenging of times. Photo Credit: Leslie Ann Photography @leslieannphotographer.”


Linda and Sarah / 22 / Getting Hitched!!! / The Essex, Essex, VT / June 16, 2017

“Being married is already more fun than getting married! But it was such a fun day. We had friends and family fly in from all over the country just to celebrate with us, and it was magical to have everyone we love all in one place for a night. Everyone looked amazing, the food was incredible, the prosecco was flowing, and everyone was so happy to be there with us, celebrating our love.”


Maddie and Andrea / 21, 20 / Pride Christmas Party / San Antonio, TX / December 11th, 2016

“Andrea organized a get-together for our university’s queers, and Maddie was put in charge of the playlist, which she named “Merry and Gay”. We drank hot chocolate, decorated cookies, and celebrated being a family together at our home-away-from-home.”


Emily / 20 / First Day of the Quarter / The Domes, UC Davis / Sept. 27, 2017

“The Domes is the cooperative intentional-community student housing on campus. It’s home to many cool queers who throw great parties, like astrology-themed ones at the beginning of each sign’s season and this bonfire-and-sparklers party to celebrate making it through the first day of class. This party is the reason I showed up hungover to my first English Grammar class the next day, but it was so worth it.”


Chelsey Petty Wildman / 28 / Wedding / West Hills, CA / October 6, 2017

“In May of 2013 I met Erin at A-Camp in the Blackhearts cabin. Here we are getting married this past October! Our wedding was such an incredible day of celebration and love and joy and we were so happy to be surrounded by all the people we love most.”


Jessica and Ayana / 30, 25 / We Got Married! / Waimanalo Beach, Oahu, HI / April 23, 2017

“It was such an amazing day. We were surrounded by friends and had as small, chill ceremony and then dinner at restaurant. While our marriage isn’t legally recognized in Japan (where we live), Jessica was able to legally change her last name, which is a step toward being recognized as family. We hope to be able to get married l legally in Japan in the future.”


Addie and Caissa / 34, 27 / Name Change! / St. Paul, MN / February, 2017

“This was a big day in our lives – especially for Addie. I (Caissa) joined her best friend and her mom as witnesses at her name change hearing. I’m grateful my work let me take an extended break so I could see it. She was nervous, but it all turned out well. I’ve known her as Addie since before we started dating, but I’m glad my girlfriend is officially my girlfriend now. So contrary to the belief of some on Facebook, we are not married. Yet.”


Tracey, Elli, and Guests / Getting Married

“Recessional immediately following wedding ceremony. The band was playing “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder. We’d been together for seven years: Dating for four, engaged for three. We did not set the date until it became legal to wed. We had cocktail hour at 7pm, ceremony at 8pm, and partied until 1am with our framily (friends + family). The love was palpable! Our vintage Hollywood theme with wedding with guests in fabulous attire! We’ve an amazing community of chosen family, and love them, so! Sometimes in Michigan it has been difficult to find acceptance, but we’ve fought for the right, and we hope to inspire others to do so.”

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Laneia

Laneia has written 310 articles for us.

40 Comments

  1. Oh my gosh, thank you all for sharing your joy and smiles! You are all so good-looking! So many of you are married and your weddings are gorgeous!

    Also, couple who met in nun school, please write a book. Or at least an AS post.

    • I have written several fictional pieces that use our origin story. They never quite reach the magic of the real thing. I probably will try to capture our true story someday. :)

  2. This day is too much, in the best way.

    Thanks AS and all the cuties celebrating for all the pure joy!

    • On a second note, I had to stop reading this post at work cause I started tearing up after the 3rd picture. I am a weak gay ?

  3. These photos are giving me such life today! Excellent, excellent job everybody! ? ☀️ ❤️

    Also, *thank you* Autostraddle editors and contributors for posting such powerfully uplifting content today. I was expecting this day to feel heavy af, and in some ways it still is, but I’m filled with more energy, optimism, and love than I could’ve expected.

  4. Dear Lesbian Murder Mystery Totally 80s Prom people, please write a post about how to host this event

    • gonna work so hard as your community editor to make this happen — Lesbian Murder Mystery Totally 80s Prom People, i am gonna be contacting you! we must give the queers what they want!!

  5. Wedding at Crystal Bridges! I worked there from the beginning of construction until early 2014 and would have LOVED to be there for your wedding! I helped lots of cute couples get engaged and do elopement ceremonies on the trails and at the LOVE sculpture but I just know y’all would have been my faves.

    If you ever come down to Shreveport, hit me up and I’ll buy you a beverage of your choice!

  6. my favorite part of this gallery is that there are so many weddings and engagements and group celebrations and i’m just like I LOVE MY BIRTHDAY LOOK AT MY COOL PINK SPARKLY DRESS PAY ATTENTION TO ME!! which, frankly, is very on brand and i have no regrets.

    but for real, this whole gallery makes my heart explode, thank you everyone who contributed and thank you laneia for tirelessly putting these together and thank you queer people for making my whole goddamn world go round <3

    • I keep wanting to have a big blowout birthday with everyone I’ve met but I find it hard to even get ONE PERSON to show up -_-;;

  7. I love everything about this. You are all incredibly pure and wonderful people. Bookmarked for days when I’m feeling blue.

  8. It was such a joy to be a part of Jack and Darcy’s day. They are both loving and caring individuals, and I feel so lucky to have them as friends. If either of them are reading this, love you both!

    Saying that, it was such a joy to look at all these celebratory pictures and read their words. On a day that feels very positive for queer people, this post gave me one more reason to be happy today.

  9. This is adorable and all the weddings (and all y’all!) are beautiful!

    ALSO: Vicky – Madrid??? Because I am also here and am lacking in English-speaking queer lady friends, so, like, send me a message or something so we can maybe be friends? Awesome.

    • @gasp-its-harto HIIIIII! Yes Madrid, I live here! And I am a very-queer, very-lady, and very-English speaking person and we should def be friends! I know a lot of other queer ladies (a few who speak English lol). Let’s meet up ?

      • @vickys1 Awesome! Wanna maybe grab coffee or something this weekend? Cool. I’ve followed you on insta, so we can carry on chatting on there ???

  10. I love this. So many weddings and friends’ weddings! So many Pride celebrations! And engagements! And birthdays! And sparklers! And a unicorn boat! Life is good.

    • Not to mention the graduations and misc friend groups having fun in beautiful places. Love the backpack photo and the Spice Girls.

  11. I read every caption on every single picture, y’all are so sweet and happy and this is wonderful and pure and good

  12. OMG, I’m loving all these celebrations! I am so excited to see so many weddings, and engagements, and I really want in on that murder mystery, it looks like so much fun. Also, shout out to all the Andrea’s in here ❤️

  13. This is so sweet and pure and I love it so much. Thank you for helping us get through this day today.

    • This is amazing!!! I saw Taylor Mac do a lecture/radio broadcast interview at my university on art and activism this past January, around inauguration time (along with Bill T. Jones, a modern dance legend, and Niegel Smith, a playwright). The three interviewees were so incredibly insightful and inspiring, and…I’m just so grateful for queer artists. As a queer dancer/performance art person myself, I’m super excited to know that Autostraddle folks have connections like this! How cool that you are/were in this production!

  14. oh autostraddle! i did not realize how much i needed to see page after page of smiling, in love, happy, celebrating queers on this day; but here i am with tears streaming down my face beaming back at it all. thank you for this. and for everything. literally so worth my A+ membership just for this feeling. thank you.

  15. I LOVE ALL THE HAPPY QUEERS. Also, I gave up wedding photography because I’m so incredibly tired of straight people and they far outnumbered the queer folks I worked with, but damn this makes me want to go find way more queer weddings because they are genuinely the greatest experiences.

    • Queer weddings really are the best. My partner’s a wedding officiant and my favorite weddings to try to invite myself to are the queer ones – especially for older, long term couples who never expected to be able to marry.

  16. This is just lovely, all of you beautiful people. Congratulations to you all on your engagements,weddings,graduations,fun with friends, theatre parties…..everything. You’re all doing you with love and style.

  17. Love that there were a few A-Camp marriages in here! so many lives have been drastically changed because of this website ❤️

  18. These are all such lovely photos <3 <3 also, hey Erin and Sarah who got married in Wandsworth! That's where I grew up, it's so nice to see some happy queer people getting married there :)

  19. You all are lovely. Seeing all of this happy makes me so happy! (And not just because my darling girlfriend and I are featured in it)
    Keep it up, friends. Remember – better days are coming. :)

  20. Maggie, you’re going to have to write back and update on the Cinnamon situation. Now I’m invested in this story…

Comments are closed.