We have been delighted to read these stories we hope that you enjoy them too.

 

Congratulations! Mazel Tov! Kudos! You’re engaged (or, anticipating that moment). You’re ready to roll up your sleeves and get to wedding planning. You’re also completely overwhelmed. Here’s our advice: Take a breath.

We created this website to help engaged couples like you navigate through every step of the process, and we’ve got your back. There are a ton of resources within our pages, so we’ve created this cheat sheet to show you around and help you find what you need to make wedding planning way easier.

While weddings among LGBTQ-identified folks are becoming more popular sights within the wedding industry, it can feel like pulling teeth to find images of wedding styles that you like featuring LGBTQ people. We like to publish a diverse set of weddings—courthouse, religious, rustic, black-tie, etc—so you can grab lots of ideas and inspiration.

And, really, one can never be too inspired. Looking at LGBTQ weddings of all stripes can not only help you visualize your dream queer wedding, but also may help friends and family who may’ve never attended a same-sex wedding. In that case, don’t be shy about sharing some of the weddings you find here with your future wedding guests.

Now that you’re filled to the brim with inspiration, it’s time to actually do stuff. Maybe you want to formally propose. Many same-sex couples skirt heteronormative engagement traditions so both partners can have the opportunity to be the one who gets down on one knee and be the one who says yes. Super cool.

 

My partner and I decided to tie the knot last fall after New Mexico became the 17th state to legalize same-sex marriage. All of our friends and extensive family members overwhelmingly expressed their joy at participating in a celebration of our big gay love, with one notable exception — my only sibling and evangelical Christian older brother.

I cautiously opened myself to the emotional uncertainty of his response by expressing my desire to have him present, hoping he would open his own heart a tiny bit and meet my vulnerability with a softening of his religious beliefs.

He didn’t respond to my email explaining how much it would mean to me to have him and his boys, a 13- and a 15-year-old, come to my first and only wedding. His passive rejection was clear, and I chose not to let it bother me.

In the meantime, we received numerous positive replies to our 100-plus invitations, which sported a bicycle built for two.My 71-year-old uncle Joe, the only living sibling of my recently deceased, very conservative dad, and my 88-year-old aunt Sadie, my mom’s Hispanic, Republican, oxygen tank-wearing oldest sister, both expressed how excited they were to attend.

It was only several months after receiving the emailed invitation that my brother officially declined the invitation, claiming he had a work trip that conflicted with the planned wedding date.