Cruise wedding with attendants in dusty rose gowns and brown suits

Kayla and Angie’s wedding ceremony took place at sea on a Carnival Cruise.

“It was semi-destination wedding status, but also economical enough for friends and family to join if they wanted,” the couple says. “It turned out to be pretty much a 4-day wedding party, which allowed us to make memories that would last a lifetime.”

This travel-loving couple, who met at work and bonded over their shared love of Justin Bieber, also celebrated their day with photos on the beach.

What advice would you give to engaged LGBTQ+ couples?

Don’t waiver on what you want your day to look like. Don’t feel like your wedding is different or less significant than anyone else’s. Everyone is always going to give you advice and feedback, but at the end of the day, you want to look at your pictures and see your wedding in them, not someone else’s. You make your own rules and your day can be as traditional or rainbow filled as you want it, and you deserve it to be as such.

What was your favorite part of your wedding day?

Our favorite part of the day was being surrounded by our family and friends as we made the promise to share our lives together. Feeling the love and support from the people around us made that day so very special. It was also incredibly fun to feel like a celebrity for a day. So many pictures were taken and handshakes and hugs shared. We could not have asked for a more perfect day. We are so lucky to have had Toni capture so many of these moments on camera so we can cherish them forever.

What advice do you have for vendors and venues working with LGBTQ+ couples?

Treat us as you would any other couple. It is completely ok to ask questions, but don’t feel like there are eggshells around us. In today’s culture, people are pretty open to talking and answering questions in order to make themselves and others feel comfortable. Our officiant hadn’t done many LGBTQ weddings and was prepared to modify traditional ceremony language as much as we needed. So we went through the whole ceremony line by line to make sure everything was expressed appropriately and the way we wanted. It was a nice feeling to know that someone wanted to make our day as special as we wanted it, while being cognizant that some things were a little different.

What challenges did you face as an LGBTQ+ couple planning your wedding?

When we finally picked our wedding date, we wanted to do our engagement pictures. Kayla had found a photographer that some friends had used and messaged her via a social media platform. They corresponded a few times and everything seemed to be going well. The photographer then asked Kayla what her husband did for a living, to which Kayla responded that she was actually marrying a woman. The photographer never responded. We understood what had happened, as we expected to hit some hurdles, but that was right at the beginning, which shocked us. Luckily, we then found our current photographer and she was absolutely brilliant. Never felt different in any way and she was just as into our photos as we were. The next obstacle we faced was clothing. Angie’s side would be wearing suits, but consisted of 5 girls and 1 boy. So when we went to register the wedding party, we raised a few eyebrows as the names were added. Angie’s best friend lives out of state in a smaller town, and when she went in to get fitted, they actually thought we were playing a joke on them. They kept asking her where her husband was. They then realized that most of the names on the reservation were girls’ names, and proceeded with the fitting. Other than that, everything was pretty smooth. The cruise line was very accommodating and open to same-sex marriage, and the coordinators made us and our guests feel extremely welcome.