Decatur, Georgia Courthouse Gay Wedding 

A Decatur, Georgia gay wedding at an historic courthouse makes a fierce statement for marriage equality—and true love.

Jeremy and David married in The Old Courthouse on the Square in downtown Decatur, Georgia, before the federal law for marriage equality was passed.

From Jeremy: I guess you could say our theme was the definition of marriage itself and trying to get our guests to think about what that means,” say For our save the dates, we sent cards that showed the various dates the legal definition of marriage had changed in the U.S. to highlight the institution of marriage and what it means culturally is not a static thing, but a fluid and moving practice. On all our invitations, the programs, napkins and even lighting effects during the reception all used the phonetic spelling of the word “marriage”—how you’d see the pronunciation in a dictionary. We even had that “logo” on little pieces of chocolate that were on all the desserts served at the rehearsal dinner and the cupcakes at the wedding reception. Other than that, everything was black and white.

From David: Our ceremony was very traditional. After the wedding party entered, we walked one another down the aisle and as soon as the doors opened and we saw our guests standing up on either side of the aisle, I remember squeezing each other’s hands and just feeling overwhelmed by the way the room looked, all the people there, and all the emotion of the day. We had a judge serve as our officiant, since we liked the statement that made in the courthouse. Jeremy worked with her on the wording and the staging of the ceremony itself. We also had our pastor, Bishop Jim Swilley, make a statement and offer a prayer. After the prayer, we read aloud the vows we had written to one another and then exchanged rings.

* This article was first published on Dec. 30, 2011. It has been updated to reflect current marriage equality laws.