Brusso and
Manelski’s relationship involved a child from the
start—their 6-year-old daughter, Camille.
Manelski, her biological dad, shares custody with
Camille’s mother. “I always knew it would have
to be somebody very special before I’d make the
commitment to bring that person into her life,”
Manelski says.
Photography
by Sye Williams
Married:
September 27, 2008
Together: 3 years
Even in West
Hollywood, popularly known as the land of beautiful people,
John Manelski and Jordan Brusso make a striking couple. As a
manager at the Point Foundation, an organization that
provides financial support, mentoring, and leadership
training to LGBT college students, 26-year-old Brusso
is responsible for planning the organization’s
semiannual conferences. Manelski, 30, works for
InLuxuria, an exclusive concierge and travel service
for high-net-worth clients.
Brusso and
Manelski’s relationship involved a child from the
start—their 6-year-old daughter, Camille.
Manelski, her biological dad, shares custody with
Camille’s mother. “I always knew it would have
to be somebody very special before I’d make the
commitment to bring that person into her life,”
Manelski says. “When I first met Jordan, I thought he
was so stuck-up. I’m like, Here’s
this beautiful boy, and he’s so quiet and
just kind of smiles. But he turned out to be
the most wonderful person in the world.”
Brusso, who came
out just six months before he met Manelski at Los
Angeles’s gay pride festival in 2005, admits that he
hesitated to promise a lifetime of
fidelity—until he thought of his parents and
grandparents, married a total of nearly 90 years.
“My mom was 19 and my dad was 22 [when they got
married],” he says. “I thought, Oh,
we’re late bloomers!”
Camille was also
a major factor in Brusso’s decision to marry.
“I’m totally invested in her life and
her future,” he says. “Having this legal
[marriage] gives me a way to be part of Camille’s
life.”
Given
Manelski’s skill at arranging extravagant occasions,
it would make sense if he whisked his new husband off
for a honeymoon in Fiji. But these newlyweds planned
frugally for their nuptials in order to save money for
their future. Their wedding on September 27 was a backyard
affair, with Camille as ring bearer and both sets of parents
(and Brusso’s grandparents) in attendance.
“Everything we didn’t spend,”
Manelski says, “we could put toward a house of our
own—and Camille.”
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