New England wedding vendors offer help to same-sex couples before Trump inauguration

Wedding vendors in New England are banding together to offer free or discounted services to same-sex couples hurrying to marry for fear of threats to marriage equality in a new Donald Trump administration.

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Lensy Michelle, a Boston-based wedding photographer, initiated the effort after several clients told her they were moving up their weddings to before Trump’s inauguration on January 20, The Boston Globe reports.

“Some of them fear they won’t be able to get married legally, some fear their marriage won’t be recognized federally,” Michelle, who is queer, told the Globe. She estimated that about half of her clients are from the LGBTQ+ community.

So Michelle joined with friends and associates in the industry to create a directory of vendors offering free or discounted services to New England queer couples up until the inauguration. They announced it on Instagram and set up a Google Sheets spreadsheet that lists about 110 vendors, including “officiants, floral designers, photographers, and more with fees that range from a sliding scale to no cost,” the Globe notes.

“These discounts are also largely available to non-citizens and anyone else who feels that their right to marry (or other associated rights, such as parenthood or access to a partner’s medical records) may be at risk after inauguration,” Michelle’s Instagram post states.

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Marriage equality isn’t immediately at risk. Trump has said he considers it settled law, but of course it’s hard to take him at his word. President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law in 2022, putting marriage equality into a federal statute and offering some protection against future negative Supreme Court action. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have said they’d like to see the 2015 marriage equality decision overturned, which would require a case getting to the high court in the first place, but some right-wingers are preparing them, and the court has a 6-3 conservative majority. And with a Republican-dominated Congress and Trump in office, the Respect for Marriage Act could be repealed.

The vendors on Michelle’s list will consider clients on a case-by-case basis. While her list is limited to New England, she has invited wedding vendors from other regions to post comments on Instagram if there are similar efforts there.

“The list is a great place for couples that are having some uncertainty and feeling unsafe or unwelcome in the wedding industry to go to,” Rachel Bellone, who runs a wedding planning business in Connecticut with her wife, told the Globe. “They can look at the list and know these vendors are going to be a safe place for couples in the community.”

Michelle and other vendors are planning an event called the Queerly Beloved Ceremonies and Ball at the Sinclair, a gastropub and music venue in Cambridge, Mass., for January 5 that will feature up to 10 weddings and a party.

“After all, the ultimate form of rebellion is joy,” Bellone said.