Dancing With Them is for LGBTQ+ people planning weddings. That's it. Not just the couples who photograph as obviously queer. Not just one slice of the community.
Your identity doesn't disappear because of who you married. A pan person in a hetero-presenting partnership is still pan. A trans person planning their wedding has specific needs that most wedding content doesn't address. Nonbinary couples need ceremony language that actually fits.
We feature all of it. Some of you have been here for years. Some of you just found us because you searched for something specific and kept coming up empty everywhere else.
If you're LGBTQ+ and planning a wedding, this is your space 🖤
Ash had a grand plan. It involved Penguin Island, a professional camera crew, and a metaphor about penguins mating for life. It was supposed to be the 'perfect' proposal.
Then, life happened. COVID shifted the coordinates, and the 'perfect' proposal became a spontaneous moment in their living room on Ash’s 30th birthday - tipsy on champagne, with Ash’s daughter Mckenzie and their spoodle, Harry Winston, right there in the middle of the chaos. It wasn't the island, but it was exactly them.
They first met at a Jungle Body mega class in 2015, but the spark didn't truly catch until a Facebook message and a starlit picnic at Cottesloe Beach four years later. Since then, they’ve been building a life that balances Ash’s eye for design and sports stats with Rosie’s 'boss babe' energy as a CEO.
Their wedding at Sandalford Winery was a reflection of that balance: black velvet and gold details, a one-of-a-kind Tuscany Bridal princess gown, and a vibe that felt both incredibly high-end and deeply personal. They ditched the traditions that didn't fit, wrote vows to Kenzie, and danced into their marriage to Tim Halperin.
"Marriage is a daily choice," Rosie says. And at Sandalford, under a canopy of fairy lights and surrounded by the people who fight for them, that choice looked like pure magic.
Ash & Rosie’s elegant winery wedding is now live on the blog 💫
/ash-rosie-wedding
Featured on @dancingwiththem
Captured by @maeganbrownmoments
Your queerness didn't go anywhere just because your relationship looks a certain way from the outside 🌈
And if the spaces you're planning your wedding in are making you feel like it did ...those aren't your spaces.
Ours are.
Whether you're bi, pan, trans, non-binary, or queer in a way that doesn't have a neat label yet, you belong here.
All of you.
The directory is linked in our bio, always, and every vendor in it has already done the work and got the education.
Because you shouldn't have to spend your wedding celebration doing it for them 🌈
There's a line Kayla and Tiffany come back to a lot - we know how this ends. It doesn't mean certainty about the details. It means certainty about each other, which it turns out is the only kind that actually matters when you're trying to build a life 💫
They eloped in the Anza-Borrego desert last November. Two proposals, vows they wrote themselves, a best friend who flew in from Florida, and an officiant who asked them to pause before they began - just to take it in.
The night before, they found a record player in the Airbnb with a Chris Stapleton record on it. One of their songs. They slow danced in the living room and called it a night.
This eloepemnt is up over on the blog for you 👆
Captured by @desertbornstudios
Here's what we do: publish real love stories (weddings, elopements, parties and anything in between) from LGBTQ+ lovers, educate wedding vendors so you don't have to, and create practical planning guides for questions that don't have good answers elsewhere.
When you need to see a photographer's actual trans wedding portfolio, not just their diversity statement - we feature those photographers. When you're trying to find masculine-of-center fashion advice that covers fit, budget, and where to find tailors who won't make you explain yourself - we're building that content. When you need ceremony language that doesn't assume your gender or relationship structure - we publish alternatives.
We've been here for years with a community of vendors and couples who've shared their stories. We're extending what we've built: more trans and nonbinary content, deeper coverage for masculine-of-center folks, polyam ceremony structures, legal guides, vendor education.
If you're queer and planning a wedding, or a vendor working with this community, this is where we're headed.
Jess first heard Paddy's voice on the phone in 2019. She'd been organizing a Trans Awareness Week panel and needed a nonbinary speaker from the industry. Someone mentioned Paddy Paddison. They emailed, talked logistics, and Paddy sent through a headshot for the event poster. Jess looked at it and thought, well, this just got complicated.
They never met at that event - Jess couldn't make it. But months later, early 2020, Paddy's face showed up on Tinder. Jess sent a message. A few days later they were meeting for their first date in Victoria Park.
Five years later, they got married at Hackney Town Hall. Both of them had wanted to marry there before they'd even met each other - the palm trees, the big steps out front, the fact that it was home. They'd lived together in Hackney since the beginning.
The week before the wedding, they found out a section of the legal ceremony required gendered language to be read aloud to everyone. There's no gender-neutral option for that part in the UK - it's what makes the ceremony legally binding. They discussed cancelling. Then their registrar Lynn stepped in and found a way to make it work without using gendered language for Paddy.
Jess was nervous about dress shopping. She'd had a difficult relationship with her body and worried the whole experience might feel hard. Sara at Morgan Davies made it safe. The first dress Jess tried on was the one. She tried others just to be sure, but kept coming back to the first.
Paddy ordered suits from ASOS to try on at home - less pressure, more control. Found one they loved, made alterations to the jacket so it fit right.
The day itself was sunny after weeks of rain. Red mustang. Photos in Victoria Park at the exact spot where they'd had their first kiss years earlier. Tacos at the reception. "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer when they walked into the venue, then their first dance to Sister Sledge before the whole room joined in for George Michael.
This one has been featured over on the blog.
Featured in @dancingwiththem
Photography by @charliebritzphotography
Two years spent celebrating Valentine’s Day with these cuties!
Last year Karli & Sophie eloped in downtown Indianapolis, this year they threw a gorgeous wedding to celebrate with their loved ones.
Venue: @industry.828
Florals: @lotusdesignflorals
The MVP: Alisa at @828.planning
Veil: @madisonchamberlain_
#LGBTQIndianaPhotographer #IndianapolisPhotographer #IndianapolisWeddingPhotographer #LGBTQIndianapolisPhotographer #QueerIndianapolisPhotographer
Steve found Rodo online while working a remodel job in Puerto Vallarta. Their first phone call lasted 14 hours. Not in pieces throughout the day - one continuous conversation that stretched from afternoon into the next morning. There was a realization halfway through that something had shifted and neither wanted to let go of the other.
Their first date was a sunset cruise. Steve, being Steve, had joked about bringing 90 Day Fiancé camera crews to the airport. Rodo showed up half-convinced it might actually happen.
A year later, New Year's Eve. Steve made sure Rodo's entire family was in Puerto Vallarta. Karaoke night, spotlight ready. Just before midnight, Steve started singing "At Last" by Etta James, then dropped to one knee as fireworks went off over the water. Rodo thought he was messing around until he looked over and saw his family in tears.
They got married in Puerto Vallarta - the city where they met, where they'd spent enough time that it became a second home. Contemporary design because they own an interior design company and they wanted something that looked like them.
They forgot their dogs at the start of the ceremony and had to run back for them, which everyone's still talking about. Dancing fairies led guests to the dancefloor. Fireworks lasted three minutes, perfectly timed to the music. What.a.night.
Fourteen hours on the phone turned into this 😍
You'll find this story featured over on the blog.
Featured in @dancingwiththem
Photography by @thefeelingcatcher
We publish the full arc of queer relationships. The falling in love part, yes. Engagements and weddings, absolutely. Honeymoons, family planning, the decision to have kids or not have kids.
But also the harder stuff. Divorce. Navigating family rejection. Relationship dynamics that don't fit templates. The gap between what you thought marriage would be and what it actually is. Coming out later in life. Blending families. Miscarriage and fertility struggles. All of it.
We're paying closer attention now to who isn't finding themselves in this content. The trans person trying to figure out name change logistics while planning a wedding. The masculine-of-center person who can't find a single suit that accounts for their body. The bi person whose identity keeps getting erased because their partner reads as the opposite gender.
If you've been here for years, you know this already.
If you just found us, this is what we do.
We don't just share the pretty parts. We share the real parts, through the lens of the wonderful humans in our community (read: we share your stories, authentic to your voice).
Kris and Cole got ready at an Airbnb separately. We met at the mountain to do something unique, and write their vows on rocks. They read private vows in the trees before their ceremony. You could hear their laughter echoing as we stood all alone in the snow.
They signed their license inside the lodge to warm up. Then ran back out to the lake for portraits with numb fingers and big smiles.
The whole time you could feel these two belonged together.
📍: Mt Hood
Coordinator: @mountain.meandering
Photographer: @mountain.meandering
Officiant: @soco_andco
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Oregon elopement photographer | Mt Hood elopement | inclusive wedding photographer | adventure elopement photographer | LGBTQ+ affirming photographer | snowy Oregon elopement | Portland Oregon elopement
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