Same-sex couples rush to the altar before Donald Trump takes office.
As President Donald J. Trump gets ready to take office for a second term on January 21, 2025, the United States sits in uncertainty about what the future holds for the rights of LGBTQ+ people. Coming up on the 10 year anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of marriage equality in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, the legality of same-sex marriage hangs in the balance.
“This year was supposed to be a celebratory one — the 10th anniversary of gay marriage being legalized federally in the United States,” expresses Maya Lovro (they/them), Owner + Lead Photographer at Maya Lovro Photography. “But instead, we’re facing a stressful future of unknown threats.”

With the Trump administration’s history of anti-LGBTQ+ policy and a current lack of clarity from politicians surrounding the future of same-sex marriage, couples are rushing to legalize their union ahead of the presidential transfer of power.
The November 2024 election wasn't the first time the possible overturning of Obergefell became a national topic. Following the Supreme Court of the United States’ overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, associate justice Clarence Thomas called on SCOTUS to do the same with other landmark cases including the rights to contraception, consensual same-sex intimacy and same-sex marriage.
The move to strip away the rights to same-sex marriage isn’t waiting until Trump takes office. Idaho Republican lawmakers recently introduced a resolution urging the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell.
LGBTQ+ rights were also a hot topic of conversation inside Project 2025, a political initiative focused on implementing conservative policies at the federal level. The 900+ page Project 2025 is filled with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, stating that “the next secretary [of Health and Human Services] should also reverse the Biden Administration’s focus on ‘LGBTQ+ equity,’” suggesting with be replaced with policies “encouraging marriage, work, motherhood, fatherhood, and nuclear families.”
With the possibility that Project 2025 will be put into action as soon as the Trump administration takes power, couples across the country began pivoting their wedding plans in an effort to have a legally recognized marriage prior to Inauguration Day. For some already engaged couples, this looked like making the decision to move up their wedding date in order to legalize their marriage before the start of Trump's second term.

“My now-husband Matt and I got engaged in November of 2023 and planned to tie the knot in July of [2025],” shares Michael C.(he/him/they/them). “However, the election results made us fear that our right to marry will likely come under attack prior to our summer celebration.”
Ahead of any potential anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders, Michael and Matt decided to have a civil ceremony at a San Diego courthouse.
“We felt this decision allowed us to reclaim agency in starting our marriage, regardless of what the future brings,” Michael C. shares. “We still plan to have our larger wedding celebration in July with our friends and family, but we felt cheated out of getting to experience the marriage process in the traditional way.”
Legalizing the marriage now and carrying on with the plan to have a larger-scale celebration in the future is a solution many couples are choosing.
Queer couple GM and LM, who asked to remain anonymous that way, will legalize their marriage on January 25. A few days into the Trump presidency, they chose a date when their immediate family is available to attend.
“We are still planning on having a large wedding like we originally dreamed of and set a date for,” GM and LM share. “We decided to keep the elopement a secret from extended family and friends so that we can surprise them and celebrate with them at the wedding of our dreams in 2026.”
Already engaged couples are not the only ones saying, “I do,” ahead of Inauguration Day. For couples like Brittney Callahan-Carr (she/her) and Devin Callahan-Carr (she/they), the election results sparked the plan to get married.
“We always knew we would get married one day,” explain the Callahan-Carrs, “but after the election, our photographer [Maya Lovro Photography] posted about emergency elopements and we knew it was time to get married before the inauguration.”
The quick pivot from not-yet-engaged to married was one that came to life over the last two months for several couples, including McKenna Sims (she/they) and Shay Rundell (she/her).
“We definitely knew that we wanted to get married and talked about it all the time, but we weren't planning on even getting engaged at this point in time” shares Sims. “We had planned to wait a few more years so we could save up money to have the wedding celebration and honeymoon that we wanted. It was just an odd feeling to have such a huge moment in both of our lives be made to feel so small because of the choices we felt we had to make.”
With only two months between the November 2024 election and the January 2025 inauguration, the traditional timeline for planning a wedding was undeniably expedited. To help ease the planning stress, wedding pros around the United States jumped in to provide services to couples who were looking to speed up their wedding date.

“Pretty much immediately after the results, I started offering last-minute elopement options as well as discounting my pricing in a pay what works for you type of model for these kinds of situations,” shares Emily Avila (she/her) Owner at Emily Avila Photography. “I know how difficult wedding planning can be when you have months and months to pull it together, but trying to do it in just a few weeks. I wanted to make sure photos of their day could be captured without having to worry about coming up with my standard package rates.”
To make couples’ experiences as smooth and wonderful as possible, vendors found themselves offering to take on double duty on the wedding day.
“As a queer person myself, I just wanted to make sure they had the opportunity to get their paperwork in hand,” shares Emily Monus (she/her), Owner and Planner at Emily Monus Events.
At each first client meeting post-election day, Monus, who is also a licensed officiant, offered to legally marry the duo in Jersey City if they wanted to complete their paperwork prior to January 20th. Three of her couples chose to tie the knot ahead of the inauguration, with two taking her up on the offer to officiate.
“I put together a personalized mini ceremony for each couple,” recounts Monus. “I wanted to add some personalization for it to have some meaning so it had a positive spin to it. I feel like this is really frustrating for couples to have to do this under these circumstances and I'm angry and resentful that some couples have felt like they had to get this done prior to Inauguration Day.”
To bring ceremonies together in the span of two months or less, wedding pros have teamed up with one another to create memorable experiences.
“I really just wanted to make getting married as accessible as possible,” expresses Clarisse Meyer (she/her), Founder and Lead Wedding Photographer at Clarisse Rae Photo & Video. “I chose to offer my services for free and ended up teaming up with a local florist who was also looking to help the LGBTQ+ community post-election.”
In an effort to take the wedding day from a bare basics elopement to a core memory wedding celebration, LGBTQ+ organizations have united to get couples married ahead of Inauguration Day on January 20, 2025.
Garden State Equality, GSE, New Jersey's largest LGBTQ+ advocacy and education organization, organized “Queerly Beloved,” a celebration for couples to tie the knot ahead of the change in administration taking place January 19, just ahead of Inauguration Day. GSE's search for wedding pros, including food vendors with vegetarian offerings, mocktail mixologists and a handfasting practitioner looking to donate their time and talents was met with enthusiasm.
Rylan Lott (they/their/he/him), Owner/Photographer at Rylan Lott Photography was happy to volunteer their services to GSE’s Queerly Beloved event. Having photographed multiple inauguration-induced weddings, Lott understands how these couples feel on a personal level. He and his wife had similar conversations about the timeline of their wedding and how it might be impacted by Trump’s first administration.
“It's great that people have the ability to get married ahead of [the inauguration] but there's a lot of sadness and anger and frustration,” says Lott.
Political uncertainty can’t take away the love couples have for one another and the joy they feel committing to each other with a legally binding marriage.
“I think we created the most special moment for us,” share the Callahan-Carrs. “The next day we told our family and thankfully, everyone responded with love and support even though it was hard for some of them to understand the ‘why’ part of our decision. The election results truly scared us. Made us feel our life, our home, and our well-being had a big chance of being erased if we didn’t put our names on paper to secure our relationship status.”
No matter how deep the love is that couples share, the rushed timelines and changes to dream wedding plans have added a complex level of emotion for many couples who did not plan to have an expedited wedding.
“I hate that the actions of others have such a significant impact on my life,” says Kevin Tyler (he/him), who married his partner of almost 20 years ahead of Inauguration Day. “Cis/hetero folks will never have to know what it feels like for millions of people, strangers, to literally vote on whether or not you can live a life that so many others have the freedom to live.”
The feeling of disappointment that comes with having wedding plans impacted by the current political climate is unanimous among couples who have experienced this pivot firsthand.
“Our decision to wed has affirmed that while our relationship is about us, it's also undeniably political,” share Nicole Tay (she/they) and Paige Miranda (she/her). “The simple act of us getting legally married is political. Our existence together is political. More than anything, we feel empowered to show our resilience as queer people.”
Couples are not the only ones being met with challenges as a result of the presidential election. Wedding business owners are also facing their own unique experiences in the wake of Trump’s win.
“As a queer wedding vendor myself, I want to hold space for my couples and for them to experience joy, which can be hard when we're both in this fearful space,” shared Lott. “As a business owner, you never want to bring negative energy into your business space. Being a photographer, I have a strong rapport with my clients. I don't want to tell them that I'm struggling, but there's also the humanistic aspect that we're both struggling.”
Speaking openly about LGBTQ+ equality on his social channels, Lott wonders what the future of marketing his business will look like as the Trump administration begins putting plans into action.
“Can I keep marketing as a queer/trans photographer?” questions Lott. “It's all a balancing act of being human and holding space for joy and frustration while deciding how open I want to be and continuing to protect my couples by monitoring my social channels for any hate speech.”
Like Lott, many wedding business owners find themselves wondering how future governmental decisions surrounding marriage will negatively impact their business.
“The real stressor I’m facing regarding business now is 2025,” expresses Lovro. “I work primarily with LGBTQ+ clients so with couples getting married quickly without having full weddings and others scared for what the future holds and putting off committing to big things like paying for a wedding, my calendar is super empty for this year. This time last year, my books were closed and I was referring leads out to other photographers. Now, I’m less than halfway booked.”
To find equality-minded pros for your wedding day, check out our curated Vendor Guide.
Through the stress, sadness and disappointment that vendors and couples are collectively experiencing heading into Trump’s second term, one thing is for sure.
“Queer people are here to stay — we aren’t going anywhere,” reminds Meyer. “Get with the times or stay stuck in the past. We will continue to love and love out loud — louder than ever before.”
Written by Emily Rochotte
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