As photographers who celebrate love and its expression in all forms, we are enthusiastically supportive of gay weddings in Vermont and beyond. We adore photographing couples who adore each other; whether that’s two grooms, two brides, or whatever combination of labels makes you feel happy and joyful. We have close friends and family members in the gay community, and the pride and elation we felt when the Supreme Court ruled that marriage equality was established nationwide can hardly be described. Our emotive and fluid way of working with our clients throughout their wedding days allows us to capture genuine emotion and affection between newlyweds. We don’t work from a set list of poses that assume gender stereotypes; we prefer instead to see our clients as individuals with their own histories and ideas, not objects to be molded into a rigid framework to make an image look a certain way. This style of creating unique and romantic portraits works with anyone: gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer; it doesn’t matter how you identify as long as you’re in love. We carry this philosophy through all aspects of our business, and strive to be inclusive and supportive with a public voice, choosing to showcase beautiful images from the weddings of a wide variety of couples rather than quietly stating our good intentions.
Vermont’s beautiful venues and friendly vendors are, as a whole, extraordinarily welcoming to gay couples. We’ve seen topnotch venues like Waitsfield’s Inn at the Round Barn Farm, a perfect country wedding location, welcome gay weddings with public blog posts and targeted positive marketing toward the LGBT couples viewing Vermont as a destination for their nuptials. If you live locally as Vermonters you may already be aware of the overwhelmingly welcoming attitude of most Vermont towns; the progressive cities of Montpelier and Burlington are even more enlightened, and have been for much longer than most of the country. Growing up in rural Vermont in the 80’s and 90’s, Em doesn’t remember being surprised when she learned what it meant to be gay; it just seemed like a natural option if one felt love for someone of the same sex. This is an obvious result of her progressive upbringing by “crunchy” parents who retreated to Waitsfield, Vermont in the 1970’s to live their lives amongst a community of fellow open-minded people, and proves that generational acceptance begins with children.
Vermont has a long history of generally welcoming attitudes to the LGBTQ community, but the state’s landmark decision to legalize Civil Unions in the year 2000 brought an precedented level of equality, as it was “marriage” in all but name. In the many years since, the initial surprise some rural Vermonters felt has mellowed, and when in 2009 the term was dropped in favor of making marriage legal for all, most didn’t bat an eye. We think you’ll find Vermont to be the ideal location for your wedding; gay weddings in Vermont used to be one of the only places a couple could call their union legal, and therefore the state has a special place in the hearts of the gay community in the United States and beyond.
Location: Dowds' Country Inn and Event Center, 9 Main St, Lyme, NH 03768.
1/400; f/4.0; ISO 800; 29.0 mm.