Photos From a Big Gay Wedding

This weekend, it was my great honor to attend the wedding of our friends Jonathan Howard and Gregory Jones.

You might remember Jonathan and Gregory as the 2nd place winners in last year’s Crate & Barrel Ultimate Wedding contest. Not only did they enter the contest, but they sacrificed greatly to use their new-found celebrity status to expand the conversation on equality. Their work to promote our rights has been unending and I’m certain it will continue to be.

I’ve happily gotten to know Jonathan and Gregory over the past year and am personally looking forward to seeing them more after my move to DC in June and one thing I can say is that they are one of the most loving couples I’ve ever met. They compliment each other in wonderful and indescribable ways. They belong together and there’s no questioning it.

The wedding, held at a stunningly beautiful vineyard in Virginia (after being legally married in Washington D.C.), was filled with friends and family that could not have been happier than to see these two men together. The support, love and genuine emotion was unlike anything I’ve experienced at a wedding before. I’ve been to well over twenty weddings, but never one where the people being married had fought tooth and nail for the simple right to do so.

I was happy to share this day with so many friends who continue to work for our equality and it’s a day I won’t soon forget. Here are some photos from this extraordinary day. Congrats Jonathan & Gregory. We love you and we thank you.

You can see more at Equality Photography.

Wedding Contests, Equality & Cheese Domes

Jonathan Howard and Gregory Jones speaking at The Big Commit last summer in DC

Contests. They’re honestly just silly tools for a company to advertise the hell out of itself. We all know that. When you enter a contest, you are either giving up some of your personal time by doing a survey hoping to win a $5,000 Best Buy shopping spree or you’re bringing as many people as possible to a company’s website so they might vote for you and spend money at the store. That’s what it’s truly all about.

But in our current political and social environment we find that contests may have another agenda, perhaps even hidden to the company that is sponsoring it.

Robbie & Allen from this year's Ultimate Wedding Contest (Click on the photo to vote for them!)

Last year, our friends Jonathan Howard and Gregory Jones entered the Crate & Barrel Ultimate Wedding Contest on a whim. They’d applied for their marriage license in DC and were only the 20th couple to do so. As the publicity surrounding the contest grew, Gregory and Jonathan saw the outpouring of support from the LGBT community and our allies to help them win votes. While in the end they came in second, the contest gave a lot of us hope that we could actually be seen as equals. While it doesn’t seem like a huge step to take – entering a contest – it was this seemingly innocuous move which put one of our stories in front of thousands.

This year, we have another gay couple in the top two – Robbie Cronrod and Allen Artcliff from Los Angeles. They have a wonderful story and have been together two years. They’re hoping for your votes.

What I’ve learned from watching Jonathan and Gregory and now Robbie and Allen – is that a contest isn’t just a contest. This particular contest is reaching out and telling our stories to everyone who will listen. And the many gay and lesbian couples who have registered for the contest are doing so bravely. Some may be announcing their relationship for the first time and some may have been together for decades. Either way, I hope we can throw some support behind Robbie and Allen to let them know that a community of support does exist.

 

The Cheese Dome won by Jonathan and Gregory in last year's Ultimate Wedding Contest

Hopefully Robbie & Allen will end up with a cheese dome too…and then some!