The wedding vendors helping LGBTQ couples marry before Trump's next term

Ashley Adams and Madeline Shelton didn't have much time to pick out their wedding outfits, but they were both happy with what they wore to their December 17 "microwedding," as they called it, in Beaverton, Oregon.

"We didn't get to do the whole bridal-shop experience," said Adams, 25, a respiratory therapist in Portland, Oregon. "I found my dream dress online instead." The white gown she chose in November, after Donald Trump was elected president for a second term, was not the only important discovery she made online last month.

She and Shelton, 26, a kindergarten teacher, also found Justine Broughal through the internet. Broughal, an owner of Greater Good Events, an event planning company, is one of hundreds of wedding vendors donating their services or offering them at a steep discount to LGBTQ couples who worry that a second Trump term could lead to the end of their right to legally marry. (And although the president-elect did not explicitly discuss same-sex marriage in his latest campaign, that has not stopped many from worrying that the majority-conservative Supreme Court could roll back protections.)

Deirdre Alston, a wedding photographer in Brooklyn, New York, helped start the initiative on November 6. "I'm a queer woman myself, and I spend a lot of time photographing queer weddings and elopements," she said.

"My first thought when I woke up the morning after the election was, 'What if they overturn Obergefell?'" she said, referring to Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed same-sex marriage rights. "I felt so helpless. I thought, I should just offer myself."

Minutes later, she was on Instagram offering LGBTQ couples marrying at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau before the end of 2024 a free wedding-day photo shoot. (She has since extended the offer to the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.) "It absolutely took off and spiraled into this massive thing," she said.

Within days, she had 30 new weddings on her calendar, and she was hearing from other wedding professionals who wanted to join in. By November 12, Alston and another photographer, Hannah Gunnell, had started a spreadsheet with the names of like-minded colleagues nationwide whom they hoped to bring on.

By the end of November, more than 165 vendors had signed on, with stationers offering to send out free "We eloped" announcements and stylists ready to supply wedding-day hairstyles and makeup free of charge.

Marketing and self-promotion are not motivating factors for these colleagues, said Gunnell, who lives in Day, New York. "People in our industry feel that LGBTQ couples who fear for their right to get married are scared for a reason."

Whether their fears will one day be realized is, for Gunnell, beside the point. "I've heard from people who say nothing's going to happen," she said. "But a lot of people thought Roe v. Wade would never be overturned. As a business owner and a human, I would much rather lose money than not take care of someone who's scared and who feels they need me."

For some LGBTQ couples, the sense of urgency to marry before Trump takes office again is compounded by immigration status. Rachel Bowers and Violet Macdonald, who live in Brooklyn and use they/them pronouns, met on Hinge in September 2021 and became exclusive three months later. Bowers, 32, is a U.S. citizen. Macdonald, 31, is from Tasmania, Australia, and moved to the United States for work in July 2021 before starting graduate school with a student visa a year later.

Before the election, Bowers and Macdonald had talked about marriage mostly in a "someday" context. But leading up to Election Day, they were more focused on the legality of their relationship as both a queer couple and a cross-border one.

"Ultimately, we decided, in the days before the election, that we were going to get married no matter the result," Macdonald said, adding that Trump's win "just reinforced the decision, as we were nervous about not being able to do so in the future." As social workers, both said, they see clients daily who have "very real" concerns about how policies under a new Trump administration would affect them.

Macdonald and Bowers share those concerns, too. On November 19, they married at the Manhattan Marriage Bureau, moving Macdonald a step closer to obtaining a green card. A friend had told them about Alston's Instagram post. She was there to take pictures.

"We wanted to have something special to send home," Bowers said, because their families were unable to travel to New York on short notice. "The only thing I feel we missed out on was having more family involved," Bowers said.

While Alston and Gunnell's vendor sign-up sheet has made its way around social media nationwide, some wedding professionals' plans to help couples have kicked off local initiatives. Kitty Paul, who owns Requiem Images in Pittsburgh, also offered her services as a photographer, officiant and planner the morning after the election via Facebook and Instagram.

"I think a lot of us had the same idea," she said. Now, more than 50 photographers, florists, tailors and planners in the Pittsburgh area are also providing free or discounted services, some collaboratively and some individually. They keep in touch through a Facebook group. "We're all taking on different roles," Paul said.

So far, Paul has signed up 20 couples for free and discounted elopement packages since November 6 and said she would continue to offer deals to LGBTQ couples indefinitely. For the free option, in addition to serving as officiant, "I can offer some basic advice on styling and location, and we'll take some photos," she said. For more involved elopement packages, where she would spend a full day with a couple, she normally charges $4,000; those now cost between $575 and $1,000, which can be paid in installments, she said.

Broughal, of Greater Good Events, helped secure Revel + Gather, an event space in Beaverton, at no charge for Adams' wedding to Shelton. She also helped plan the 20-person microwedding, scaling down what the couple once envisioned as a wedding for more than 100 in October 2025. Greater Good Events weddings usually start at $5,000.

Broughal and her business partner, Maryam Shariat Mudrick, aren't new to donating their time to couples in love and in need. Every summer, they work with Pride Grows in Brooklyn, a giveaway for wedding and event services for queer couples in New York City. Signing the postelection spreadsheet was, for them, automatic.

"A colleague told us about it, and we reached on with a DM and asked to be added," Broughal said. Those who do reach out for help from vendors in the initiative may end up feeling less marginalized. Shelton said that before enlisting Broughal, "we thought about going straight to the courthouse and just signing some papers."

But, she added, "we realized that wasn't quite what we were looking for."

"With this wedding, we feel supported," she said. "It's helped our sense of security."