One afternoon last summer, I was scrolling emails on my phone when a new inquiry popped up. “I think you might understand our unique situation,” it said, “Can you help us come up with a cool wedding that we will love to remember? And save my sanity???”

You see, after 17 years together, with marriage equality becoming law nationwide, Mary and Pam could finally be legally married. And like many LGBTQ+ couples, they’d believed they would never be able to get married, so they hadn’t spent any time dreaming up the perfect wedding in their heads.