It wasn’t love at first sight for Ryan and Wade, but four years later, they walked down the aisle together.
When Ryan, a Cincinnati native, first met Wade from Port Charlotte, sparks didn’t fly immediately. They were in the same friend group for about a year and a half before dating, but were never involved romantically.
One night, at Parliament House in Orlando, the two, just friends at that point, danced to Christina Aguilera’s “Your Body.” And they kissed. “It was all very gay,” says Ryan, coyly. “It had to be fate. It wouldn’t have happened any other way.”
Ryan, a freelance writer and technical writer for an investment firm, loved Wade’s stability and emotional calm. “He’s solid. He balances me out,” says Ryan. That’s what initially attracted him to Wade as they got to know each other better over their courtship. “He’s very stable and able to stand on his own two feet,” he says. ‘Two strong individuals make a better whole unit.”
The couple started talking about marriage about two years into their relationship. “I always wanted to get married,” he says. “So many generations of gay and lesbian individuals fought for that right.” So when same-sex marriage was made legal, Ryan and Wade knew it was something they wanted to do to honor that fight.
At the beginning of their relationship, they had taken a silly picture of Ryan lifting Wade out of a shopping cart. Wade had commented that it would make a hilarious engagement picture. Ryan was planning on proposing, but to throw Wade off the scent, he told Wade that he would never propose, so Wade would have to do it.
But Ryan had already printed the photo onto a puzzle with the words “Will you marry me?” on it. He’d distributed the puzzle pieces to Wade’s friends to give as a gift at Wade’s birthday party on February 21, 2015. Wade put the pieces together and said yes. “I couldn’t imagine not knowing him and loving him forever,” says Ryan. “Also, we have a Pomeranian and a Jack Russell mix and those two dogs could never be apart if we broke up.”
They set a date about a year into their engagement for when Florida is cooler, November 12, 2016, in the same friend’s backyard in St. Petersburg where Ryan had proposed.
Many of their friends pitched in to make the day special. “We’re simple people, but nothing can prepare you for the kind of wonderful chaos a wedding brings,” says Ryan. “It was intense.” Friends came from Michigan and Ohio and elsewhere to both be in the wedding and attend. The “guiding light” of their friend group, Jan Flowers, officiated.
Ryan and Wade walked down the aisle together to the instrumental score of The Little Mermaid, Ryan’s favorite movie. Their walk was punctuated by RuPaul’s voice-over saying “Gentlemen, start your engines, and may the best woman win!”
As a nod to their passion for politics, instead of having religious readings, the couple chose to distribute sections of Justice Kennedy’s same-sex marriage SCOTUS ruling to be read during the ceremony. “It was very touching. As the wedding was just four days after Trump was elected, it was a reminder of just how far we’ve come,” says Ryan.
ENGAGEMENT DATE: February 21, 2015
WEDDING DATE: November 12, 2016
VENUE: Friend’s backyard, St. Petersburg
COLORS: Royal blue and teal
ATTIRE VENDORS: Amazon and Target
OFFICIANT: Jan Flowers
PHOTOGRAPHER/VIDEOGRAPHER: Jacie Ramsey (@jramseyphotography)
EVENT RENTAL VENDOR: Elite Events & Rentals
Photos by Jacie Ramsey.
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