Love long and prosper: a lesbian Star Trek wedding in Central Park

Offbeat Couple: Heather (she/her) and Susan (she/her)

Date & Location: 05/23/2023, Central Park Ladies Pavilion, NYC

Tell us about the wedding

At the time of the wedding we were still in a long distance relationship, so we planned the majority of the wedding via zoom as one of us was living in the UK and the other was in Florida. We didn't actually meet our photographer or officiant in person until the big day. We carefully selected our officiant and photographer based on their clientele and reviews as we wanted to feel comfortable and supported by those around us who appreciated us for who we are!

We both have a profound love of Star Trek and wanted to incorporate this into the day, so our officiant seamlessly tied in quotes and trivia into our vows to represent that love. We also had some related cool photos, props and t-shirts. We decided so much of our relationship had centered around other people so we had no guests at our wedding other than our 2 witnesses (who we met via Star Trek and who brought us together) so we couldn't think of anyone better to be there for us on our big day.

We got married in Central Park as we share a fondness for NYC. Many of our trips to see each other had been to New York, so it felt extra special; we also came out there the previous December, so it was a fitting location. We picked the Ladies Pavilion, and during our 23-minute ceremony we had an audience of passersby – it was cool getting married amongst the hustle and bustle of New York City!

Heather made a denim jacket onto which she had sewn the word ‘Mrs', as well as a gorgeous Art Deco inspired dress, while Sue wore a white suit. Each of us wore a brooch from Sue's mom who had passed unexpectedly 9 months prior. We spent the night before the wedding together – so much of our relationship had been apart we weren't going to waste any spare seconds away from each other!

On the morning of the wedding we got ready separately, and our witnesses helped tremendously by taking care of us and coordinating getting us to the location on time, all without seeing each other beforehand. We walked down the pathway to the pavilion hand in hand surrounded by trees and greenery; the pavilion itself was covered but open with wrought ironwork, and it was there we had our first dance at the end of the ceremony to the song ‘Bless The Broken Road‘, as we didn't have a formal reception afterwards.

We handmade the bouquets together the day before with flowers from Whole Foods (and managed to get them back to Florida to enjoy for a little while longer). After the wedding we had lunch with our officiant and witnesses at a cozy Italian restaurant, and then walked back to our hotel room in full wedding regalia to the delight of passersby who congratulated and wished us well. We flew back to Florida the next day to spend a few more days together before Heather went back to the UK solo.

Sue had applied for her visa after the wedding, and 2 months later she was finally able to move to the UK to join Heather. It had all been worth it: the uphill struggles, the tearful and heartbreaking airport goodbyes, the logistics of moving from another country and combining households to finally live in the same place, under one roof. We are very grateful to everyone we worked with on our wedding and friends and family who have never had an issue with our 32-year age gap, but rather just see two souls finally together and love recognizing love.

Fun facts about the couple

We met on Twitter. We both love Star Trek – Sue had loved it since she was a child in the 1960s and Heather had only found it in June 2020. In December 2020 with mutual friends on Twitter Heather could see Sue's profile and she got in contact with Sue over one of her posts and sent paragraphs to each other, which turned into hours of Zooms but couldn't meet for nearly a year due to Covid. We finally met in November 2021 for the first time at a Star Trek convention in London (Sue had coincidentally bought tickets to this prior to meeting Heather).

Every few months we would meet but spent the majority of our relationship on two different continents. Two divorces later, we formally came out in December 2022 and proposed to each other. We set the wedding date for 05/23/23 (mainly because of the symmetrical date but it coincided with a Star Trek anniversary).

We found our photographer Nicki by chance! Sue did some googling and loved Nicki's work – once we saw she worked with LGBTQ couples we loved her vibe, which was confirmed when we held a Zoom with her. We loved working with Nicki and she captured some truly gorgeous shots for us. People always comment when they see our wedding photos how much we love each other and yes, that is because we do – we fought hard to be together. Nicki did an amazing job capturing spontaneous moments and sharing the joy and love with us. We have never felt such relief and happiness to be able to be together!

As Heather always says: ‘The hardest thing in life is to find someone you can't live without, and live without them‘.

Gallery

Vendors

• Photography: De Nueva Photography IG: @denuevaphoto
• Officiant: Karla Villar IG: @onceuponavow
• Venue: The Ladies Pavilion in Central Park NYC