“Trixie, what do you want for 2018?” That is the question that started it all for Bill and Ed Bohannon-Dobski.
Bill was watching his Facebook friend’s live video on New Year’s Eve 2017. In the video, Ed was asked that very question and his response was “a boyfriend would be nice.”
Twyla and Pamela Avellino’s story started with friendship and trust. The couple met through the local BDSM community in Daytona Beach, which at the time was being run by Twyla, when Pamela moved to Florida in 2004.
“We became friends immediately and when a situation arose among the group, Pamela was the first person to point me to the proper legal advice to know how to handle it. Our friendship blossomed after that,” Twyla says.
“We met like most,” Dawn Greene says about meeting her wife Christye Greene. “Online. She messaged me. She had a 10-mile radius search on her profile and thankfully I had used a different city in my profile, because at the time we met we were 30 miles apart. She says I was the only girl she messaged.”
Dawn, formerly Koch, is from Boise, Idaho, and Christye is from Lexington, Ky. “I decided to take her name and am now officially Mrs. Dawn Greene,” she says. “For me that was an easy decision, as a way to close the book on my previous life and move forward with my wife.”
Jamie DeHay and husband Jay Hawkins really knew how to make an entrance to their wedding—by seaplane.
“Because the wedding venue was located on a lake and to go along with our travel theme, we arrived to the wedding by seaplane—underscored by ‘Game of Thrones’ theme music—to the surprise of the guests, who all assumed we would be coming by boat or jet ski,” says DeHay. “It was by far the most thrilling and memorable part of the wedding.”
“They say that love at first sight can be a cheesy statement,” Harmony Moorehead says. “I had always hoped for that but deep down never thought it would happen.” Then she fell head over heels for her wife, Angie. “When I stepped out of the car that day and Angie pulled me into her arms, I knew at that very second I would marry her one day.”
“It was over the whole course of that first weekend we spent together,” Angie says. “Every second was like a too-good-to-be-true moment; I just knew she was definitely my better half that had been missing.”
“I wanted to make our engagement special. Nathan had always been going on and on about taking me on a cruise. Since I had never been, I thought it would be a great idea to propose on our first trip.”
Tommy Whitehead says about his proposal to hubby Nathan Whitehead on Carnival Valor. “I brought a bottle of key lime sparkling wine onboard, which was one of Nathan’s favorites. As the sun was going down, I suggested we open the bottle and have a glass while we are sitting on our balcony. Little did he know that I had a ring hidden in my pocket.”
“I met her on Facebook in a group for lesbians,” Amber Kuzma says about how she met her wife, Shelby Kucharski. “I wasn’t looking for anything as I had recently gotten out of a pretty nasty divorce. However, I had moved from Florida—where there were tons of out people—to Michigan, where I was the token lesbian again.”
The two struck up a conversation about Kucharski’s work as an off-leash dog trainer and that was the beginning.
Harry Myers had the surprise of a lifetime for Nicholas Relyea on his 40th birthday at Bern’s Park—a proposal. He had planned the engagement for four months and it was attended by 40-45 people. “Bern’s Park is our halfway point when we take walks at night, so it has great significance to us,” Relyea says.
The pair first met in March 2017. “We met through mutual friends on March 24, 2017, and the attraction, both physically and emotionally, were instant,” Relyea tells. “Neither of us was pursuing any kind of relationship. People say when you stop looking he will appear, and they are right! Love at first sight really does exist!”
When you hear of a couple having a pirate- and mermaid-themed wedding, something just tells you they’re destined for a happy future—even if they’re married on Friday the 13th.
“Yes, we specifically chose a Friday the 13th,” Lyndsay Moony says about her wedding date with wife Aly. “That day has always been lucky for us.”
“We had bumped into each other once out and about, then we reconnected online,” Vincent Santamarina says about how he and his now-husband Aaron Bailey first met. “We made plans to meet up for a formal introduction. Our first date was at Busch Gardens on a perfect summer day! It was July 22, 2013.”
“During our first date I wanted the day to go on forever,” Santamarina continues. “Just talking and having fun gives you the gut feeling that you really know someone. I wanted the connection we made that day to be around forever.”
William Taylor Bulloch and Rafael Torres went on their first date to Urban Wetlands at Greenwood Park.
“It was supposed to be just a lunch date and it turned into a whole afternoon thing,” Taylor says.
Dr. Stephen Hawk and Jonathan Soots first met in 2014 how many people tend to connect these days: online. The pair finally met in person in February 2015 at a house party.
“We first met at a mutual friend’s housewarming,” Soots says. “Our first real date was after our friend Eddie Sotomayor’s funeral.” The couple explained their mutual friend passed away during the Pulse tragedy in Orlando. Seeing each other again opened the door to them spending more time together after they attended the funeral. Then they made things official in July 2016.
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