Real Couples // A Central Park Ceremony: Valdora + Isabel
/Valdora and Isabel openly identify as a feminist lesbian interracial couple. Valdora takes on the additional label of femme and is passionate about erasing femme invisibility. Isabel dislikes additional labels.
Valdora and Isabel put their love and their desires for the day first. Which meant an early morning intimate wedding ceremony under the Bethesda Terrace in Central Park with only their closest friends in attendance. Later in the afternoon they invited a larger group of friends and family to celebrate a small ceremony, dinner and dancing a few hours north of New York City. It reflected their goals to create a day that invited their loved ones to be a part of their love, all while sticking to their guns in regards to having a small and beautiful wedding where they felt comfortable sharing vows and tears and promises. Most important to them was that their ceremony reflected their feminist values. In keeping with this, they entered their ceremony space together: this was a visual reflection of supporting each other's decision to proactively commit to continuing their partnership founded on equality, communication, and personal growth. They left the order of reciting their vows up to chance.
They, admittedly, are a pretty private couple. Domestic partners for nine years, ultimately they felt it was extremely important to publicly present their marriage to do their part in combating the delegitimization of LGBTQ relationships.
Words and photos by Ash Carr
ASH CARR
Ash Carr is a traveling wedding photographer based in Richmond, VA who is super into photographing the stories of the raddest of couples and super ridiculously-in-love couples. She is all about the in between moments, the nervous glances, and open mouth laughs rather than a who's who of those in attendance. Ash is interested in authentic images of your love story and is unwilling to create watered down/ homogenized robot poses for the benefit of the wedding industrial complex.
