Asking a wedding photographer to rank favorite weddings is like asking a parent to rank favorite children. It just can’t be done…or at least should not be done publicly. I love all the weddings I shoot for their own reasons. Which isn’t to say there aren’t some weddings that are special for their own reasons. There are the weddings where your own family members get married, where you have to stare down a blurry viewfinder because you’ve been crying so much. You see what I mean. Special. Then there are the weddings of two local women who stand up at a local event venue to say “I do” in front of a crowd of locals who are full of love. I’m going to make us all do some quick math. The US Census tells us one in five Americans live in rural America. Hello! That’s us! And according to the Movement Advancement Project, somewhere between 2.9 million and 3.8 million LGBT people live in rural America (yup, us again). So basically…a lot of us. It’s 2021. That data means gay men. It means lesbian women. It means transgender folks. It means non-binary folks. It means people who identify somewhere on a long list of names from asexual to agender. But here’s all that mattered to me, the rural American photographer at a rural American wedding this past weekend. The brides were in love and declaring that love forever. Their families were there, loving the brides and declaring to support them forever. That’s it. Love. Support. Forever.