BIG QUEER WEDDING PORTLAND, OR

01 December, 2025 BIG QUEER WEDDING PORTLAND, OR

Posted at 11:11am in LGBT, Love, Micro Wedding, Queer Families, Weddings by Steph Grant 0 Comments

I still consider myself newish to the Portland area and let me tell you there is no shortage of extremely talented LGBTQ+ wedding vendors. To be surrounded by so many during “the Big Queer Wedding” was dreamy.

Despite it being a warm summer day on the Sunblossom flower farm in Portland…it’s safe to say I walked around the entire time with chills. As a Queer wedding photographer, I never want to take one second of what I do for granted. To get to witness countless moments of back to back queer love and support from our community really reminded me just how important it is to share our collective stories. Thankful to Charlie for having me there and for each & every couple who trusted us with their love stories. Enjoy my view from the day & a little Q&A with the founder of QueerCutePDX. 🖤 STEPH GRANT

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE BIG QUEER WEDDING?

I would describe the Big Queer Wedding as the anecdote to living in our current world. It was a massive community effort centered specifically around queer joy and it took so much collaboration, coordination and support from such a massive group of people. We relied on each other to make this event beautiful and it showed. The couples showed up as their full selves, with their beautiful families and communities, the volunteers showed up full of energy and excitement and everyone was able to bask in the beauty of an event that was so joyful. So many people came up to me throughout the day thanking me for the idea and for coordinating it and I just felt so stumped on a response because I was just as thankful for everyone that was included in making it happen. I hope it inspires more people to put events on like this. We need all the queer joy we can get right now. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

HOW DID THE BIG QUEER WEDDING COME TO FRUITION?

I was out to dinner with my friends in early August and we were talking about how afraid we were about Gay Marriage overturning and how exhausting it is to exist in our current world as queer and trans individuals and my friends were talking about how fun my wedding was last year, how everyone felt so happy to be immersed in queer joy that night. My friend Mel made an offhand joke and was like “what if you just did another wedding, but like a mass wedding so people can get married before we lose our rights” and I was like, wait, I should. I went home and posted on the queer cute instagram seeing if folks would be interested in helping, within a couple hours 120 vendors donated their time and resources. I realized pretty quickly I had to make the event happen.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE COUPLES FELT ON THAT DAY?

I just hope they felt safe and supported and just as happy as I felt on my own wedding day a year ago. I hope they felt what we felt as volunteers, immense pride in this community and themselves.

WHY DO YOU FEEL THAT THIS EVENT SPECIFICALLY WAS IMPORTANT AND HOW TO DO HOPE IT MAKES A LARGER IMPACT?

It was specifically important because it represented that at a time where our own administration is making threats to go to “war” with Portland, our community showed up and created something so beautiful and so special. We live in a world that thrives on White Supremacist and Capitalist values, like individualism and perfectionism. The Big Queer Wedding threatened those values directly, we were all just winging it, together. We charged the couple a $30 flat fee to ensure we could donate proceeds to Trans Individuals fleeing red states and we donated every single thing that day, from food, to the venue, to flowers to the couples and their families. I hope this event and Queer Cute on a whole influences people to start their advocacy journey, who don’t know how to engage in the revolution to invest in their passions. Queer Cute was a passion project for me, I didn’t think it would turn into anything big, I wanted to be in community with my peers, and now we’ve raised thousands of dollars for key issues and built a gorgeous community beyond my wildest dreams. I get to host silly and fun events every month and people actually want to show up? The revolution is going to be centered around joy — I want people to find their joy and invest in it. The time is now.

HOW DO YOU HOPE TO SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY IN YOUR LIFETIME?

It is so hard to not feel pessimistic about the future that I am challenging myself to envision hope right now — but I really do hope to see a Free Palestine, a world where no human is illegal on stolen land, and a world where I never have to read another headline about a child getting shot, or another headline about another right taken away from Trans Individuals. I want a world where empathy is the norm, where we can eradicate systems that thrive on systemic racism and we can have a future. I want that so badly. I hope I’m doing what I can to help make any of those ideals a reality.

– CHARLIE [Founder of @QUEERCUTEPDX]

“THE MOMENT I SAW JULIA, EVERYTHING WENT QUIET…

That was the moment where it really hit me that I was marrying my favorite person, the most beautiful person in my life.” — JENDAYI

“Julia and I have been together for almost 8 years, and we were engaged for 3+ years. It was beginning to feel impossible for the “right” moment to come along for us to start wedding planning. As things were getting worse, multiple family members asked when we’d be getting married. They were worried about our safety and stability, and rightfully so. We’d reached the point where even a courthouse wedding would suffice, even if it wasn’t the magical wedding we’d envisioned years ago.

Just a few days before I was having gender-affirming surgery, we decided to take the leap and join the Big Queer Wedding. It felt like the cards fell into place…suddenly the chance to get married in a way that felt authentic to us appeared on a golden platter. We wouldn’t have had pure joy without this opportunity. I wouldn’t have gotten to share my truest vows, wearing what I’ve always wanted at the altar, watching the love of my life walk through that doorway in the most magical, fantastical, perfect dress of all time. Now, more than ever, queer joy matters most. And so we’re pursuing our joy in spite of it all. Having such an incredible rally of community and family around us, made it all possible. It is truly my happiest day ever.”