We are so in love with the new Choose Your Own Wedding planning subscription from queer wedding planner Cindy Savage of Aisle Less Traveled. Her new subscription allows engaged couples to take full advantage of Cindy’s expertise at a fraction of the cost of hiring a traditional wedding planner.

Liz: Would you tell us a bit about what the coming out process was like for you?

Cindy: Yeah. It was horrible from one side and totally great from the other. So: good stuff first. During that first relationship, my best friend had come to visit and totally called me out on what was going on. So she was the first person who knew. And honestly, she knew before that, I'm sure, as I know we'd had some theoretical conversations about it, in which I'd said I could easily imagine being with a woman. I wasn't really worried about acceptance among her, or really any of my friends; it was more that I'd been keeping this secret at the behest of my ex, and now a year and a half in, it felt shitty to have waited so long to tell anyone. I told her, and two or three other people in our tiny theatre department also knew, since I'd needed an occasional confidant. But I started making a concerted effort (mostly via AIM, laughs) to tell my other friends, and every single one of them was instantly supportive. Which was awesome.

I wouldn’t say it was love at first sight but more of a “when you know, you know” type of love. Jordan and I met in summer of 2014 when a mutual friend introduced us with the intention of us dating. Knowing that was her intention made both of us a bit hesitant and probably nervous. We spent that summer going to endless Cardinal’s baseball games and eating as many tacos as we could at our favorite spot, Mission Taco. It really only took a couple months for us to both realize we enjoyed each other’s company, made each other laugh, and wanted to be together forever. We both knew we wanted to get married, and it was a conversation that we’d had several times. 2016 turned out to be an exciting year as Jordan turned 30 in July, he proposed in early December, and I graduated with a Child Psychology degree a couple weeks after. We always say that we are a “fall and winter couple” because we don’t like the heat and humidity in St. Louis, and we like the cozy aspect of fall/winter. We are getting married this December, and while we don’t want weather to hinder anyone coming to the wedding or ruining the day, we are praying for some snow!

For Woke Wednesday, we chatted with Raquita Henderson, the photographer behind Pinxit in St. Louis, to discuss how she started photographing weddings at age 13, how she risks losing business by being vocal about her values, and how much she deeply loves weddings.