Imagine Getting Married in the Midst of a Black Lives Matter Protest

Photo's from Linda McQueen Bazaar magazine

No one can deny that we are living through turbulent times, so it is amazing and confounding to read about a couple who decided held their wedding in the midst of the current protests against the nation’s police brutality. They inspire me.

Dr. Kerry Anne and Michael Gordon had to postpone their May 26, 2020 New Jersey wedding due to COVID-19. When they learned that The Logan Hotel in Philadelphia would loan their lawn to couples whose weddings had been postponed as well as frontline workers looking to marry with small ceremonies, they called and booked a June 6 wedding date. The couple's officiant, Reverend Roxanne Birchfield, had also announced that she'd be opening up her calendar for the month of June to marry any of her couples who were forced to postpone their nuptials free of charge. The couple invited immediate family and close friends, encouraged them to wear masks, and asked them to dress in white.

The evening before their wedding, they learned that a protest was planned right in front of the hotel. Kerry Anne stationed herself on the street to await Michael's arrival, and protestors rallied around her in a sign of love and support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and for her on her special day. "The protest was moving through, and so when I got into position, they hadn’t started to pass yet," Kerry Anne explained to Bazaar Bride Magazine. "I was the only one seeing everything taking place because I was standing on the side waiting for the moment we'd see each other, and then saw people approaching, sending lots of love and screaming 'Black love!” and 'Congratulations!' We were all hearing the cheers and the helicopters above and so the guests came around to see things for themselves. As all of this is happening, I'm in the sun waiting for my bouquet; in wanting to go into the shade, I moved closer to the protestors and so they surrounded me, sharing all these messages of love, saying 'Have a wonderful wedding!,' 'We hope you both have a wonderful future together,' 'You're beautiful!'—just so much love."

Videos of the couple seeing one another for the first time in the middle of a peaceful protest sent chills up the arms of anyone with access to Instagram, where powerful photos and videos of the couple quickly circulated.

What an amazing, unique wedding!