Better Together: Same-Sex Couples Who Wed This Year

Here, what getting married meant to these four Indy couples

Kasey and Cori Lennox
The Lennoxes legally married last fall after holding a ceremony in October 2013 at Cori’s family farm in Lebanon.
“My father presided over our ceremony, making a powerful yet touching statement about marriage equality to the attendees. The night was a swirl of faces, food, and fantastic moments that will be burned in our memories for a long, long time. Almost one year to the day, Cori and I were able to finally put on paper what we already knew in our hearts. It was surreal walking through the halls of the courthouse and filling out paperwork that would bind us together in a very real and concrete way.” —Kasey

Peter Monn and Alex Paredes
The couple were united in a 2011 ceremony in Las Vegas and were legally wed last June.
“Our greatest memory of our wedding day is simply that we were able to have the wedding we wanted to have, just like anyone else, even if it wasn’t legal. That day will always mean so much more to us than the day we were legally married because we chose that day. And even though we’re ecstatic that we’re legally married, there was something magical about our wedding day that didn’t have to do with legality, paperwork, and politics.” —Peter

Melissa Smith and Lindsay Williams
Smith and Williams held a wedding ceremony in August 2014 after getting married the first day it was legal here.
“The energy at the City-County Building was electric. There were so many happy people standing in line together that we could hardly tell we’d been waiting for four hours to get our marriage license. [At the reception] we decided we wanted to do our first dance in our roller skates, since we are both skaters for the Naptown Roller Girls. We even borrowed pieces of our official bouting surface to use as our dance floor.” —Melissa

Royce Cole Jr. and Gary Russell
Cole and Russell were also married at the City-County Building last June, and they held a reception in October.
“We have been together eight-and-a-half years, but I said no [to getting married] because I wanted a wedding with family and friends. But Royce talked me into being a part of history. I was texting family to see who wanted to drive to downtown Indy to witness the occasion. Many were too far away, but three did make it: Royce’s sister, niece, and nephew. Words cannot express how cool it was to have loved ones there, and to even have Royce’s niece sign our marriage certificate as witness. At our reception, we had 175 family and friends to help us celebrate, and we cannot thank them enough.” —Gary