Gabi & Shanna’s Journey of Queer Joy and Non-Traditional Wedded Bliss
Tell us a little about yourselves. What do you do for work and fun?
Were Gabi & Shanna, a lesbian travel couple from NYC! We are both creatives and love traveling the world. We showcase what it’s like to travel as queer people and as a lesbian couple on our social media platforms and our blog. We share our favorite travel tips and tricks and are insanely passionate about making travel accessible to all. I would say that our work and our hobbies intertwine because we absolutely love what we do! We were both creating content long before we met, Shanna was a professional videographer, and I was a professional photographer and artist, and both of those things are such a huge part of our lives and what we do now.
How long have you been together, and how did you meet?
We have been together for a little over seven years! We met at Cubbyhole, a lesbian bar in NYC, during Pride in 2015! It was the year that same-sex marriage was passed in the United States, and Pride that year was buzzing with so much joy and celebration. That’s where I saw Shanna for the first time and made my move! It took six months for us to reconnect again, and we went on our first date in early January 2016. On January 27th, 2016, Shanna officially asked me to be her girlfriend, and we’ve been going strong ever since. That’s one of the reasons that 27 is such an important number to us, it’s our lucky number, and it signifies our whole relationship.
Aside from your wedding, what is your favorite memory together?
This is such a hard question because we’ve experienced so much traveling the world together in the last seven years. However, our first-ever ‘official’ trip to Arizona was special to me because we had such a great time together. I think that was when we both first realized that we love everything about being together and exploring together, and we could get through any hardship we face in life (or when traveling, and traveling WILL test you) together!
Tell us about the proposal.
That’s the best part. There was no proposal! We always knew that we wanted to do things in a non-traditional way, and after being together for seven years, we didn’t think an engagement was necessary. We knew we just wanted to be married, so we skipped over the proposal and went straight to eloping!
Talk us through the decision to elope.
We always knew we wanted to elope together. We just didn’t know when or how. We also knew we wanted to elope one day when traveling somewhere (which is perfect for us), but we never wanted to put any pressure on the when. As queer people, our family situations are complicated, and we knew a big wedding would be very stressful for us. But we also knew that when it felt like the right time and the right trip, we would just know and make it happen, and that’s exactly what happened! When we realized we could make the trip to Australia for World Pride (the first ever world pride in the Southern Hemisphere) and that we would be in Australia for about a month, we just felt that was the right time and the right trip! Being able to elope over such a big pride celebration, when we originally met at a huge pride celebration, is such a full circle moment for us, and when the pieces just fell into place, we knew it was meant to be.
Tell us about telling your loved ones that you’re now married.
It was really exciting telling our loved ones that we eloped! It was stressful at the same time, though because you never know how people will react or feel about an elopement. Especially as a lesbian couple, we feel like sometimes people have some different opinions that they wouldn’t if we were a heterosexual couple, but most people had really sweet reactions to the fact that we are now wives.
Talk us through the actual elopement.
It was the most perfect day! We started the morning with a makeup artist coming to our hotel room, and she was so sweet! Our best friend Ravi was also in Australia with us, and we always knew we wanted him to be our officiant. So they met us at the hotel, and the three of us headed to the Bruckner Cliffs on Bondi Beach where we met with our whole elopement team that was organized by Weekday Wedded Bliss in Sydney.
We had our ceremony on the cliffs by the beach — it was so windy, but the view of the beach was so beautiful. Ravi sang us a song they wrote about our relationship (since he knows us so well) to the tune of Love Story by Taylor Swift. There were tears, and we exchanged vows, and it was just a beautiful movement we will never forget. It was super intimate and exactly what we wanted. Then we had a vegan dinner, the three of us, and met up with other friends who were also in Australia that night to celebrate at a local gay bar!
What does the future hold for you both?
We can never know what the future holds, but if I had to guess, it would have us traveling the world together, experiencing new things, petting lots of cats, and just lots of queer joy! Whatever the future holds for us, I know we will experience it together.
Dancing With Her Recommended Vendor
Coordinator | Planner Weekday Wedded Bliss
Photography by Martine Payne Photography
Celebrant Ravi Roth
Dress Boutique Show Me Your Mumu
Engagement & Wedding Rings Jane Pope Jewelry
Florist The Marmalade Sky
H&MU Eternal Elegance
Pants Free People
Videographer Bloom Films
