Couple makes history at 1st lesbian wedding in Jamaica

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From Ebony.com: Newlywed bride Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn gives Ebony a first-person account of her wedding. On the island of Jamaica, she recently wed her long time partner, Dr. Emma Benn.

“You ready?” she whispers, swimming up behind me to encircle her arms around my waist. “Yeah, I’m ready.” We smile at each other, aware in that moment that we’re about to do something big, bigger than us. “Come on guys, save the kiss for later,” someone says. We look up just in time to see our wedding photographer, Kwesi Abbensetts snap a picture of us. “Say cheese, everyone!” he calls out to our guests who have all gathered around us, our bodies bobbing in the undulating waves. Everyone splashes around to find their space in the camera’s lens—family and friends alike. We all stand close, smiles etched on our sun-burnt faces; and the sun, nude and marvelous in all her glory rains down upon us.

This is a blessing.

SOUL MATES

I married my soul-mate, Dr. Emma Benn on the luxurious compound of Silver Sands Villa in Duncans, Trelawney, a Jamaican parish, on Saturday, May 26, 2012.  We exchanged our vows under the wooden arch of the gazebo overlooking the ocean four years after we met at Columbia University where she was a doctoral student studying Biostatistics, and where I worked as a project manager on a research team. As the waves of the Caribbean Sea crashed against the shore and the wind blew skirt tails in its sweeping lullaby, we said our “I do’s”.

Emma’s best friend, Anna Masilela, who had been her friend since her college days at Swarthmore, was our officiant. We had six bridesmaids and one best man between the two of us.  But one important guest loomed in the aquamarine backdrop of the sea; the green surface of the land.  She needed no invitation to wear her canary yellow dress that lit up the day as she pranced above clouds.  Her mystique was even spotted in the smiles spread across faces of onlookers. She was my Jamaica, the land of my birth. 

Read the rest of this story on Ebony.com.