My wife came up with a really amazing suggestion this week, and I was just curious if anyone else had done or thought about this. (And, I admit, I just need to share my happiness about it with people.)
She and I have been together for almost 20 years, and got married about 8 years ago. Until this year, we were a conventional, straight couple. I didn't even recognize that I was transgender until a few months ago, so there wasn't the slightest inkling. Now that I am transitioning, we'll be a same-sex couple.
My wife floated the idea of having a second wedding where we would renew our vows, this time as an outwardly same-sex couple. Our 10th anniversary actually might work out to be convenient if my transition timeline works out. We did not have a very large wedding the first time (had a few friends come to the courthouse with us, then had a bit of partying afterwards), so we could even make a fairly big deal out of it and invite family/friends. Since we didn't do that the first time around, we wouldn't even be asking people to come to our wedding a second time.
I hadn't thought about this except that I'd thought it sad that we "backed in" to a same-sex marriage without showing outward support for nontraditional marriages. But omg I am seriously excited about this idea. We have kids who will be at perfect ages to be involved with it, and since we don't live especially close to many of our family / friends, so if they can come it might be one of my few chances to introduce many of them to the "new" me. The other thing I like is that it would give us a meaningful opportunity to change wedding rings. We like the original rings, but mine is a man's width, which would be a little odd (and at the moment I have lost weight so I can't wear it because it flies off, and I don't want to resize it until I know what HRT is going to do). She found a great site with tasteful rainbow sapphire LGBT pride wedding bands and I think something like that could be perfect. I thought it might be nice to frame the originals, and adopt new ones to reflect our changed relationship.
Has anyone done something like this? Anyone who has done a post-transition wedding, I'd love to hear any stories or advice about your experiences.