CULTURE: E-Marriages: a New Trend for Same-Sex Couples?

Same-sex marriage isn't legal in Texas, yet Mark Reed and his partner Dante Walkup recently tied the knot—in Dallas. The pair first traveled to Washington, DC, where gay marriage is legal, to register for their license. Then, back home in Texas, they gathered with 80 of their friends and family members to hold a traditional wedding with one small difference: The officiant was in DC, beamed into the room via Skype on a 6-by-8-foot video screen. Their license was later mailed to them.

“When we walked down the aisle, as soon as we reached the front, she comes on the screen like The Wizard of Oz,” Reed tells Dallas Voice. “It was beautiful. It wasn’t make-believe. It was like she was really there.” Such weddings, called "e-marriages," are a sort of high-tech take on proxy weddings that currently occur when the bride or groom can't be there (because she or he is stationed overseas, for instance). E-marriages can theoretically be challenged in court, so the couple is working to officially solidify the practice in states where same-sex marriage is legal. They hope, by doing so, to make legal weddings easier and cheaper for other same-sex couples.