Hello and welcome to the year 2024, where anyone with even a fractionally-open mind will throw their arms up and rejoice in the knowledge that any two consenting adults can tie the knot, regardless of their race, gender or religious beliefs. In this rainbow-obsessed issue, we feel it would be remiss of us not to take a moment to raise our LGBTQIA+ Pride flags high above our heads, and shriek at the very top of our lungs, that here at Rock n Roll Bride magazine… LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS LOOOOVE.

When I was a child, like countless theatre kids, the first musical I was in was Andrew Lloyd Webbers’s Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I remember chanting the list of all the spectacular shades woven into the coat, two-stepping in my gold lametta wig, as Joseph twirled around centre stage, the splashes of colour whirling about him, in a furiously camp, totally fabulous… utterly glorious moment of joy!

While I myself do not identify as Queer, I count myself as a lifelong, unequivocal, card-carrying ally to the Queer Community (as literally everybody should). I have no doubt that this particular moment during this musical — where Joseph has a full-blown diva moment about just how gorgeous his new coat is — has been specifically enlightening to many a theatrical Queer kid en route to self-discovery. It was red and yellow and green and brown and FAB-U-LOUS!

In my years singing with wedding bands, I once sang at a musical theatre-themed wedding for a same-sex male couple who came respectively as Sweeney Todd and Joseph. The Joseph-Groom’s party were all dressed in rainbow colours and the Sweeney-Groom’s party were all monochromatic and gothic and Victorian. It looked incredible when smashed together — like a steampunk rainbow — and remains one of the best weddings I ever performed at.

My very favourite moment was when the mother of the Joseph-Groom — dressed in full Cats tortoise-shell bodysuit, hair and make-up — took the mic and sang Memory to the 200 guests on the dance floor, who all closed their eyes and clenched their fists and screamed it along with them.

Imagine for a moment what it takes to be a person who would actively choose to see this as anything other than beautiful.

Imagine for a moment just how much effort must go into taking umbrage at such a happy, human thing, as two consenting adults who love one another deciding to get married.

Imagine for a moment disapproving of those two wonderful men, legally-acknowledging their love story and throwing a big musical theatre-themed party to celebrate the fact.

Imagine — with all the actual evils and ills that exist in this world — being the sort of person who chooses to disapprove of any marriage between two consenting adults for ANY REASON.

I will never forget, when I first starting writing for this magazine back in 2021, showing my sibling-in-law a selection of issues and introducing them to the notion of the rock n’ roll wedding… and how it helped them feel like getting married and having a wedding was something that they might be able to do one day too.

Weddings are not just for the couples who look like the ones in the regular wedding magazines. Weddings are for those who will not walk but roll down the aisle in their wheelchairs. Weddings are for all those on the neurodivergent spectrum, whose weddings will accommodate for all their specific needs and preferences.

Weddings are for gay people, for straight people, for bisexual people. They are for people of all genders, pronouns, all races, all nationalities. They are for atheists, agnostics, and those with a faith. Weddings are for all people who have bodies, no matter what shape or size. Weddings are just as valid when there are two brides standing at the altar as when there is a bride and a groom. Or when one or both halves of the happy couple is trans. Or when non-binary people want to get married.

Weddings between two people of the same sex should be allowed in every country on this planet, in every state, on any continent. It should not be punishable by death or violence or imprisonment to be who you are and love who you love. It should not fill anybody with shame or fear to own who they are and wear their identity in the open. It is not anybody else’s business. And anyone who goes out of their way to make it their business really and truly ought to spend their time working on whatever it is inside them that’s broken, instead of projecting it onto somebody else.

Once again, we at Rock n Roll Bride magazine raise our flags and wave them proudly. Everyone — EVERYONE — is welcome here. Everyone’s love is celebrated and rejoiced on these pages and within this community. You are safe here. We love you and we love your love. And, don’t worry, you’re going to look even more fabulous on your wedding day than Joseph does in his Technicolor Dreamcoat, hun.

LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE IS MAMMA MIA-F*CKING LOVE.

About Rachel Darwin

Rachel is a writer and contemporary singing teacher. Her children’s book, The Doll’s House Mouse, won the Bath Children’s Novel Award 2021. You can find her online at racheldarwin.com and on Instagram @rachelbdarwin.

This article originally appeared in issue 57 of Rock n Roll Bride magazine. You can purchase the latest copy here, or why not subscribe to never miss an issue?