From the proposal to the honeymoon, American weddings have remained relatively unchanged for the better part of the last century. Even unconventional brides and grooms tend to follow a traditional script in planning their weddings; this is especially observable in the ubiquitous white dress/black suit combo. Recently, this gendered pattern has been complicated by the legalization of same-sex marriage in several states. Without the obligatory gender scripts, which traditions will gay men and lesbian women follow and which will they break?

In a recently published article, Katrina Kimport (Gender & Society, August 2012) takes a close look at the marital attire chosen by gay and lesbian couples by studying photographs of same-sex weddings in San Francisco in 2004. She finds that among the formally-dressed male couples, all of them conformed to gender norms–they were all dressed in suits or tuxes–while none conformed to the wedding norm of one bride and one groom. In other words, no men were dressed as brides. On the other hand, among the female couples, seven out of ten conformed to the wedding norm of one bride (in a wedding dress or other feminine wedding attire) and one groom (wearing some type of suit or tuxedo). Of the remaining female couples, half followed gender norms (two brides) and half did not (two grooms).

What might these trends mean for the future of wedding traditions? Might gay and lesbian marriages radically alter traditional heterosexual wedding norms? Or might some of their wedding day choices work to reinforce the gendered tradition of one bride and one groom? Such questions are not easily answered, but one thing is clear: same-sex marriage sweeps both gender norms and wedding norms off their feet.