America’s current reigning celebrity lesbian couple were officially — and legally — married this weekend.
“Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were married tonight in an intimate ceremony at their home in Los Angeles,” their spokesperson told People magazine late Saturday.
De Rossi, 35, wore a backless, light pink dress, and DeGeneres, 50, wore pants, a button-down shirt and vest, all in white, according to Us magazine. Both outfits were designed by Zac Posen.
The private ceremony was attended by 19 guests, including DeGeneres’ mom, Betty, and de Rossi’s mother, Margaret Rogers, who flew in from Australia for the occasion. The pair reportedly spent the afternoon leading up to the ceremony laughing and walking “all over the lawn together holding hands and posing” before exchanging handwritten vows.
DeGeneres announced her engagement to de Rossi on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May to a standing ovation from the live studio audience, the day after the California Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay marriage by ruling it unconstitutional.
Backstage after winning another Emmy for her talk show a few weeks later, DeGeneres answered reporters’ questions about the engagement, joking: “Planning a wedding is very stressful. It’s crazy. My gardener is now invited.”
She and de Rossi also showed off de Rossi’s new pink diamond engagement ring at the Emmys.
But DeGeneres also spoke seriously about the importance of legalizing gay marriage, telling reporters, “‘I think someday people will look back on this like women not having the right to vote and segregation and anything else that seems ridiculous that we don’t all have the same rights.”
Although the couple did not announce a date for the wedding, news of this weekend’s ceremony was leaked by a few press outlets this weekend, fueling the ongoing media frenzy around their wedding.
E! News has more details about the ceremony in their video coverage of the event:
Singer Melissa Etheridge and actor Tammy Lynn Michaels had a much-publicized commitment ceremony in 2003, and Rosie O’Donnell and her longtime partner Kelli Carpenter were married in San Francisco in 2004.
Earlier this month, actor Heather Matarazzo (Exes & Ohs) announced her engagement to Carolyn Murphy.
More high-profile same-sex weddings are expected in the coming months, as couples around the country rush to marry before the courts — or the voters — have the chance to roll back recent advancements in gay rights.
For more on gay marriage in American pop culture, read our overview of Lesbian Weddings in Film and TV.
