• ELIXHER
• On October 10, 2013

Last week, ELIXHER reported that TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress featured Black lesbian couple LaQuet Thompson and Lauren Pringle as they planned their nuptials. We got the chance to chat with LaQuet about their love story and details from their special day.

ELIXHER: Can you tell us the story of how you met?
LAQUET: We met through a mutual friend. I was a waitress at Starlight Sunday’s in the East Village. Lauren claims she tried to flirt with me one of the nights I was working. (No, she didn’t.) When our friend heard I had broken up with my ex she knew just the person I should met. Because Lauren had seen me at work, she was, needless to say, excited to meet and talk with me. When we met in a darkly lit night club in Harlem, I couldn’t see her enough to give her ample attention. However, once we made it upstairs to the much better lit bar I locked eyes with her and have not stopped staring since. We began talking so much and for so long, that we made our friend who hooked us up feel odd with her new date that they weren’t hitting it off as well as us. But when sparks fly…they fly. When it was time to go, I had to take my 4” heels off. As I do with most my dates, I came clean about how I knew the shoes were fierce but my feet hurt. Lauren reached her hand out to help me balance while I threw on my Chuck Taylors. When I put my Chucks on she knew I was the one.

ELIXHER: How did you get involved with TLC and Say Yes To The Dress? What was the experience like at Kleinfeld?
LAQUET: I am originally from Dallas, TX. So as a southern girl I knew I wanted the most fabulous place to get my gown. I love the Say Yes To The Dress and checked “Yes, I’d like to be on the show” on my appointment sheet for Kleinfeld.

Because we were living in NYC, I had done the fancy shopping experience before. So I wasn’t expecting to be blown away. However, when you walk into Kleinfeld you immediately feel like a princess. With my mom, bridesmaid, and sister-in-law in tow we went from laid-back ladies to little girls meeting Cinderella at Disney World for the first time. It is so open and clean, and believe it or not welcoming! We had so much fun at both our appointments.

ELIXHER: Please tell us about the wedding!
LAQUET: After much deliberation, we decided that we wanted to be in Cancun, Mexico for our wedding. After a few months of looking for the right place, we finally found Paradius Cancun. We planned to marry on the beach in a fabulous gazebo. However, the day of our wedding there was a torrential down pour. With the help of our amazing wedding party and parents we remained calm enough to allow the resort to setup our wedding inside in the VIP sectioned off part of the resort. It made our already intimate wedding 10 times more romantic and intimate. We could see all our guests and they could hear all our vows, crying, and laughing.

Lauren walked down the aisle first. (I hadn’t seen her all day and the previous night! It was one of the longest times I have gone without seeing her.) When I saw the back of her and her dad I started crying. In true southern mother style, my mom (who walked me down the aisle) looked at me and said, “Girl, your eye liner is gonna run and I can’t have bad pictures.” [Laughs.] I pulled it together just long enough to get down the aisle. When I got to see Lauren, both my mom and I were crying like babies.

ELIXHER: How have these first few months of marriage been? What are the challenges in this new season of your lives?
LAQUET: The biggest challenge has been moving to Austin, TX. But on that same note, it’s been one of the more exciting things we’ve ever done together. For us, the best part has also has been saying “My wife!” We are each other’s biggest cheerleaders. Having us be legally recognized as married and being the biggest cheerleaders for each other is the best feeling ever.

ELIXHER: Finally, what advice do you have for any of our readers who might be planning a wedding?
LAQUET: Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. And also plan and save accordingly. Lauren proposed in March 2012 and we wed more than a year later. People put such a rush on getting the wedding done quickly. You must breathe and plan. Because we did this, we had the most magical experience. There isn’t one thing we would change. Also, DIY can be your best friend. We had so much fun making things for our wedding. Our DIY projects made the wedding, dinners, and parties that much more fun and special for our guests.

- Interview by Sydney Magruder

Sydney Magruder is an African-American/multiracial femme lesbian sociologist, ballerina, bibliophile, writer, and green-tea addict about to enter her last year of undergraduate studies at Skidmore College. She wants to write, teach, critique pop-culture, and use music, theater and dance as a means of educating the masses about race, sexuality, gender, and how young people can change the future. Until she figures out exactly how to incorporate all of those individual things into one giant thing, you can find her in ballet class, hunting down a new pasta dish to make, or hogging her family’s Netflix account with Doctor Who and Parks and Recreation.