While visiting their families for the festive period in Northern Virginia, interior designers Cameron Billinghurst and Nolan Beck Rivera went on a Tinder date. As a sweet gesture, Cameron brought Nolan a single calla lily when they met for coffee. The two lost touch until exactly one year later, on December 26, 2019, when they bumped into each other at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. “We reconnected and started talking every day,” Cameron says. During COVID, the pair became even closer and decided to move in together in Richmond, Virginia. “We figured we could just rent a place and leave if we didn’t like it, but we found such an amazing creative community here,” says Cameron. “We’re six years in, and I don’t see us moving.” Not only did they become romantic partners, but they also co-founded a design firm, Studio Tarea, which focuses on bespoke interiors for residential and commercial spaces.

While it wasn’t a proposal, Nolan have rings made for them both with The Circle Craft just a few months into dating. “I avoided calling them engagement rings for a while, and ‘promise ring’ had a weird ring to it,” he says. “So I just kind of said, ‘Oh here, I made us matching rings,’ and that was it.” In fact, there was no proposal at all when the couple started planning their wedding. “We started talking about what we’d both want out of a wedding and after a few years of that, we decided to just put a date on the calendar,” says Cameron. “Not very romantic,” Nolan adds, but we’re pragmatists. It just kind of felt like it was going to happen from the beginning.”

As they kicked off planning, the hospitality-inclined pair wanted to put guest experience first throughout the day and tap their creative community to bring everything to life. “From the get-go, we knew who we could trust to take our ideas and build something cool on top of them,” says Cameron. “We’ve also been to many weddings and made sure to include the things we loved while skipping some of the expected traditions that didn’t resonate.” “We really streamlined a lot of the romance out of this thing,” Nolan jokes, “We just wanted everyone to arrive, have enough to eat and drink, and cut a rug with us. There were no jerks at this wedding. Everyone that was working it and everyone we invited was just the best.”

The to-be-weds set their date for June 6, 2026, at the Branch Museum of Design in Richmond, Virginia. “It’s an old Gilded Age mansion that is now a design museum in Richmond’s Fan neighbourhood,” explains Nolan. As the couple hoped to infuse their cultural backgrounds throughout the affair, this venue decision helped tie in a part of their history. “While the food, music, and much of the entertainment were informed by our respective mothers’ Honduran and African-American cultures, we felt our English-descended dads reflected in the Tudor Revival mansion where the whole thing took place,” says Cameron.

James Beard Award semi-finalist chef Brittany Anderson was a key player in bringing together this ethos of hospitality and culture. “We wanted the experience to be food-centric,” says Nolan. “She was able to weave together Honduran and Black Southern influences into a very unique menu that was very specific to us.” Floral design was also vital to the celebration’s entire aesthetic thanks to the work of Meredith Wheeler of Secret Flowers. “We wanted everything to be minimal and modern in contrast to the Tudor Revival mansion we were in,” explains Cameron. “We’re modernists, and I think the florals really helped keep the wedding in a modernist space.” The final team member who helped execute the celebration was Bryce Carson of Carson Ashby Events, who served as day-of coordinator and helped with last logistical details of the event. “I know that the wedding wouldn’t have gone nearly as smoothly without Bryce,” Nolan adds.

The dress code for the weekend was set with every groom and guest in the same palette. “We decided a long time ago that we wanted to do a dress code of white to beige for all guests,” says Cameron. “We were as excited or more excited to see what friends and family would be wearing than we were about our own looks.” Many friends wore vintage, some designed their own looks, and others even wore their own wedding dresses. “Including my ballet teacher, who wore her original wedding dress from long enough ago that it would be considered vintage today,” Nolan says.

That said, the couple did put care into their attire. Cameron donned a wool silk suit by Grand Le Mar and black Jacques Solovière loafers. To accessorise, he wore a silver bracelet that belonged to his grandma Eddie Mae and a vintage Seiko tank watch. Nolan’s outfit went through a few trials. “I’d ordered a custom outfit with a matador-style jacket and big, cool design-y pants from a designer on the internet who turned out to be a scammer,” he says. “So I ended up having to go to SuitSupply in Washington, DC only a few weeks before the wedding, and it arrived just before the big day.”

However, the outfit wasn’t perfect just yet. “They had made a mistake with the pants, so we took them to Lida at Roya Alterations here in Richmond – another act of Bryce heroism – and she fixed them the day before the wedding,” Nolan says. He accented the look with silver and pearl calla lily earrings lent by a friend, vintage cufflinks in similar materials, his father’s watch, and Saint Laurent boots. “I bought them when I got one of my first big checks as a self-employed person and walked the heels off of them, so I had them redone before the wedding,” he adds.

Weekend festivities began with a picnic in the park in the gardens of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. “More than 80 of our 128 guests were from out of town, and it gave us all an opportunity to spend a little more time together,” Nolan says. That evening, the grooms had an intimate rehearsal dinner at the home of their friends Lucia Zolea and Patrick Inskeep, who are also parents to their flower girl, Jane. “We’d designed their garden a couple of years ago, and it was a really special place to share with our loved ones and have dinner,” says Cameron. Dinner came from the couple’s favorite, Ronnie’s Original BBQ. “Ronnie himself was there, which is kind of a big deal,” Nolan adds.

As the guests arrived on the wedding day, they were treated to cocktails and delicious bites before taking a seat in the ceremony area. On the lawn, the floral team crafted a chapel in-the-round of corn stalks, grasses, and Spanish moss with guests seated in four quadrants around the centre. “We had a gospel choir off to one side singing a cappella,” explains Cameron. “My grandmother used to take me to church with her, and this was our way of bringing her into the ceremony. Guests were given white paddle fans, and the result felt romantic and rooted in the South in a non-traditional kind of way.”

The grooms walked down the aisle to “Never Let Me Go” by Florence & The Machine sung by the choir and had the ceremony officiated by their close friend Lanecia Rouse. “Asking Lanecia to officiate was actually one of the first decisions we made for the wedding,” Cameron says. “Lanecia also gave a brief history of jumping the broom and its significance in the Black community, and reminded everyone (in a fun, beautiful way) that the rights that we ourselves were exercising that day (interracial marriage and gay marriage) were both hard-fought and not necessarily secure for future generations, which makes it especially beautiful that we’re able to do this and that everyone showed up for us.” The grooms reflect how the ceremony really made them feel as if they were part of a community.

Next came dinner inside the mansion. “We wanted to keep table arrangements very pared back to accommodate family-style service and guest interaction,” says Cameron. “The final result – stalks of corn on simple chrome bases – was pretty striking when you entered the space, but also incredibly practical at dinner.” Guests were seated based on thoughtful decisions by the grooms. “One of the most fun parts for us of the planning process was creating the seating chart for dinner and imagining all the ways we could connect our loved ones from all over,” explains Cameron. “It felt really special to see it happen in real time. Everyone gelled so perfectly.” Chef Anderson served a menu of grilled chicken, mushroom risotto, veggies, and , a tamale-like dish native to Honduras. Cheerwine cake from Chef Leah Branch sweetened up the night further.

The grooms broke into a custom disco ball piñata to start the reception. “We filled it with lollipops, chocolate, flavoured condoms, poppers, wigs, fake moustaches, candy cigarettes, heart-shaped glasses, and a silver thong,” says Nolan. “I don’t know who got the thong.” The dance party started as a hundred mylar balloons floated down from the choir loft and a kaleidoscopic video of flowers was projected onto the dance floor. Adds Nolan, “Every minute or two a balloon would explode, and everyone would cheer and just keep dancing.” In addition to dancing and mingling, guests could have a tattoo done by Vincent Riquier of The Ceremony Tattoo. “The most popular designs were a drawing of a calla lily that I’ve had tattooed on my shoulder since Cameron and I got together, and the word ‘ in my handwriting,” Nolan says.

The grooms did a grand sparkler exit and sped off on Nolan’s 1973 BMW R75/5 motorbike with cans tied to the back. Afterward, many guests headed off to Babe’s of Carytown, the oldest lesbian bar on the East Coast. “We hung out there until about 2am, dancing and catching up with all of the people who came into town to celebrate us,” says Cameron. “We closed the night across the street at 7-11 with celebratory Slurpees.” “Drinking a bright red Slurpee in a white tux is pretty harrowing, but we just really wanted Slurpees,” Nolan says.

Looking back, the grooms share how wonderful it was to have their community contribute to their celebration and to have so many details feel specific to their story. “It’s the best wedding I’ve ever been to,” Nolan laughs.