Vikki Walton-Cole (she/they) and Beth Walton-Cole (she/her)

The couple met through Her, a dating app for the queer community, in 2016. They married in 2020 at the register office in Weybridge and had their ceremony in 2022 at Dreamland in Margate. They live near Epsom, Surrey

BETH: When I was younger, I was never interested in marriage. I always thought I’d be single; I never wanted a relationship. It was only when I was in my thirties and heard about asexuality that I realised I am interested in women, but romantically, not from a sexual point of view. I consider myself asexual homoromantic. I’m really grateful so many young people are online talking clearly about different identities. It’s helped me realise I did want a relationship, so I tried the dating app Her. I got lucky I found Vikki quite quickly.

VIKKI: I wasn’t out as pansexual until 2013. I come from quite a religious family and was involved in a church myself. Same-sex marriage is important to me because the campaigning for it was when I first saw LGBTQ+ people in a positive light. It took me a while to be comfortable with myself, and then I wanted to find my community. So I started going to local LGBTQ+ women’s groups. That gave me the confidence to go on a dating app. The first time I saw Beth, this long-legged, tall blonde striding towards me looking really confident, I fell for her straight away.

BETH: So many things made me fall in love with Vikki. I love how easily she laughs. I love that we share so many interests, such as theatre and live music. I don’t think I could have found someone who suits me more perfectly. We’re constantly learning together – disability has been a big one because Vikki became disabled in 2018. I also found out that I’m autistic during our relationship and Vikki has given me so much support.

VIKKI: It probably helped that neither of us had ever been in a relationship before. It was less intimidating because we got to learn together. Also, dating when you’re older is a little easier, I think. We were 36 and 40 when we met. We know who we are. Neither of us is perfect by any means, but we are perfect for each other.

Our wedding was postponed three times because of Covid. We finally had our big day in May 2022, and it was full of love and fun. We took the whole rule book and ripped it up and just did the day how we wanted. Neither of us was given away and we didn’t have speeches.

BETH: As an out queer woman, I love how clear it is to say ‘my wife’ to people. We chose Dreamland in Margate for our wedding because, as well as being wheelchair-accessible, we knew they had gender-neutral toilets – we had trans and non-binary friends at the wedding, so it was important to us there were different options for people and they felt included, not like an afterthought. VIKKI: There’s security in having a document that says we’re married, which you don’t get when you’re living with someone. I know if I’m admitted to hospital that Beth is going to be allowed in. That’s important when you’re disabled and you rely on someone.

But I’m sad the church is still so far behind. The LGBTQ+ community also needs to be more inclusive of disabled people. I can’t tell you the number of Prides I’ve been to with no access. It’s all the intersecting identities of LGBTQ+ people.