Just moments after a Philadelphia couple tied the knot, the newlyweds joined thousands of protesters to march in honor of George Floyd, all while still wearing their wedding garb.
As ABC News reported, Kerry-Anne and Michael Gordon were officially pronounced man and wife on Saturday and promptly took to the streets where they shared a kiss while surrounded by demonstrators protesting police brutality.
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The pair said they knew the march would be happening on the day of their wedding, but had no interest in changing the date.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, they’d already postponed their larger ceremony and celebration until 2021, but they still wanted to get married.
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They tied the knot at the Logan hotel, and when they left the location they were pleasantly surprised to find themselves in the midst of the thousand-strong march.
35-year-old Kelly-Anne said that moment ended up being “very powerful” for her and her new husband.
“Not only are we feeling the movement of the people… but I’m meeting my husband, on our wedding day, as a strong black man and a good representative of who we are as people, what our men are like, what our culture is like,” she told ABC News .
“It was just a very, very empowering moment for us considering all of this is happening at one moment in one time.”
The bride and groom understandably stood out in the crowd, and received rapturous applause from protesters as they shared a kiss in the street.
A video shared to Twitter by one witness show the couple dressed in their wedding outfits as they kiss, surrounded by Black Lives Matter signs and delighted demonstrators.
“The power of love on so many levels,” Twitter user Rachel E. Lopez captioned the heartwarming clip, which has nearly 7 million views as of this writing.
Michael, 42, said the ongoing protests have touched him and his bride on a very personal level.
He is of Caribbean descent, and Kelly-Anne was born in Jamaica. As he explained, seeing multiple races joining together for a bigger cause made their wedding day even more special.
“We all see this injustice,” he said. “We all want to see this needle shift away from the status quo and… that made this day more memorable in ways.”
After their kiss, Michael and Kelly-Anne joined the protesters in a march from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to City Hall.
Michael told ABC News that the protest was entirely peaceful, as exemplified by photos of him and his bride amongst the group which are currently being shared all over social media.
“That’s what the entire event out there was about,” he explained. “Of course there was police and National Guard, but it was a peaceful protest. Everyone was so nice.”
He added, “That in itself showed what the movement can be and for us to be a part of that, it’s a positive thing.”
h/t: ABC News
