Trans Icon Janet Mock Marries in Hawaii; Couple Shares An “Ugly Cry”

For trans icon and author Janet Mock, getting married felt like an "an impossible dream come true," she writes in Brides. More than just a gorgeous Hawaiian wedding, the stunning bride's Friday nuptials symbolized the power of true love and the social progress Mock herself has boldly championed. She met Aaron Tredwell, her now-husband, in a classic New York City way. The couple bumped into each other on a Lower East Side dance floor — and Mock was instantly smitten. "He was gorgeous," Mock writes. "The kind of handsome I'd seen in my mind when I let myself be the girl who can have that, the girl I'd watched on screen so many times in rom-coms that always seemed to end in marriage." After a few dates, Mock came out to her dream guy as transgender and he didn't balk. Instead, Tredwell simply embraced her. Ever since, the couple has been inseparable and Tredwell popped the question last December. But Mock notes how she initially had a tough time envisioning what she wanted her wedding to look like since, as she explains, "I had no blueprint for happily ever after." After consulting with friends, top-notch wedding sites like A Practical Wedding and hiring a planner, the destination event turned out to be everything Mock never even knew she wanted. And in the end, it wasn't the dress or flowers or surrounding paradise that made the event so momentous. "Our synchronized 'ugly cry' was the highlight of my wedding," Mock writes. Moreover, thanks to Mock's continuing advocacy, her wedding also signals how love and marriage is becoming less of a faraway fairy tale for the trans community at large, and that's something we can all celebrate.