WEDDINGS: Noteworthy Nuptials

Galveston couple Yvonne Tutt, 38, and Cherie Beasley Tutt, 32, got married on Halloween, but the way they met is far from scary. In fact, they met through Yvonne’s best friend, Christy Chris Gross.

Yvonne says, “Chris and Cherie became friends first, and she said I should talk to Cherie. We started talking through Facebook Messenger in February of 2018. We talked daily, and finally met up at Jimmy’s on the Pier in Galveston on March 30, 2018. We also attended a drum circle with some of the ladies from the GIRLS group.”

GIRLS, or the Galveston Island Rainbow Lesbian Society, was actually founded by Yvonne and Chris on March 13, 2018, when the two friends moved to Galveston from College Station. They began the group to do exactly what it ended up doing for Yvonne and Cherie: connecting its Galveston-area lesbian members for friendship and maybe more. 

Yvonne works at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in the neonatal intensive care unit as a health unit coordinator. A Palestine, Texas, native, she attended Vista College in College Station, where she received her associate degree in medical assisting.

Originally from Fort Worth, Cherie works at Home Depot as a specialty department supervisor, having graduated from Galveston College where she majored in science and received her associate degree.

It was an ideal match for both women. “We hit it off from day one, and started dating a couple months after that,” Yvonne says. “I knew I wanted to marry Cherie because she completed me and helped me change my life for the better. She was always there when I needed her, and vice versa.”

Yvonne proposed to Cherie on a cruise to Cozumel on August 25, 2019. “I will never forget that day. We were at dinner. It was me, Cherie, and Chris. I had an ice cream box because she loves ice cream. She looked at it, confused at first. That’s when I got down on one knee and said, ‘Cherie, I love you. Will you marry me?’ She said, ‘Yes, of course!’” Yvonne recalls.

The couple got married on October 31, 2020, at the historic Lyceum in Galveston. “We love Halloween, and wanted a Halloween wedding where our guests could wear costumes,” Yvonne says. 

When Yvonne saw Cherie walking down the aisle, she could not help but cry. Apparently, she was in good company. “Our vows were so beautiful, and we had all of our guests crying,” Yvonne says. 

The couple skipped the old-school wedding traditions that didn’t really suit them. “We didn’t toast, and we didn’t do the dance with our parents. We aren’t really the traditional type, as you can see. The wedding was how we wanted it,” says Yvonne. The couple has no regrets about the way they decided to celebrate their big day.

Naturally, the vendors they chose were LGBTQ-friendly, including Chef Marshall of Coastal Catering (and his wife, Stacey Monroe) along with ceremony officiant Lee Ann, of Weddings by Lee Ann. Heather Barker, who is a fellow GIRLS member, served as the couple’s wedding planner. 

Yvonne notes that everything was “pretty much the same” as it would have been had COVID-19 not imposed restrictions. (They did trim their guest list down to 100, from 150.) “It was the wedding date we wanted, so we stuck to it. We had been waiting all year for this perfect day, so there was no postponing it,” Yvonne adds.

Sadly, some of their guests were unable to join them because of the pandemic. “Some people were afraid to be in a large group setting,” Yvonne says. Their original honeymoon plans included a trip to Miami and a cruise to the Bahamas. However, due to COVID-19, they settled on a weeklong trip to San Antonio to enjoy the River Walk.

Yvonne describes Cherie as “the sweetest, most forgiving person that I have ever met. She is beautiful inside and out, and I couldn’t imagine a day without her.”

Cherie’s love for Yvonne is equally apparent, and her simple words of admiration say it all: “Yvonne is funny and perfect.”

Nothing scary about that.

This article appears in the February 2021 edition of OutSmart magazine.