Start with James and Nyah, both 18; the youngest of the couples. They mark their first spark as a three-way FaceTime call that went sideways when the third friend’s phone died, leaving the pair unexpectedly stranded with each other. Even though they’d barely interacted before, they talked through the night “until the birds were chirping.”

“We were very sure we wanted to be together,” Nyah says. Not everyone greeted their certainty in kind. She recalls talking to older high school sweethearts—the kind of people you’d think would embrace the two teens—who all but rolled their eyes, telling them that “things change.” But they already understand that alleged adult wisdom. Planning for college, the possibility of being apart in different cities—they’ve already had to adapt, make new plans.

Love is adaptation. Two years into their relationship, Robby and Ray love listening to the new Rosalía record because of her lyrics about transforming: yo me transformo. Those songs express something true about love for the pair. “Love makes me question and forfeit what I know about life for something better, for something that serves myself and those around me better,” Ray says. “I see this in my relationship with Robby, because he really makes me question a lot of what I have learned that holds me back.”

Months after a so-so meeting enabled by an app, they ran into each other at a taco stand in Malibu. Like most of the couples here, they don’t think of what they have as love at first sight. It was simply a friendship after they reconnected, they explain. One fateful movie night, the feelings developing below the surface caught up with them. The rest is history.

Initially they hadn’t thought of marriage as being for them. But they’re rethinking that.

For Jane and Kai, part of the pleasure of the shoot was watching the other couples get dressed up in nuptial garb—everyone doing a kind of bridal cosplay. Truthfully, they’d both had some anxiety about wearing wedding outfits. “People don’t try on these kinds of dresses until they’re about to get married,” Kai says. Jane says that Kai was worried she wouldn’t be dressed in something traditional enough. “With queer couples, you never know how we’ll be asked to dress—like put us both in rompers or something,” Jane says, making Kai laugh.

Kai wore a semi-sheer Simone Rocha dress with cascades of lace-trimmed ruffles and Jane wore an oversize suit. People often assume that because Kai is taller she’ll dress more masc but it’s not the case. When Jane first met Kai she was sitting down, and she stunned Jane when she stood up. They talked for six hours on their first date.

Cars and road trips are important to the couple. “We’ve been talking about doing a road trip to Texas, where Kai is from,” Jane says. Kai remembers a date they had during a Toronto winter—Jane is from Canada—with particular fondness; they shoveled Jane’s car out together. “It wasn’t really a date, but it was cute,” Jane says. “Not to be too queer theory about it, but I think when you’re young the car is your independence and your intimate space,” Kai says. It’s privacy in public. It’s adventurous to take a long drive together.

“Feral at first sight” is how Daniela (an Aries) and Tobias (a Pisces) describe their early days. “I used to share an apartment with my brother in Harlem, and we would throw these big parties,” he says. After encountering Daniela through a mutual friend, Tobias knew he had to see her again. Those regular parties were the perfect way to ensure another meeting. “Bring Daniela!” he requested of their friend when the invitations went out. That was four years ago.

Daniela says she tries not to define love—her love language is physical touch and quality time. For Tobias the idea of partnership means “embracing another person’s perspective rather than solely relying on your own.” When they fight, he’s the one who usually makes the “stupid jokes” so that they can laugh it off together. It’s a reminder that nothing has to be so serious.

Carl and Denise have been together for almost 40 years, and so their perspective takes on serious heft. But as it happens, what they’ve learned isn’t so dissimilar from what Daniela and Tobias shared about keeping it lighthearted. “There’s not that much that you should really get upset about,” Carl explains. “Most people that don’t get along, it’s because of ego and bullshit.”

This is Carl’s third marriage, the one that’s turned him from a “tramp” into a better husband and person. He and Denise have traveled the world, enriching their lives and Carl’s massive seashell collection. Seashell collecting brought them together in the ‘80s, when Carl’s daughter from a previous marriage told him about a friend of hers who was dating a guy who was also a shell collector.

“Can I tell this story?” Denise asks, laughing. Her version is more concise: “I showed up with three men and a bottle of wine and a couple of joints—that was on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the guy I was dating went home. On Thursday, Carl and I went out. On Saturday, he moved in with me.”

“I moved out of a three-bedroom house in Manhattan into a studio apartment down the street with a Murphy bed,” Carl says. “The only things I took with me were my clothes and my shell collection.” A few years later they got married at Tavern on the Green, off Central Park in Manhattan. In anticipation of this shoot, Denise discovered that she still fits into her old wedding dress, a backless number that left an impression on everyone. “She was hot,” Carl says.

“It started out that we were attracted to one another,” Denise says. “We were using each other for our bodies.” She’s not joking. “We liked each other.” What she’s found is that their love evolved and grew over time. “Today it’s a deeper love than I felt even when I got married.”

May we all be so lucky.