Tourmaline Wore Miss Claire Sullivan—and Paid Homage to Marsha P. Johnson—at Her Virginia Countryside Wedding

When the artist Tourmaline met Cameron Bills, she felt an immediate spiritual connection—one that was only magnified by the significance of where they were.

After matching on Tinder, they met for their first date in September 2022 on the Christopher Street Pier in Manhattan, a longtime sanctuary for the queer community. At the time, Tourmaline was living nearby on Christopher Street and Hudson Street, and was immersed in the history of Christopher Street as she was writing her book Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, a biography of the revolutionary Black trans LGBTQ rights activist.

“The whole street feels sacred to me,” Tourmaline says, thinking back to that first date on the Christopher Street Pier. “So I should have expected a peak life experience event.” She still remembers the first time she saw Cameron, who was then a law student and is now an attorney.

“Walking up, I just remember Cameron’s presence, poised with perfect posture, reading what I thought was a law book,” Tourmaline says. The book was actually “her sister’s sci-fi novel about inhabitants of a dystopian world needing to learn to rely on each other,” Tourmaline says, adding: “I was deeply intrigued immediately.”

The two found themselves talking about God, their experiences attending services at the Metropolitan Community Church, and their shared admiration for the church’s legendary Reverend Pat Bumgardner, who was the reverend of gay liberation and trans rights activist Sylvia Rivera. “I was moved to my core listening to Cameron talk about sitting in the back of MCC, tears falling uncontrollably as she felt what she described as God’s love for the first time,” Tourmaline says. “Our date was electrifying, completely overwhelming my system in a good way.”

As they continued to see each other, they discovered their worlds overlapped in many ways. The first time Tourmaline went to Cameron’s apartment, she noticed a poster of the Miami home of Marjory Stoneman Douglas—a leader in the fight to conserve the Florida Everglades—and texted it to her friend Sasha Wortzel, who was making a film about Douglas and the Everglades.

“I couldn’t have imagined two months later, I would be visiting the Florida Everglades with Cameron, kayaking through alligators as Sasha gave us a tour,” Tourmaline shares. A year later, Tourmaline and Cameron moved to Florida together for Cameron’s environmental law fellowship. While moving was a big change for Tourmaline, who had lived in New York City for two decades, she knew it was “meant to be” because their new home was near Douglas’s house—the very same one from Cameron’s poster.

In October 2024, Cameron proposed to Tourmaline during a weekend getaway to West Palm Beach. “Tourmaline and I love to metal detect together—over the years we’ve found lots of trash but one night when metal detecting in South Beach, Miami, we found a silver ring with a heart-shaped stone,” Cameron says. “She took a photo of me digging it up and it almost looked like I was proposing to her. That idea stuck with me.”

Cameron had her plan, but first, she needed to lay the groundwork. “For months leading up to the proposal I had been seeding the idea that I wanted to start a metal detecting TikTok account, knowing that I wanted to film our engagement but not wanting to give anything away the day of,” she recalls. In West Palm Beach, Cameron set the scene. “Tourmaline was a bit confused when I insisted on doing her makeup and suggested she wear a dress on our expedition, but she went along with it. At the beach, while Tourmaline set up the camera shot (she’s the director, after all), I quickly hid the ring in the sand—a bit of a gamble should it have somehow gotten lost,” Cameron says. “When she reached the spot and the detector started beeping, I knelt down as if to start digging and instead asked her to marry me.”

On June 20, 2026, they got married at Cameron’s parents’ house in Virginia, overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains. “We chose the day before summer solstice because getting married on the eve of the longest day of the year felt fortuitous for a long life together,” Tourmaline says.

Both of their families helped plan and prepare for the wedding, alongside their planner Angelica Laws. “So much of what made the wedding special was decades in the making,” Cameron says. “When I was a kid, my dad had a ring of pecan trees planted—they started out as little sticks in the ground, barely recognizable as trees, but by the time I got married, they had encircled the area and grown the pecans that my sister then used to bake our wedding cake. It felt incredible to celebrate with all our loved ones at my childhood home, in the landscape that my dad had cultivated.”

For her wedding fashion, Tourmaline worked with the designer Claire Sullivan of CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund finalist Miss Claire Sullivan. “I was her first muse when she started her own company MCS, and we’ve collaborated for over five years now on everything from my Whitney Biennial installation and many self-portraits and video work, to my book tour and galas. This felt like the real culmination,” Tourmaline says. “The warm dress had a long train and the tulle veil had a distinct look with a flower crown made of baby’s breath and two satin roses Claire made, one on each side. Baby’s breath is a motif in my art and a nod to Marsha, whose life made my wedding possible,” Tourmaline says. Christina Kim did Tourmaline’s makeup, keeping her look “elevated but natural.”

For jewelry, Tourmaline wore the engagement ring Cameron designed with jeweler Diana Van Haeften. “It’s art deco style, a pear-shaped diamond with tapered baguettes framing the center stone. There’s a small piece of pink tourmaline on the inside of the ring, in honor of my namesake,” Tourmaline says. Cameron wore a navy blue suit with a corset by Suited Atelier, with baby’s breath pinned to the lapel, to match Tourmaline. “The corset was made of satin, originally of the same navy suit color, that had been dyed and distressed into a faded purple.”

Dori Midnight, a spiritual leader whom Tourmaline has known for 20 years, officiated the wedding. “I don’t know anyone who creates rituals like Dori,” Tourmaline says. The ceremony took place on a hilltop with a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a vista which inspired a watercolor piece by Tourmaline’s mother, Maureen Ridge, which became the image on their invitations, seating chart, and ceremony programs. The couple’s cat, Jean, couldn’t be there, so a friend FaceTimed them into the ceremony. In front of their loved ones, Tourmaline and Cameron exchanged vows, and read love letters to each other. Cameron’s nieces served as flower girls, beginning their task before finding the flowers—which were grown on the property—“too precious to throw on the aisle,” Tourmaline says.

After the ceremony ended and the sun set, they held a reception outside, with a mostly vegetarian Southern dinner with dishes including cucumber salad, corn pudding, and local trout by A Pimento Catering, plus a praline pecan cake wedding made by Cameron’s sister Kendall. In lieu of a gift registry, the couple asked their guests to make a donation to the Trans Justice Funding Project, an organization founded by Tourmaline’s friend Gabriel Foster, which supports trans-led groups across the country.

Reflecting on the ceremony, Cameron says: “It felt surreal to be marrying the love of my life and looking into the audience and seeing family and friends from different chapters all in one place.”

Now looking back at the wedding, Tourmaline says: “I feel so appreciative of all the love that flowed to us and through us. I think the wedding was a powerful and honest reflection not only of the love between Cameron and I, but of the many hands holding and loving us. It makes me believe in the transformative power of community and love.”

Cameron getting ready by the window with makeup artist Christina Kim.

Claire Sullivan carrying my gown down the hallway of Cameron’s parents’ house, past decades of family photographs. I had a firm knowing from the start that this was where we should get married.

Claire making final adjustments to the corset lacing the morning of. I was her first muse when she started MCS, and we’ve collaborated for over five years. This morning felt like the real culmination.

The veil ran the entire length of the room. It took two people to move me anywhere, which felt appropriate.

A quiet moment in Cameron’s childhood room alone before the ceremony. I wanted something bridal but warm, evocative of Padmé Amidala, and I loved how the champagne color felt like I was wearing the dress, not the other way around.