WEDDING GUIDE
Stephen Miranda (l) and Blake Mudd
A SYMBOLIC CELEBRATION Stephen Miranda and Blake Mudd married on the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. By JENNY BLOCK Photos by BIANCA RODRIGUEZ Houston couple Stephen Michael Miranda, 27, and Blake Stevens Mudd, 25, may have met virtually, but their connection could not be any more real. Stephen, a Space City native who was raised by lesbian parents, is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and works as a private-client advisor and vice president of investments at J.P. Morgan. Blake, from Lake Charles, graduated from the University of Houston and is now a lecturer at both his alma mater and Houston Community College. His interest in fashion led him to open the Hyphen Boutique online store, and also to become the operations manager at Pomp and Circumstance Boutique. The duo lives in an East End neighborhood near downtown Houston. “In true millennial fashion, we initially 78 JULY 2021 | OutSmartMagazine.com
met on Tinder,” Blake says. It was July of 2017. Their first date was at Hops Meets Barley on Alabama Street. “I don’t remember much about that day,” Stephen says. “It was the first time I’d really felt an instant connection with someone.” Stephen says marriage was never on his radar because for most of his life, same-sex marriage wasn’t legal. But then, after falling in love, planning a future, and buying a home together, he admits that something still felt incomplete. “It seemed like we were in something much more serious than just a “dating relationship,” and marriage felt like the natural next step. So about a month after we’d moved in, I bought a ring.” It was Stephen who proposed to Blake at a pre-Pride pool party in 2019 that he was hosting with a friend. After the hosts got everyone’s
attention with a “Thank you for coming” speech, Stephen got down on one knee and popped the question in front of 75 guests. Blake recalls thinking that it seemed odd when Stephen insisted he come forward to join the two party hosts, but he didn’t question it. “Suddenly, a speech about love occurred, Stephen got on one knee, a Tiffany & Co. box appeared, and the rest is, well, history,” Blake says. Naturally, he said yes. In hindsight, Stephen wishes they had planned to wear better outfits for their proposal photos (instead of the tank tops and swim trunks they ended up in), but he says, “Ultimately, it was very ‘us.’” With the pandemic looming, the couple felt that getting married was an imperative. “We didn’t even have wills. I feared that with nothing legally binding us, one of us could have been
