Abbey and Mitch Johnston married in February on Sapphire Beach, Coffs Harbour. Their ceremony made a stand on marriage equality.

Australia’s marriage laws, the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others, were strongly opposed by the pair so during their vows they, and all 17 guests, covered their ears. 

Photographer Thomas Stewart from Bowral, whose work features in the upcoming South Coast Register Weddings Shoalhaven magazine, said he had seen various displays of defiance against Australia’s marriage laws, but none as creative and fun. 

“Obviously it was purely symbolic. The guests could in fact hear all the words she said, but the whole thing was a beautiful protest in favour of same-sex marriages being legalised in Australia,” he said.

Mrs Johnston said the purpose was to stand up and do something special. 

“It was something that was important to us and a way to say to the government we are not OK with this,” she said.

“I fear one day my future children will ask, ‘Mum, did you get married when same-sex marriage was not legal?’

“I wanted to show them we didn’t just stand by. That we were proud of what we believed in – a very small act of defiance.”

When Mrs Johnston first pitched the idea of covering their ears to her husband-to-be, he laughed so hard he cried.

“Then he said, ‘Yes, absolutely we have to do this. You are crazy and I love it’,” she said.

“So we ran it past our celebrant who was amazing. She completely respected our very strange request and worked out how we could do it to ensure everything was legal. We then ran it all past our awesome photographer so he was able to capture the moment. 

“To my knowledge this hasn’t been done before.”

They never expected to get the attention they did from their photos.

“I never intended for our photos to go viral. We did not do this for publicity,” she said.

“We did this because we are tired. Tired for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the segregation and inequality this country is OK with. 

“A lot of people have been asking if anyone in particular inspired us to show this small act of defiance. The answer is simply no. We did this because we believe in equality. We believe in love. It is as simple as that.”

The couple said the response to their post was overwhelmingly positive.

“I don’t know if we have impacted anyone but as I said we didn’t do this for anything in return, we did this because we thought it was the right thing to do,” Mrs Johnston said.

She said the recent change in US laws to allow same-sex marriage was fantastic.

“I could have kissed each and every single person who made it happen. After looking at the White House lit up in rainbows I was just so proud,” she said.

That night she shared the special ear-covering moment captured at her wedding with the world.