Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres’s Wedding, 2008
About twenty guests, two Zac Posen looks, a vegan red velvet cake and a legal window that was about to close. A small wedding in Beverly Hills that carried national meaning.
Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres married at their Beverly Hills home on a Saturday in August 2008, before about twenty guests. The wedding itself was small by design. What made it significant was the date: it fell in a window of less than five months when same-sex couples could legally marry in California, and it was among the most visible of the roughly 18,000 same-sex weddings that took place in the state before voters passed Proposition 8.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, August 16, 2008 |
| Place (ceremony) | The couple’s home, Beverly Hills, California |
| Reception | At home |
| The dress (designer) | Zac Posen, for both brides |
| Guests | About 20, including both mothers |
| Officiant | Wayne Dyer |
The couple
De Rossi, an actor, met DeGeneres backstage at an awards show, and they began dating in late 2004. On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled in In re Marriage Cases that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional; the first marriages under the ruling took place on June 17, 2008. DeGeneres proposed that year.
The ceremony
The couple had considered a larger celebration. De Rossi later said it “just got to be too big and stressful,” and they chose instead to marry at home, witnessed by their mothers and a small circle of friends and family. The self-help author Wayne Dyer officiated, describing the ceremony as a step toward the ideal that everyone is created equal. In her own speech, de Rossi said: “It’s good to be loved. It’s profound to be understood.”
The dress
Both women wore Zac Posen. De Rossi’s gown had a backless, halter-style bodice and a full pale pink tulle ball skirt; DeGeneres wore an ivory blouse, waistcoat and trousers. In 2008 there were few public examples of how two brides might dress, and the two looks complemented each other without matching. Posen would later design the blush silk gown Princess Eugenie wore for her 2018 evening wedding reception. See our guide to celebrity wedding dresses.
The reception
Dinner was vegan, as was the red velvet wedding cake, and the couple’s first dance was to Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon in the Sky.”
Why it mattered
On November 4, 2008, less than three months after the wedding, California voters approved Proposition 8, which ended new same-sex marriages in the state. In 2009 the California Supreme Court upheld the measure but ruled that marriages performed before it passed remained valid, so the DeGeneres–de Rossi marriage stood.
The May 2008 ruling had described the right to marry as “a basic civil or human right of all people,” and for the couples who married that summer the timing was everything. Those who waited, for a larger venue, a better season or a family member’s blessing, found the door closed in November. That is the quiet lesson inside this very small wedding: they decided what mattered, cut everything else, and married while they could.
Later history
In August 2010 de Rossi petitioned to change her legal name to Portia Lee James DeGeneres, and the petition was granted that September. In November 2024 the couple moved from Montecito, California, to the Cotswolds in England.
Borrow the idea
Keep it small if big feels wrong. A home wedding with twenty guests is not a lesser wedding. Our guest list guide helps you decide who must be there.
Plan a home wedding like a venue. Walk the rooms with a caterer, check where guests will park and where coats will go, and warn the neighbors. Rent what you lack (chairs, glassware, a small generator for lighting) rather than borrowing, and hire someone to clear up so that you are not washing dishes on your wedding night.
Check the paperwork early. Marriage license rules, waiting periods and validity windows differ by state and country, and they can change. Confirm with the county clerk what you need, how long the license lasts and who may sign it, well before you send invitations.
Coordinate, don’t match. Two brides, two grooms, or any couple can choose looks from the same designer or palette that relate without being identical.
Let the menu reflect how you live. A vegan or vegetarian menu, including the cake, is entirely proper. See our wedding cake guide for flavors that work without dairy or eggs.
Keep your words short. De Rossi’s line is ten words long, and DeGeneres was still quoting it fourteen years later. Our guide to writing wedding vows shows how.
Written and edited by the Today’s Weddings editors. How we research and check what we publish is set out in our editorial standards. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
