The morning of her wedding day, Lisa Layton-Brinker went to the farmer's market to pick out some flowers. She still had a bouquet to make for her bride-to-be.
Inspecting aisles filled with daisies, lilies and hydrangeas, the 36-year-old pulled only the best blossoms she could find. About an hour later, in a cramped hotel room with her family, she was going to make the arrangement herself. Her partner, JoDe, 40, had surprised her with the same gesture when they visited Kansas City months earlier.
Lisa had one final touch before she was done: a snapshot of her partner's late mother. She tucked the photo in a locket and tied it to the front.
When JoDe saw the photo at the ceremony later that day, she started to cry.
"It was like my mom was there, you know?" she said. "Lisa took something that was so beautiful - our wedding - and made it personalized. I told her it was just one more reason I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her."
Four years later, raising three children from JoDe's previous marriage, the Jefferson City couple is fighting for recognition of the commitment they made to each other on that humid Saturday in Iowa. Even though their ceremony was held in a state where same-sex marriage is legal, their union isn't recognized under Missouri law. The tax, medical and government benefits that heterosexual couples receive are a fantasy to Lisa and JoDe.
In September, along with seven other same-sex couples, the two are scheduled to plead their case in the Jackson County courthouse. Part of the American Civil Liberties Union's suit levied against Missouri, Barrier v. Vasterling, they want to fight the state's failure to recognize legal out-of-state marriages.
However, the state has tried to block Judge J. Dale Youngs from hearing the case.
The state's Western District appeals court rejected that request on July 3 and, a week later, the state appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court.
The seven-judge high court has not scheduled a hearing in that case yet and, until there is a hearing or the court makes some other decision in the case, the scheduled September hearing in Jackson County on the original case could be delayed.
Having both grown up in Missouri - JoDe in Owensville, Lisa in Defiance - they feel upset to receive different rights than their friends and family.
"It's kind of disheartening," Lisa said. "It's like they're saying, "your relationship isn't as important as somebody else's.'"
From the beginning, Missouri has been a part of Lisa and JoDe's relationship. It was at a friend's birthday party in Marthasville that they saw each other for the first time, from across a crowded room as they were conversing with friends. JoDe came with someone else, but she couldn't stop looking over at the woman with short spiky hair and rimless glasses.
She laughs when she thinks about it now, admitting it's a cliche in every sense of the word, but she felt like it was love at first sight.
"It was like someone kicked me in the stomach," JoDe said, tilting her head back to laugh. "That sounds like an oxymoron, but that's what it felt like. I felt like I had no air in the room."
They went to the party on a Sunday. Their first date was the next Tuesday. The two met at a jazz club in St. Louis, about 45 minutes away from Lisa's childhood home, then talked in the car until 4:30 a.m.
After a long string of dinner dates and four-hour phone calls, they decided to get a home together in Jefferson City. That's when marriage started to come up. Both admit they probably knew even earlier than that, and JoDe said she knew the moment she saw Lisa standing near the sink at that party.
Still, they knew what would happen if they took a road trip to another state for a ceremony. They knew it wouldn't matter much.
"We realized the second we crossed the state line - this imaginary line that says this side is Missouri - we wouldn't have anything," JoDe said.
They first reached out to the ACLU of Missouri when they heard the story of Dennis Engelhard, a highway patrolman killed in the line of duty. Even though he was in a long-term domestic partnership, Missouri didn't provide any survivor benefits to his spouse, Kelly Glossip. If the two were legally married, Glossip would have been entitled to 50 percent of Engelhard's annual salary.
The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of the state, a decision that worried JoDe. Although she stays home during the day because of sustained back injuries, her partner is a longtime Mid-Missouri firefighter.
She messaged the ACLU of Missouri on Facebook to raise questions, sharing her story with the organization. Then, not long after, she and Lisa received a call.
A representative from the ACLU wanted to discuss a case with them over dinner.
"They were like, "We're handpicking our clients, and we want you on board,'" JoDe said.
Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri, said he and his colleagues strived to find a diverse set of couples from across the state. When they filed the lawsuit in state court, he said, they wanted to show how many couples were affected by the state's decision to not uphold their legal marriages.
"We said, "Here are the families in Missouri; they're from everywhere,'" Mittman said, recalling that day in early February. ""They're from St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Mid-Missouri, young and old, black, white, Latino, with kids, without.'
And we said, "These are families who love each other, who have made a commitment to stand by each other and do everything possible to create a family.'"
In the case of the Layton-Brinkers, he said they saw a family wanting the assurance that they'll be protected should something happen to Lisa in the line of duty. They felt JoDe and her three children deserve some level of comfort when Lisa went into work.
Long before filing the case in court, Mittman and a few other representatives paid a visit to the first responder on the job. He still remembers her fellow firefighters rallying around her that day, coming to the defense of their friend and co-worker.
"It was incredibly moving for me to see the way her colleagues had her back," he said. "They said, "She is a top-notch firefighter. She protects us, so we will be there for her and support her."
Mittman is hopeful Lisa's colleagues will get to celebrate come September. Given last May's landmark decision in United States v. Windsor, which struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, he said they're confident the court will be on their side. The ruling means relationships seen as equal under state law must apply to federal law.
"The ACLU and others were thrilled when the court said the U.S. Constitution does not allow unequal treatment of minorities," Mittman said. "We hope and trust the Missouri Supreme Court can read the Windsor decision and say the Constitution covers the entirety of the United States."
Lisa and JoDe just want people to understand what they go through. The important thing, they said, is getting citizens of their home state to understand they're no different than their heterosexual peers. The couple thinks if they can do that, they may have a shot.
JoDe can barely put into words what it would mean to come away with a victory. To her, it would represent a step closer to equal rights.
"It's like we're being treated like second-class citizens, and we're not," she said. "We're just like you, and we want the same things you automatically have."