UPTOWN — It all started 11 years ago at Roscoe's.
Sean McGill, an Ann Arbor, Mich., native who had just started working in real estate, went to the Boystown bar with a group of friends to see a cabaret performance. Once McGill got there, he couldn't stop locking eyes with Michael Cunningham, a stylist originally from Downstate Illinois.
"Being perfect and hilarious and gorgeous, it was very difficult for Sean not to fall in love with me," Cunningham joked.
Now the couple lives in Uptown, and last year they were finally able to tie the knot.
McGill and Cunningham were not alone: Uptown saw more same-sex couples tie the knot last year than anywhere else in Cook County.
Cunningham first proposed to McGill on their private deck in 2008, which was five years after they first met.
"We couldn't get married at the time because it wasn't legal, but we didn't want that to stop us from recognizing our commitment so we wore rings," McGill said.
And they weren't interested in a civil union.
"We knew people who had gotten [civil unions], but there was something about it that seemed less than [complete], and we didn't want to put an asterisk by it," McGill said. "We knew if we held out that eventually, someday, we would be able to legally marry."
Six years after Cunningham's proposal, same-sex marriage became legal in Illinois.
They celebrated by throwing a family-only party at Bridge House Tavern on the anniversary of when they first met at Roscoe's followed by a bigger party at the same venue a few months later, this time with friends.
McGill said one of the best moments was when their brothers and nieces met for the first time.
"It's pretty impressive to be surrounded by that much love," he said.
Their same-sex marriage was one of 371 in Uptown last year, the most of any Chicago neighborhood, according to the Cook County's Clerk office. Andersonville and Edgewater had the second most with 273.
It makes sense because Uptown is located in the middle of two gay and lesbian-friendly neighborhoods: Boystown and Andersonville, McGill said.
"When the real estate prices in Lakeview and Boystown got so expensive, a lot of people started gravitating north," said McGill, 36, who now teaches at Truman College. "Now there's a higher concentration of the older gay and lesbian crowd in Uptown."
He added: "It's nice to be walking through the neighborhood and see couples holding hands, whether it's two guys or two girls."
Cunningham agreed, saying Uptown is a "very comfortable" neighborhood for same-sex couples nowadays.
Though the pair had to wait 11 years to make their union legal, Cunningham said that's nothing compared to some of the couples they've met in the neighborhood and beyond.
"We've met people who were together for 20 or 30 years and they went to get married [last year]," he said. "Isn't that wonderful?"
Now that they're legally married, Cunningham said he fields the same question from clients and friends alike: How is married life?
"I say our daily lives haven't changed any but we feel validated," he said. "When I say my husband, I really mean my husband."
They plan on celebrating their upcoming wedding anniversary "just like any other married couple," Cunningham said.
"We'll be eating frozen, stale wedding cake and drinking champagne," he said with a laugh.
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