When Grooms Were Denied Wedding Services for Being Gay, This 90-Year-Old Grandma Had the Perfect Response (Exclusive)

A 90-year-old grandma served as a refreshing source of hope after her grandson and his soon-to-be husband were turned away by a Christian wedding vendor in North Carolina.

When fiancés Daniel Sheehan and Matt Price were denied wedding services in July because they were a gay couple, they were nervous about how Sheehan's grandma Ginny Parasiliti would react. "It was exactly what she was afraid we would experience when I came out," Sheehan tells PEOPLE. "I knew she'd be hurt to know what happened."

The New York City–based couple, both 31, told a loved one about their disheartening experience, and word began to travel within the family. Before long, the news reached Parasiliti, prompting her to rattle off an impassioned text message of support filled with exclamation points, emojis and a Tuscan chicken recipe.

"Hi guys, I am just beside myself with FURY!!!!! But, I'm not going to let these bigots ruin my excitement about your wedding," Parasiliti's text read. "Christianity is loving each of us & the path we have chosen!!!! Love is who we choose as our partner, & the one who makes our lives complete!!!! Raise your heads up high, & be PROUD of who you are!!! Amazing humans!!!!! Love you guys with all my heart. ♥️"

In a quick follow-up text, she added: "I have a new recipe for you. Tuscan chicken. I'll send it to you. 👍💕💕💕"

Sheehan and Price say that it's perfectly on brand for Parasiliti — a Catholic, first-generation Italian American — to swoop in and restore morale. But they're still "taken aback" every time she goes out of her way to defend their love.

"She is a light of my life," Sheehan says, explaining that she and his grandpa helped raise him when his mother became ill with multiple sclerosis. "She’s so outspoken in her support, becoming another grandparent for friends of mine, including many who had less-than-desirable coming out experiences."

"She is an incredible balance of sweet and fiery that I don’t think you always find in someone, but it’s something that I think she really embodies," Price adds. "She's just been fantastic to myself, to both of us, and helped support our relationship."

The discriminatory incident that Sheehan and Price faced came as they were aiming to do an act of kindness for their grandparents and other wedding guests.

Their mountainous wedding venue in western North Carolina will be difficult to reach for attendees with accessibility issues and those who don't drive, so they were trying to rent some sort of ground transportation that could get people around with ease.

"We were just trying to get our grandparents and guests from point A to point B," Sheehan says. "It shouldn't have been the most complicated part of our planning process."

A basic inquiry that they sent to a trolley rental company in the area sparked an unexpected email response: the two were asked if they were having a "groom plus groom" wedding.

After they confirmed that they were a same-sex couple, a woman at the company declined to help them, saying that "marriage is sacred" according to her understanding of the Bible and adding, "How can God be God, if we don't allow him to be God?"

Sheehan and Price decided not to engage with the woman's message, and instead posted a Google review of the company to warn other LGBTQ+ people about their experience.

But within minutes of the review going live, the woman emailed them again in a more hostile tone than before, seemingly lashing out in response to their post. Her follow-up message included a politicized rant about how gay people "didn't know when to quit pushing," and she accused the LGBTQ+ community of putting Donald Trump in power by scaring Christians into supporting him.

"When we first received the response back, I was shocked," Price tells PEOPLE. "This is from a person and a company that operates maybe 10 miles away from where I grew up ... and it never really crossed my mind as we were going through this planning process that this experience we're having was even one that was really possible to have today."

"I had a similar level of disbelief," Sheehan adds, noting that the message brought "a lot of emotions to the surface" and had his heart racing.

Their shock quickly turned to disappointment, they say, that this sort of baseline discrimination still happens — and that some members of the LGBTQ+ community have it worse.

“Years ago the Supreme Court enabled marriage equality, which was a massive win for queer people, and I think that there has been this misconception that the battle is won, that this is everything that needs to happen," Price says. "And the truth is — exhibited also by our experience here — that’s not true. There is so much more work that needs to be done.”

Currently there are more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills swirling through state legislatures. At the federal level, existing protections for gay and transgender people are also under threat.

In 2023 the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to LGBTQ+ rights, ruling in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis that businesses can refuse services to gay and transgender people in some instances. The landmark decision was one of many in recent years to roll back hard-won freedoms by opening the door for broad discrimination against a protected class.

"It leaves us with a question of, ‘Where does this end, and where do we draw the line?’ " Price says. "At the end of the day, it's a reminder to us and a call to action that the fight for equality is very far from over."

One ongoing point of concern for Sheehan and Price is Project 2025, a powerful conservative group's blueprint for a second Trump presidency, which was created by some of the former president's closest allies.

The policy proposal takes direct aim at the queer community, calling on the next Republican president to strip LGBTQ+ people of their protected status by "refocusing" enforcement of sex discrimination laws so that they only apply to the "biological binary" of sex.

"For LGBTQ+ folks, this isn't just politics — it's deeply personal. We're facing attacks on our right to marry, to work without discrimination, to access healthcare and, for some, to even exist openly," Sheehan says. "Our identities as queer people are often politicized, and our human rights are treated as negotiable.”

Sheehan and Price tell PEOPLE that everyone has a role to play in shifting the culture toward embracing kindness and rejecting hate "in all its forms."

"By sharing our story, we hope to provide another way for people to discuss not just the challenges we face, but the inclusive future we can create together," Sheehan says. "We shape our culture and communities with these courageous conversations and actions."

Looking to 90-year-old Grandma Ginny as an example, he adds, “Inclusivity, acceptance, LGBTQ+ progress isn’t specific or unique to any younger generation. It’s every generation’s responsibility to move the needle, to be a part of this progress, and to build the communities that we all can and want to be a part of."

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Price says that they still haven't found a company to provide ground transportation at their wedding next fall — but they aren't letting one sour experience dampen their enthusiasm.

"We know it's going to be a beautiful event."