May 15, 2023
2023 Rewind: Colton Underwood Weds Jordan C. Brown in Lavish Celebration
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
This piece is part of EDGE's 2023 Rewind series. We're reaching into our archives and sharing some of our favorite stories from the past year.
Former NFL player and reality star Colton Underwood married Jordan C. Brown over the weekend in a lavish celebration at Napa Valley's Carneros Resort and Spa that featured an outdoor ceremony, a sumptuous supper, and swimmers from Stanford, People Magazine reported.
"The three-day affair, planned by Ashley Smith Events, kicked off with a family dinner and welcome party on Friday night, before a full day of wedding festivities began Saturday morning," the report detailed.
Celebrants participated in a "disco-themed pool party," which Underwood told the magazine about in advance of the nuptials; later on, "the couple arranged for Stanford University's artistic swimming team to perform in the pool as everyone exited the ceremony."
But the ceremony itself saw the grooms turned out in natty attire, with "custom Tom Ford suits," People Mag said. "Underwood went with a deep green, while his political strategist husband chose blue, both as a nod to the natural setting of their 'I do's.'"
In a nod to same-sex love and commitment throughout the ages, the couple created what Underwood called a "Loving walk," which featured images from the Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell coffee table book "Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love," which draws from over a century's worth of photos to show male couples in love.
Explaining that he had been given the book after he came out as gay, the "Bachelor" and "Coming out Colton" star said that he and Brown enlarged images from the book "and put them on canvases and set them around the resort," he says. Included with the photos, he added, were "love letters from queer people in the 18th and 19th century that were forbidden or they had to send in secret."
"At the reception, guests dined family style on salads, vegetables, steak, fish and pasta," People Mag relayed.
"And lots of spicy margaritas," Brown noted "of their specialty 21 Seeds Tequila cocktails which included two cucumber and jalapeño infused drinks dedicated to the couple's dogs Scout and Zooka," the writeup added.
Underwood told the magazine that he and Brown "wanted to break some of the traditional norms of what a ceremony and a wedding look like," and added that he and his husband "recognize that a lot of people attending, both of our families and some of our friends, this will be their first queer wedding. We really want to make it special."
Underwood posted photos from People Mag's exclusive report on his Instagram account. Have a look:
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
