Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler have been married for almost three decades. Due to how much they have in common, their connection has endured for so long.
Aside from the fact that they both have an intense love for creativity and fashion, they also shared the same perspective on celebrations: anything is worth celebrating, but not everything calls for a big party.
That concept served as the inspiration for their wedding day and has shaped their relationship for all these years.
The Simple Wedding of Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan
Gay marriage wasn’t accepted in California when Adler and Doonan embarked on their first date in 1993. In order to make things official, they had to wait until 2008. California legalizes gay marriage in the fall of 2008. Despite not having any arrangements to wed, the couple chose to simply get married because they were both in San Francisco at the same time in September of that year.
Doonan described their impulsive choice in his 2011 New York Times article: “We decide to exchange vows during a weekend splurge at the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur.”
When Adler called the hotel to reserve their wedding room, she was given the option of getting married by “Twinkling Stargazer,” a “local New age pastor.” They thought it was funny and took the offer right away, but later changed their minds.
They turned around and wed in San Francisco instead, using Big Sur as their honeymoon. They were married at City Hall on September 18, 2008. Only Cynthia, Adler’s mother, and Amy, his sister, were present for the nuptials. They made a few stops on route to their Jewish wedding ceremony after visiting City Hall. The impromptu schedule included a few stops, including lunch at a nearby restaurant and Adler’s retail establishments on Sacramento and Filmore streets.
A gay-friendly rabbi called Howard Steiermann officiated their wedding, which took place in their hotel room. A cake and some photographing came next.
They wore “what [they] had on” for their wedding attire, with Doonan having a “battered velvet Thom Browne jacket with a safety-pinned lining” and Adler describing a “cobalt blue V-neck sweater with a Lacoste shirt underneath.”
After the wedding, a few more retail store visits followed, and they were surprised to see how their special day was spent by everyone. They visited Alice Waters’ restaurant, a friend of hers, to close the day.
The sole wedding gift the couple received was Waters gifting the four-person group with a complimentary lunch. Their wedding day came to an end when they decided to call it a night.
Even though there was a lot of wandering, Doonan didn’t really appreciate how wonderful their wedding had been until much later. He writes, “I didn’t understand exactly how effortlessly beautiful and romantic it had been until later, when others asked us, ‘How was your wedding?'” Both of us would have gone into work mode if there had been a bigger, more deliberate blow-out.
Adler and Doonan’s impromptu wedding was inspired by Doonan’s parents, despite their lack of planning. They had also married in a similar manner, just eight weeks after first meeting, at the conclusion of World War II.
With their wedding, they not only honored them but also disproved the myth that homosexual men must have lavish weddings. In his essay, he claimed that because of our tight professional ties to the fashion, design, and décor industries, we are “synonymous with any kind of big, fat sequined extravaganza.” Many homosexual guys, including Jonathan Adler and I in particular, are solely to fault for this kind of bizarre stereotype.
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How Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler Became Friends
The couple did not click right away. On their first date, it didn’t even seem like they had much in common. They were paired together on a blind date by a common acquaintance, and they arrived with different ideas of what to wear on a first date. Adler finished off his ensemble with rollerblades and a trench coat with clay on it. Doonan was flawlessly attired in a suit.
Adler recalls finding Doonan “disengaged” during their 2018 Yahoo! interview, but Doonan claimed it was a cultural issue. Nevertheless, they thought enough of one another to schedule a second date.
Adler and Doonan discovered they have a lot more in common than they initially thought as time went on. They shared a similar sense of humor, liked the outdoors, and were fashionistas.
Along with the fact that they had similar views on special occasions. “There aren’t any Hallmark moments that come to mind where we’re gathered around Chardonnay glasses on a mountaintop. I believe that every day is really fantastic “said Doonan.
When they first met, Adler was 28 and Doonan was 42. The pair, who are still together after three decades of marriage, found that the age gap was in no way a barrier.
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