Country music star Jon Pardi married his hairstylist girlfriend Summer Duncan on Saturday night in an intimate wedding Saddle Woods Farm in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
The couple was forced to cancel their plans for a wedding over Memorial Day weekend because of the coronavirus pandemic. Though this was not the wedding they had envisioned for themselves, it was still just as special.
“Originally we were getting married in Montana in May, which was going to be unreal,” Duncan, 31, told People Magazine. “We had an entire lodge rented out for three days for a wedding weekend extravaganza with events daily, a spa, chefs … But then COVID hit, and that all went away. With the sudden postponement — and Jon still having a full tour schedule — we were very limited with available dates.”
“We had a friend who was married at Saddle Woods last year, and when we walked into their wedding, Jon was like, ‘This is the most amazing wedding and venue ever,'” she added. “So when we had to cancel our destination wedding, they were naturally the first venue we called when we knew we had to keep things closer to home. There’s never a right time in 2020 to get married, so after all the planning and replanning we were just happy we got to do it.”
Once things go back to normal after COVID-19, Pardi and Duncan are planning to have the big celebration that they initially wanted.
“With so much of our families being in California we had to make the tough decision to downsize (drastically) twice, and we ended up with a small group of just our immediate family and closest friends in town,” said Duncan. “We hope to eventually have a ‘wedding tour’ as Jon calls it and celebrate with all our family and friends in California, Nashville and Texas.”
Pardi, 35, and Duncan had all of their guests get tested for COVID-19 prior to the wedding. They also held most of the ceremony and reception in a flex indoor/outdoor space with heaters to maximize the air ventilation between the venue and the outside.
As for their wedding party, Pardi enlisted his dad and tour manager, Trey Wilson, as his groomsman, while Duncan had her two best friends from California and Nashville as her bridesmaids.
“We really just wanted our friends to be able to relax, have fun and wear what they wanted, so we only had two on each side,” the couple said. “Both girls got to pick their own amazing dresses, and the guys had custom suits made by Aaron McGill with hats from American Hat Co. and boots by Lucchese.”
Pardi and Duncan got engaged in October of last year after dating for three years. Duncan said their wedding was about “finally finishing what we started in October 2019.”
“[We went] through the worst year possible for a relationship, one where Jon’s career came to a halt and we spent more time together than we ever have,” Duncan said. “We’re thankful for all that time we got to spend together because it was a confirmation that we are a great team, we get along, we appreciate each other, we respect each other and we love each other.”
When asked how he felt after the wedding, Pardi said, “I feel like I married the right person.”
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