Josh Radnor’s Bizarre Psychedelic Snowstorm Wedding Was His Attempt to ‘Rebrand January 6th’

Josh Radnor’s real-life love story is going to take way more than nine seasons to unpack. Kids, get comfortable.

The How I Met Your Mother star insists that he is much more multifaceted than Ted Mosby. Radnor is a musician, a meditator, a labradoodle dad, a psychedelics enthusiast, a January 6th reclaimer, and, as of this past Capitol attack anniversary, a loving husband to a similarly multidimensional entity. “We decided we would rebrand January 6th,” Radnor said of the wedding’s peculiar timing in an absolutely unhinged New York Times “Vows” column as Radnor married Dr. Jordana Jacobs, a Brooklyn psychologist, in case her name didn’t give it away. In Port Jervis, New York, the couple subjected their (literally) captive audience of 164 wedding guests to 20 minutes of wedding vows in 20-degree temperatures and torrential snowfall in an outdoor ceremony amidst a devastating blizzard that reflected the pair’s psychedelic journey, which started in a sound meditation retreat while they were both tripping balls on magic mushrooms.

As an Overlook Hotel amount of snow smothered the roads out of Port Jervis and trapped the wedding guests at the venue overnight, Radnor and Jacobs unleashed their hallucinogenic “set and setting”-themed expression of love that included an igloo made of glass, decorative mushroom centerpieces and, of course, an original song written by Radnor for his bride. All that’s missing is a blue French horn.

“Fame robs you of an ability to make a first impression,” Radnor bemoaned of his love life prior to meeting his now-wife. Thankfully, Jacobs, despite being a television buff, had never seen Radnor’s hit sitcom about a New York architect’s exhausting path to lasting partnership, so she and her now-husband were able to write their own equally overwhelming love story one trip at a time. 

In February 2022, Radnor and Jacobs both attended a meditation retreat in Upstate New York along with 30 other participants, who will presumably host their own weddings in the centers of active volcanoes or on a fleet of hot air balloons. One night during the retreat, the future couple introduced themselves to each other and spoke for half an hour about love and death, with Jacobs lamenting, “I need more experience with both.” Radnor later reflected on her admission, “I thought it was evidence of real depth. I thought she was formidable.”

The next day, the meditators all ingested a psilocybin mixture before placing masks over their eyes and lying on the floor while bells and chimes guided their souls into interdimensional epiphanies. “That’s her,” Radnor heard a voice say to him about Jacobs through the barriers of his consciousness, “that’s your woman.” Jacobs’ own spirit guide spoke to her of Radnor, whispering, “You know that man over there across the room, Josh? You’re drawn to him.”

Following the trip, Radnor and Jacobs revealed their respective experiences to each other and quickly began a courtship composed of love letters, voice memos and long talks about the nature of existence. “They are in a perpetual ‘college-dorm-go-deep’ mode,” one wedding-goer remarked amidst the Jungian and Freudian speeches that echoed across the pair’s rehearsal dinner.

The day of the Jacobs-Radnor wedding started with yoga, sound meditation (sans psychedelics) and a surprise reveal that the winter wedding would take place outdoors. “The snow was two things,” Radnor said before listing four descriptors, “cold and anxiety-producing, but also cosmic and divine.” Amidst treacherous conditions, the couple expressed their love for one another in tumbling, time-consuming monologues, including Radnor’s declaration, “I look into the infinity of your green eyes, I know that my not having gotten married until now was not due to some brokenness in me,” before he tearfully admitted, “The truth is, I didn’t get married until now because I was waiting for you.”

Said Pamela Fryman, the How I Met Your Mother director and a witness to the winding, surreal ceremony, “When they renew their vows, maybe they can do it in the spring.”