How I Met Your Mother star’s wedding guests become stranded during blizzard

Josh Radnor’s wedding turned into a sleepover after a winter storm forced his guests to spend the night at the wedding venue.

The How I Met Your Mother actor, 49, married clinical psychologist Jordana Jacobs, 36, on 6 January at Cedar Lakes Estate in New York’s Hudson Valley. According to the New York Times, inclement weather had made roads to the wedding venue not passable. As a result, the couple’s 174 guests - including friends, family, the wedding band, event planners, venue staff, and a New York Times reporter and photographer - were told to stay the night.

The wedding ceremony took place outdoors around dusk, as guests bundled their coats to witness Radnor and Jacobs say “I do” surrounded by snow. The couple reportedly believed the predicted snow would fall much later than it actually did, with Radnor telling the New York Times: “The snow was two things: Cold and anxiety-producing, but also cosmic and divine.”

Radnor’s HIMYM co-star Alyson Hannigan was among the guests in attendance, as she compared their dedication to something like the United States postal service’s “neither snow nor rain” motto.

“We’re like the post office,” she said, while HIMYM director Pamela Fryman noted: “When they renew their vows, maybe they can do it in the spring.”

Following the snow-filled ceremony, guests retreated indoors where a large fire was roaring inside the lodge. Jacobs had to restyle her dampened hair, while Radnor warmed her feet with a blowdryer. As friends and family delivered their speeches, those who weren’t among the 115 guests planning on staying overnight in the cabins were nervously checking their phones for weather updates.

“Energetically, in the room, we could feel the stress,” Jacobs recalled.

At around 10.30pm, staff began making sleeping arrangements for the extra 59 people who were unable to leave the venue. According to the outlet, some people were assigned top bunks in rooms that the couple’s friends had rented for the weekend, while others slept at the venue owner’s residence on the grounds.

However, the unplanned weather didn’t stop people from celebrating Radnor and Jacobs’ nuptials. “Once it was announced, ‘No one is leaving here tonight,’ people went into a little bit of surrender mode,” Radnor said.

The newlyweds first met in February 2022 at a sound meditation retreat in upstate New York. They began a long-distance relationship for about a month, until Radnor ultimately moved from Los Angeles to Brooklyn to be with Jacobs.

During their fateful retreat, Radnor and Jacobs ingested a “psychedelic mixture” and covered their eyes with masks. Because the couple wanted their big day to reflect their first encounter, table centerpieces were decorated with mushrooms and guests were invited to take part in a yoga and sound meditation the morning of the wedding. As a party favour, friends and family even received welcome bags containing incense sticks, an incense dish, CBD tincture and an “intention kit” with paper and a pen.

“It was about as analogous to a psychedelic ceremony as you can get,” Jacobs said.

Following the wedding, the musician took to Instagram to share photos from the snowy event. “I got married! Two weeks ago. In a light blizzard,” he captioned his post.

The first image showed Radnor and Jacobs sharing their first kiss as husband and wife, while the second photo featured the groom walking down the aisle in a blizzard. Jacobs was seen wearing her white wedding gown, complete with a warm shawl, in the third photo. The pair also posed for photos in a snowy, open field and shared another kiss during the festivities.

“It was an incredible overwhelming snowy bliss-filled weekend,” Radnor continued. “So grateful to so many people I love for making the trip to @thesistersofcedarlakes to be with us. To @forgedinthenorth for the extraordinary pictures. To @samspector for the extraordinary suits.”

“But most of all to Jordana,” he added. “I can’t believe my great good fortune that I get to call this extraordinary woman my wife.”