Jonathan Bennett and Jaymes Vaughan make history with same-sex wedding rings
Mean Girls star Jonathan Bennett and his fiancé Jaymes Vaughan talk to Yahoo Entertainment about their symbolic, history making same-sex wedding rings from Kay Jewelers, and reveal their goal 'to change the whole wedding jewelry industry.' The couple also talks about their groundbreaking magazine cover on The Knot and what that means for the LGBTQ+ community.
Video Transcript
KYLIE MAR: Congratulations, Jaymes and Jonathan. You guys got engaged last year. So James was talking to me a long time ago. He was telling me about the ring that he was designing for you. At the time, I actually didn't know that he was designing it with Kay Jewelers, though.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: So our ring-- it's actually used to be our ring for our entire LGBTQ+ community because when I went to propose to Jonathan, I could not find a ring anywhere. I was like, first off, what is the tradition when it's two guys? What do you do? And then second off, what do the rings look like? And I couldn't find anything, so as I was already realizing I was going to have to create something, I was like, all right, how can I use this and actually do it to advance the wedding, engagement, all that industry for LGBTQ+ couples.
And so I reached out to Kay because I knew they had a good track record with LGBTQ+ people and initiatives and said, hey, I want to design this ring first off, to propose to Jonathan.
JONATHAN BENNETT: I had no idea I was getting proposed to. We had never spoken about rings in our life. I think the only thing I said was, I didn't want it to be too fancy. And he's a little bit more blingy than me, so that's why this design is perfect.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: So I was like, let's do this together, and then let's make this an item that this design is available for LGBTQ+ couples all over the place that they know Kay is a safe space they can walk into for this moment in their life, to not only be safe, but also be celebrated in this joyous event like it always is for straight couples. It should be that way for every gay couple, too.
KYLIE MAR: And, then hopefully the Robbins Brothers and the Cartiers and the Tiffany's-- they all start to like catch on and do the same thing.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: That's exactly what we want, Kylie. We want the industry to change. But beyond just this ring, here, my goal is to change the whole wedding jewelry industry. So I want 10 years from now it to be so commonplace that there is a section, that there are items for the LGBTQ+ community, that people walk in and their mind is blown that there ever was.
KYLIE MAR: I also want to talk to you about the upcoming wedding. What are the plans? What's going on? What's something that you haven't told anyone that you're going to do at your wedding?
JONATHAN BENNETT: So for our wedding, we are so excited because we're getting married at Unico Resorts in Riviera Maya, Mexico, which is the most beautiful, inclusive, safe, LGBTQ+ celebrated resort we've ever experienced. We
JAYMES VAUGHAN: Loved it.
JONATHAN BENNETT: We're really happened we found the resort. And we're going to be getting married in March of 2022.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: Could we say who is officiating our wedding?
KYLIE MAR: Is it Lance Bass?
JONATHAN BENNETT: It's not Lance Bass.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: Who, by the way, they just announced they're having kids together.
JONATHAN BENNETT: Yeah, congrats to Lance and Michael.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: How cool. Oh, my gosh. We're so excited for them. They're having twins.
JONATHAN BENNETT: Yeah.
KYLIE MAR: OK, so then they're not making it to your wedding.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: They're still invited.
JONATHAN BENNETT: Yeah, they're invited. The person that is going to officiate us and marry us is my best friend, who's become our best friend, YouTube's Brian Tyler Cohen.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: He's the perfect person to officiate our wedding to the point that, when I proposed, he was the only one that was able to handle the rings until I had the handoff. Because I was like, I want you to be the only person that encounters these rings from engagement side to the wedding side.
So this is what's really cool about us getting to be the first gay couple on the cover of "The Knot," which was amazing in and of itself.
Oh!
JONATHAN BENNETT: Oh my gosh!
JAYMES VAUGHAN: We were not so aware of how much of a resource they are in the wedding industry. They actually have a site that filters out everybody.
JONATHAN BENNETT: You can say, I want to work with gay vendors. Like, I want people-- like gay-owned, gay operated, things like that.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: And the cool thing they do is, they don't allow discrimination.
JONATHAN BENNETT: To be on the cover and be the first gay couple on the cover meant so much. You know, I can think back to younger me, right? You know, 16-year-old Jonathan in the grocery store. It's one thing to be inside a magazine in an article. You know, that's a wonderful thing, but to be on the cover-- that's what stares back at younger versions of ourselves in the grocery stores, in the stores, walking through the aisles. Seeing love that looks like ours represented that is happy and joyous and loud and proud and in a committed, happy relationship.
So I can only imagine what that would feel like, to look over and see that when I was younger.
JAYMES VAUGHAN: It's just, wow. Like, we did not set out to be trailblazers in the least with our wedding. I just want to get married, sing my little song, and move on, right? But it's just kind of presented itself. Like, wow, if this stuff is still happening in 2021, I don't want it to still be happening in 2031, so let's do something about it.
