loud & proud

i think it’s safe to say America fell hard for Jonathan Bennett while watching him as Aaron Samuels in the cult teen classic, Mean Girls. It took his fiancé, Jaymes Vaughan, a few more years, but mere minutes to catch up with the rest of us. When I connected with the engaged couple over Zoom, it was like sitting down with old friends. Basking in the glow of Palm Springs, Jonathan and Jaymes giddily shared their love story and engagement. But their journey hasn’t been all sunshine—the same-sex couple was blindsided by discrimination early on in their wedding planning. And in that moment, the two decided their wedding was not just about them, but about something much bigger.

LAUREN KAY: Epic proposal, amazing wedding plans underway, take us back to the start. I want to hear your meet-cute.

JAYMES VAUGHAN: Wait, what is a meet-cute?

JONATHAN BENNETT: It’s that scene in a movie where she’s walking with all the papers and she drops them and that’s when he just knows.

JV: Oh okay, okay, I get. Oh, we definitely had one of those.

I was on a press tour for and I walked into The Grove [outdoor mall in Los Angeles] to do an interview with the guy from . I had never heard of him before,