Jon Pardi + Summer Duncan — Country’s Greatest Love Stories
Country star Jon Pardi and his fiancee Summer Duncan are planning their wedding at a venue in Montana that overlooks Yellowstone National Park, but how did one of country music's cutest couples meet? They've got his mom to thank for their relationship!
Duncan was a hair stylist in Northern California but met Pardi at a show in Denver, Colo., in 2017, after Pardi's mom introduced them, People reports. The couple went on one of their first dates at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, when Pardi was playing a show with Rhett Akins. When it came time to propose, Pardi did so at one of his shows at the historic venue -- a sweet callback to the start of their relationship.
Pardi and Duncan have undeniable chemistry, and they seem as comfortable hanging by campfires as they do hitting the red carpet. She was also a a major inspiration for his Heartache Medication album: Pardi tells Taste of Country that the album track "Old Hat" -- a soulful country song about traditional gestures of courtship that have been lost in the age of swiping through dating apps and online dating -- is as personal to him as it is to Duncan.
Pardi also enlisted Duncan's help for his music video for Heartache Medication's title track. The pair learned to two-step for the clip.
"It was the first time we used choreography," Pardi says of the video. “We ended up doing practices in my barn at home, and Summer and I had such a great time. It was out of my comfort zone, but I love how it came out. I loved being able to dance together, and I think it’s just one of the videos where you just feel good when you watch it."
The couple's newly mastered dance moves will come in handy at their nuptials (though the couple's plans have been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic). They chose the Montana locale for its temperate climate and are jazzed for what Pardi calls a "non-sweaty" wedding ("It’s gonna be highs in the 60s. I don’t like sweating," he tells People).
The couple went cake tasting to prep for their wedding, which will include a pizza cutting in addition to a traditional cake cutting. "Thought about writing a book on 'how not to make cake tasting look sexy' ... however, I am my dentist's favorite patient," Duncan joked on Instagram when posting photos of her and Pardi feeding cake to each other.
Pizza and cake aside, the big day should be a blast, because Pardi and Duncan know how to have fun: They're often posting snaps of themselves on the beach and attending football games. In late February, they went on a double date with fellow country singer Kane Brown and his wife Katelyn -- an out of which Duncan wrote on Instagram, "Date night turned dancing on tables night."
Yup, Pardi and Duncan are absolutely smitten. Pardi, for his part, can't say enough lovely things about his soon-to-be wife.
"Life with Summer is awesome … When it comes to singing about losing her, it’s a big no for me. I definitely want to make her happy," Pardi previously told ET, joking, "I’ve had my fair share of crazy girlfriends, so it’s nice to be in a totally sustainable relationship."