Wedding Bells at Watermark: Bob Poe and Kenneth Brown

“As I said to him in a text a few days after we met, the one thing that I was really drawn to about him was his spirit,”Bob Poe, 60, says about his husband Ken Brown, 59.

Bob has been involved for years in Florida politics, helped start local radio station 98.9 WMMO and brought the Magic basketball team to Orlando. He met Ken while he was away one summer for business out in California.

“I have family in Los Angeles, so I have spent a lot of time there,”Ken says, who worked in the steel making industry for 25 years and also in education. “At that time, I was working in the charter school system, so I would spend my summers [in L.A.] helping take care of my nephew who is a quadriplegic. That particular summer, I had become his caregiver. I decided to attend this Fourth of July celebration that I had been invited to. I saw Bob across the room, and I thought we were making eye contact.”

Bob jokes and says Ken was cruising him, but when Ken finally approached them they noticed a connection. They went out on a date and ended up spending a lot of their time with each other for the rest of the summer.

With the end of the summer drawing to a close, Bob was to stay in L.A. and he wanted Ken to stay there with him. Ken’s job back in Ohio fell through, so Ken decided to stay in L.A. with Bob. Not too long after, Bob was asked to become the Central Florida finance chair for the 2012 Obama reelection campaign —so Bob and Ken moved to Orlando.

The two grew closer over the years, and while they were in Europe for a trip Bob decided he was going to ask Ken the big question.

“One of the other things about me is I’m an artist,”Bob says. “I have a photography exhibition in Germany and on the way back from my art show in Germany we stopped over in Paris. I knew since we were going to Paris, and Paris is such a romantic city, that I would ask Ken to marry me —and so I did right there on the bridge over the River Seine in front of the Eiffel Tower.”

While Bob jokes about how Ken never answered his proposal, Ken explained how he felt they were already married in his eyes and answered the proposal in his own way.

“My motto and my example of marriage was two people living, working together, planning their lives together, planning the future, establishing a household and how that household would be run —agreeing on those things, but at times disagreeing,”Ken says. “But even in those times of disagreement, always coming to a solution and a conclusion. My motto and my example was two people who clearly loved one and other, who openly and freely showed love and affection for one and other. That example and motto of marriage came from my parents. It’s probably one of the fondest memories of my early life. But at an early age I decided I would never be able to have that because of who I am.”

As for when the wedding would be, the couple had to find a place where same-sex marriage is legal that all their family and friends could travel to, and they wanted to do it on the anniversary of when they met.

They started planning the wedding a year prior to the actual ceremony and ended up with a ceremony date in Los Angeles on the seventh anniversary of when they met.

“People for a long time were just content with committed relationships, but now we have the ability to have our relationships recognized and it’s a wonderful thing,”Bob says.

As the big day approached, the two were overjoyed to share the special celebration with the ones they loved the most. Because of all the people who helped them over the past year to create their special day, Bob and Ken were able to just enjoy the entire experience and not fret over as much.

“To be surrounded by so many people who seem to embrace or did embrace what we share and to be happy about that and celebrate that, it brought a peace to what people thought were jitters or nervousness,”Ken says. “I think on that day we were probably two of the coolest and calmest of the whole group of people that were there.”

They will travel to Botswana and South Africa for their honeymoon. The newlyweds will fly into Johannesburg and a guide will pick them up and take them to the delta in Botswana, where they will they will spend nine days, three days in three different camps, then fly back to Johannesburg and spend their final three days there. Bob and Ken plan to visit the Nelson Mandela Museum while on their honeymoon, and both are looking forward to the spiritual experience along the way.

YEARS TOGETHER: 7 years

WEDDING DATE: July 4, 2015

ENGAGEMENT DATE: October 31, 2011 in Paris

WEDDING VENUE: The Historic Cathedral of Saint Vibiana in Los Angeles

WEDDING PLANNER: Marc Friedland, creative director, and Dusty Church, event coordinator

WEDDING THEME/COLORS: The theme was “Summer of Love” with the colors turquoise and copper.

INTERESTING FACT: The couple met at a Fourth of July party in Los Angeles, and their wedding date was the seventh anniversary of when they met.

Wedding photos by 2 Brides 2 Grooms Photography.

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