Following the passage of the Marriage Equality Act in New York on June 24, 2011, Harris and Burtka announced their engagement via Twitter, stating that they had proposed to each other five years earlier but kept the engagement secret until same-sex marriage became legal. On September 8, 2014, Harris announced on his Twitter page that Burtka and he were married over the weekend in Italy. Pamela Fryman, the long-time director of "How I Met Your Mother", officiated the wedding while Elton John performed at the reception.