Four Weddings & No Funeral

This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast with iHeartRadio.

Hey, guys, welcome to the Almost Famous Podcast. Ben is not with me today, but we are catching up with some of our favorite favorite married couples from Bachelor Nation, and today we have Mari and Kenny.

Hello guys.

Hi.

Hello.

So last time we spoke, it was soon after your first wedding, the one. Well wait, did you have three weddings? One televised one in Puerto Rico, which is Mara's home, family extended home, and then you also had another more party in Chicago which did not have a ceremony. It was just a party, That's right.

Yeah. So well, I guess if you want to count the courthouse, there were technically four weddings.

Wow, that is awesome. So of all the weddings, do you guys have a favorite in mind?

Well, I mean, well, obviously the one we did at Paradise was it was like was special.

Obviously we and we we came home and made.

That official at the courthouse because we couldn't make it official in Mexico.

So I mean for special for family and everything was Puerto Rico.

Obviously that was where like most of our money was spent on was that wedding. But I love the Paradise One just because it's where we met all that stuff.

The Paradise One interesting. I didn't think you were going to say that. So why is that that that holds a special place?

Well, it's I mean we met there for the first time, we got engaged there, and I just thought it was it was special to be able to go back and do that, and not a lot of people get the opportunity to do that to begin with. So it was just I don't know, it's like out It's like our kids can go back.

And watch that.

Yeah, who well unless they delete it by them, But isn't that.

What's kind of stressful is that like back of the day, we had the tape on VHS, right, and now we have I feel like Apple is probably the most reliant place for us to go back and watch the seasons. They're all on there, but like now, we don't do and I don't think that The Bachelor would give us the tape. We'd have to really go through lots of hoops in order to get our footage.

Yeah, I think our season is also gone from Hulu too, like season seven, isn't there anymore.

So, yeah, they switch it up.

It's crazy. Yeah, those are memories.

Yeah, Mari. As far as dresses, which one was your favorite? You had so many?

Oh gosh, yeah, you know, it's funny. People kind of made fun of us for having so many weddings. They're like, this is so unnecessary, Like no one does this quote unquote in real life. And I'm like, I know plenty of people who had several ceremonies or several parties or whatever. But anyway, one of the reasons I'm very indecisive, like I want to be able to wear all of the different styles, and I feel like I pushed that, you know.

I understand. I love my two wedding dresses, but man, I think a third would have been great. That third may have really completed it, you know, satisfied every fashion sense that I have.

You can always do a vow renewal.

I don't know if I believe in vow renewals, because my mom has instilled in me She's like, if you have to renew year vows, they must have been broken at some point.

Well, I guess I didn't think about it that way.

No, right, all right, guys, So it's been a almost it's been a year since you've been official. What has there been any sort of change in your relationship? Do you feel different now that you have a piece of paper?

I don't.

Yeah, actually no, Obviously. Now when I see people, they're like, oh, how's married life? All that nonsense, and I'm like, no, it's the same as it was because we lived together for like a year prior and literally, I mean I didn't feel like anything really changed after just all the money we spent on the wedding.

Yeah, pretty much.

But like day to day life is I mean, I feel like it's the same.

Yeah. We've been in the same apartment since we got together, like before getting married, So yeah, I mean, although I do change up the dickcor in here all the time and it might feel like a different apartment, it's the same.

Yeah.

Well, I feel like it was the same with us. However, when you have kids, that's when it changes. And if you don't live together beforehand, of course that's when it changes as well.

Right, Yeah, I mean we're we've got our dog kits for now, but I'm sure once like a human child or two come along, then yeah, that would definitely probably change things up.

Is that what you want? To human children?

Two?

Human children?

You know? I go back and forth. I will say, like I've changed my mind over the years. When I first met Kenny, like on the beach, this was one of my first questions to him. I was like, do you want kids? And I told him at the time,

Okay, all right? Do you plan on living in the city for quite some time?

I don't think so.

Is there a different here?

We're for sure.

I think we're going to switch apartments in uh next year and then do one more year in the city, probably for sure, and then I'm not sure after that.

Yeah, if you ask us like our biggest point of contention in our marriage, this is probably it. I would love to buy a house with like a lot of space and land for the dogs. I want to get like three or four chickens, like that's my goal. And Kenny, if you let him, he would stay in downtown high rise apartment for the rest of his life.

Well, it'd still be in the Chicago area.

Yeah, probably.

Yeah, we'll definitely stay in Chicago for now until we can leave. It's more work connection that I would have to stay in Chicago for now.

But Ma, you're okay, you've assimilated into the Chicago life.

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I still don't love the winter. I don't think that's going to change to me.

I can't even imagine, because I hate the winter. When it's you know, thirty degrees and there gets what wind chill like five.

Degrees, it's so bad. I will say this year has been amazing. It was just like fifty degrees a couple of days ago, which is kind of unheard of here, so I can't complain too much. But yeah, it's not it hasn't been terrible. But yeah, that's the only thing I really don't love about Chicago.

Yeah, I understand that. What do you guys do on a typical weekend or a day off together?

It's it revolves around what food we're going to eat and what movie we're going to pick on Netflix or whatnot. Most of it, I'd say that's like ninety five percent of the time.

Yeah.

Yeah. Other than that, I would say, well, football season is, you know, happening right now. So it also revolves around like what day the Bears are playing for me, like when the Ravens are playing, and then we'll choose like, Okay, this is what we're going to have like during the game, and then this is what I'm making for dinner or whatever. Yeah.

Yeah, we don't get out unless there's like an event that we're going to go to, uh, you know, for for something.

Yeah, we're a pretty homebody couple.

We both work all day.

You know, usually by time that's done, you know, and it's cold out, nobody wants to go outside or anything. Yeah, dinner, order food, and we've seen everything on Netflix.

Oh my gosh. Well, you know, keep sucking in the Netflix because when you do have kids, you will never be able to watch TV together again. I'm sorry, but that's just because we have our kids on a pretty weird schedule because I'm the one who likes to sleep late and go to bed late. But guys, you you Kenny are still working in you know, the band scene night life, Mari, how does how does how is that? How many nights a week is he?

Owt?

And do you like care?

Well, actually, he doesn't go out. He doesn't go to a lot of the shows. Okay, I would have won most of the time. I'll go with so it's fine. But even if he was like, understandably, you know, that's his job and he's been doing that for twenty plus years, so it's like, you know, you got to do what you got to do.

I'm like, I'm very behind the scenes with that.

So I actually work during the day from home, like you know, I set up the kitchen table as my desk and it's more of a nine to five actually type of situation.

That's nice, that's really nice. And mar are you working mostly on influencer stuff?

No, So I actually do have a full time so I have my own like social media consulting agency, So I have a good.

Yeah.

I have a few different clients that I run their business social media pages. My biggest is a METS in Chicago right now. They have like several locations and it's huge. So that's actually where most of my time goes. And that influencing is more kind of like a side gig. But yeah, I like it that way.

Have you guys run into Pascal at all from the Golden Bachelorette, considering that he runs some medspas in the area. No, we haven't, but.

We were invited to a couple of watch parties with a couple of the other because they had a few Chicago guys.

On that site.

Yes, uh, what's now? I came drown a blank.

I know, you know how sometimes when you like or like I got to think of somebody's name, and then it escapes you because you're stressed out about the key mumpy name.

So when they filmed in Chicago for Jordan's hometown, I popped in because they were like a block away, and so I met Joan and Jordan for the first time. But then once the show it aired, I I stay in touch with Jordan.

We text talking in PA and whatnot.

And I feel bad because even before their season started, I'm like, hey, you know, if you guys want to get together and watch the show one day whatever, And then like the whole season went by, and every week we would talk and he'd be like, Hey, we're going to Pascals to watch the show if you guys want to come by, and like we always had some bullshit

It's a short season, and I need to know how Jordan is in real life because he just seems so youthful, Like he does not seem like a Golden contestant to me.

No, he yeah, he was. He's like I would hang out with him.

I mean he's he's what twenty years older than me, probably maybe more, but yeah, he had like you know, the tight jeans on and the whole deal. On the date, he was nervous because you know how it is that they're on a hometown date. I'm like, oh, you know, I'm like trying to talk to these guys, but in his mind he's still thinking about like he's.

Yeah, this date with her.

He probably He's like, this is fun for you, but this is very dark rocking for me. Were you on tape?

No?

No, no, no, it was they were like on the river walk and we're like two blocks down. So I walked over hung out with Bradford and some of them for a little nice Yeah. I was there for like fifteen minutes.

Yeah.

I figured it may have been just like a producer pop in say heck, yeah, guys. You are kind of known to me on social media as the starters of the whole watch me rate my outfit for my soule. You guys created that and then Jared stole it a couple of weeks ago for a Macy Dad. So thank you for the idea.

You welcome, Mari.

Do you like order dresses for the content or are you just like you're ordering dresses and like, hey, babe, come and rate what you want me to wear on next date night or next next event night.

So it's a mix of both. I don't even remember like why I started it. I think I don't remember. I think I had just like stocked up on a bunch of new like dresses or something because it was like summertime and I was like, let me order some new dresses, and I was like, hmm, instead of because normally I would just post it like me trying them on and then I like it.

Right, like, guys, which one do you like the most?

Yeah?

And then I had the idea, like, you know, it would be like cool if Kenny did it and it had like an actual scorecard and everything. So that's how it started. And so now I try not to, like, you know, be wasteful, So like if it's something that I'm already purchasing, like a few pairs of jeans, then you know that fits in. Or I'll even do it with like clothes that I've owned for years, like I had to go body suit in like different colors. Yeah,

Anyway, Yeah, I love it. We love it. So I want to ask you guys some fun questions first, just like kind of you know, I wouldn't say rapid fire, but sort of like that. Who's the better cook.

Mari?

What's she the best at cooking.

Any food? Any food I could cook. I cook eggs, I got you know what, I cooked steak better than she does. I think that's about it.

Yeah, meat is more, in my opinion, a guy's territory, because I'm not really down for that either. It's very hard. I also don't choose to make chicken. That scares me. I don't know when it's going to be right, you know, I don't know. It could be pank, I don't know it's gonna be no thanks? What is well? Who is the one to most likely resolve a say sorry first?

Probably Mari.

Yeah, she also starts most of them as well.

No, I don't Besides, where you're gonna live, what kind of sparks a fight?

Usually I have a lot of stuff.

Okay, there's a lot of stuff in a lot of places, And when you have a lot of stuff in a small apartment, there's not like necessarily a place for all the stuff to go. So he doesn't like that, you know. Sometimes there's like, well, yeah.

I'm like a minimalist.

I don't have anything like but it's just there's like piles of clothes everywhere.

See, I don't mind when things are out, like if I have laundry them and put away like that. Of course, like is something that I want to get to. But for me, what annoys me the most is is Jared's little tendency of like leaving something that he has to get to on the counter. And why is it different to me? It's because like if he has like miscellaneous parts of something on the counter, like this doesn't have a home in our house spot. See, if I knew it had a spot, then I could just go put

Well, I don't understand what it's about either, but I'm the exact same way, like I would much rather like the room or like my side of the room be a mess than like have stuff on the counter or like in the living room area like.

That it's the common space area, even though like for you guys, it's all common it's all common space, I suppose. But the bedroom is more of like I guess it's like a dressing room to me. And yeah, but like if the kitchen counter on the coffee table.

You get.

Okay, who is more likely to like plan a vacation, do something spontaneous.

I don't know. We kind of both do that now.

Yeah, well we because we did our We did our first like europe trip to Ireland last year, this year, this year, and then we kind of got like addicted to trying to go to Europe all the time now instead of like besides Europe, so.

I get that it's really the only place I would care to go to.

Yeah, well yeah, and then like it's almost like it was more affordable. We went to Denmark and it was like more affordable to fly into like La and and and it was like all across the board, hotel, airfare, everything was like half the price of go in LA.

Basically, Wow, that's why so many people went over there for Taylor Swift concerts.

Yeah right, he's much more like so, for example, Christmas is coming up, and like instead of doing gifts, he's like, oh, let's just plan a trip instead. So like in that aspect, I would say it's him when it comes to actually planning it though, and like looking for the flights that I do that.

All right, Well, actually leads me to a question for married couples and Christmas gifts, Like I would rather Jared and I just like plan something an experienced thing, or I'd rather honestly just be like, hey, like what charity do you want to give to?

Because like we don't.

Need any more stuff, and we want to give stuff to the kids. You know, that's once you have kids, You're just like, oh, we want to shop for them. That's fun, but like we do not need anything anything else. So what do you guys, what do you typically do? Are you doing like vacations and experiences? And if that is what you know? You just kind of mentioned do you still get little things to unwrap on Christmas? You just need to get a couple of little things? Right?

Yes, that was found out yesterday that she bought something.

Yeah. See I have like two three things for him to unwrap, and I'm like, is that enough? Is he going to get me more than three things to unwrap?

Exactly? We still need something under the tree, like the experience when wrapping it. It's like something small. It doesn't got to be anything huge, but like just just a little something and then we also do the experience.

Yeah, I think.

It's tricky when it's like, omel, it's my money too, So like, let's have a don't mind me anything. I don't really stuff like that. Okay, let's do a little flip situation, Kenny, what do you think Mari's favorite memory from Bachelor and Paradise.

Was probably throwing my birthday cake in the fire?

Yep, that's exactly what came to mind. Really, the bad memory has turned into a good memory.

I mean, it's funny now to look back on it. And you know, it's funny because I was getting my makeup done the other day. This is in aside here, but they were asking me about that moment and they were like, oh, you know, we didn't. You know, you're so nice, like you're so sweet and kind, like I never would have thought like you would do something like that.

I'm obsessed that you said this.

Like that was a very specific like we're on camera right now, like I'm angry, we're gonna play this up like I would not ever actually throw food or any object at anybody in like a normal real life situation.

Right.

So I was talking about this on my other podcast called I Don't Get It, and we were my my friend nass Like Ashley, you like are not confrontational and you always say that you won't speak up in this situation or that, But you are the girl who literally had one of like the most memorable experiences on two

Yeah. Absolutely, And like for me personally, it definitely flashed my head. I'm like, Okay, this is gonna be good TV. Like people are going to talk about this like I'm going for it.

Yep. Okay. So then, Mari, what do you think is Kenny's most memorable or favorite moment for Paradise.

M probably something to do with being naked, like the taco date.

You guys were naked all the time, or I guess like Kenny was more so naked. Why do I have more like memories of Kenny, have you had like a leaf when you walk down.

That I wasn't you.

Was Jacob blackbox? Now? Okay here two years ago?

Why did you get black boxed?

Well?

They I actually so initially I was gonna calm down naked, okay, and then we switched to like a very small speedo basically okay, and that's what I came down, and then they black box that.

To make it look like he was actually naked.

All right, So I knew I had a memory of you not having.

I mean, they talked about it doing doing it legitimately naked, which I said, f I, I don't care, and then they got like they're like, oh okay, we better.

Not do that. So I don't know.

I just I don't even know where that all came from. I think, I mean, there was some stuff on my season with Claire that we were like naked stuff Dodgebable and all that stuff, so I think they were just it was kind of just a playoff of like where I had come from before Paradise, and then it just turned into a thing. Basically every date I went on in Paradise, there was it was new to be involved.

This is a little bit of a t M. I rated our question, and I'm sorry if I'm being too personal, but when you guys had that date where you basically were like naked and like putting like food on your back, was it the sushi tacos tacos? Okay, sorry thinking about sex and the city taco ingredients taco ingredients? Was that the first time you guys saw each other naked? And did you even see each other naked on that day or were they trying for they being a little bit more coy.

So we were covered. They put like fake leaves on us for that, so we didn't see each other like fully naked at that point. I don't remember if we already had gone to the boom boomer.

Before No, I don't think so.

Okay, all right, My last fun question is just what has been your favorite memory as a married couple besides the weddings?

Hmmm?

For each of you, I would say probably our trip to Ireland.

I was actually gonna say that.

Yeah, because it was our first like big international trip. I mean, we've gone to like other countries in North America. We did Guatemala, but it was our first time going like overseas together, and I think traveling with a partner is always like a good indicator of like how your relationship is going to work out, which for us, you know, it was fine, but it really sparked that, like, hey,

So I love it. I think, God, Okay, I well, it's kind of like extended.

But like so we when she moved to Chicago, like me and my dad drove in a moving truck from Chicago, like what is it thirteen hours straight and then my it was me, her and my dad and then like we slept, my dad like slept on the floor because all our stuff was and then we drove back home the next day.

So it's like thirteen.

Hours to Maryland to Maryland, we slept, woke up, packed the moving truck, and then drove back straight like thirteen hours straight.

Holy most.

And yeah, so it was like.

Which I don't think like some people like on the show, don't get like if there's not that kind of effort post show, it's it's really not probably gonna work out. But like for me, it was like it was like, hey, we're this is a legit thing. Like my family was involved, Like we're driving out there, packing her shit, bringing her back, all the whole thing. So like that whole thing, you know. I always that always kind of you know, comes up in my mind.

Oh that's so sweet. That really is It was the beginning. It was like the real life beginning of it all.

Yeah.

Yeah, well all this has to do with travel really, And that makes me think that if you guys were to do any reality show that wasn't The Bachelor, what would it be together as a couple. I the audience is gonna be tired of me saying this, but I've been saying it for time, and maybe The Bachelor will catch on one time. But I think that there should be an amazing race or survivor like show where the

We love it.

But I think it would just be really really fun to have a new spin off show. So you guys had to do if we if you were if we were to create something like that, what format would you want it to be in.

Well, I would say, like, I think more of Amazing Race over Survivor type.

Thing, but not naked and afraid. Kenny, No, absolutely.

No, Yeah, it was crazy though they were like in the they're like in the jungle, like literally nothing.

I'm tough. I don't think I could do that. I agree, I think Amazing Race style would be really good. And I love the idea of bringing back like former couples or like you know, still couples but from former seasons of the show. That would be so much fun.

Any kind of competition, Oh.

Yeah, I'm socially in a high stress situation, like to see how the dynamic is when it's not a romantic setting.

Such a good idea, and I'm like such a competitive person I would yeah, I'd do whatever it takes to win whatever the prize is.

Okay, Well, guys, thank you so much for joining us. This was really fun and we love catching up with you. So come back next time you have anything to promote or you just want to catch Upvoting your second year of marriage sounds good.

Thanks for having it, to see.

Good to see you too. Bye. Well that is Mari and Kenny and they are so cute, So glad to call them a bachelor in Paradise fellow couple success story. Until next time, hope you guys have a very merry Christmas, Happy hanukhah, happy whatever you celebrate if it's not one of those, and happy New Year.

I've been naturally follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on iHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts