This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast. Back with my wife, Lauren Zema, and it's wedding day. This is where we pick up. It is our wedding day, and it's time to head to the wedding site and get ready. I've just read your letter. Well, it was a card, a card, You're right, it was a card that I found.
In my don You remember what it said? Or were you too?
I kept it. I kept everything. I've kept all your I cape all of Lauren's notes, I mean virtually all the notes. Even she leaves these little silly post its around and I try to keep all I probably if most of them I keep over the five years.
I keep all of yours too. Actually, I've never asked you this. Were you a note writer before me? Or is this something that because I love to leave people notes. I like to even like if my mom's in town, already here a note, slip it under a door in the morning or something.
You're more of a note writer and leaver than I was. I am a letter writer. That's something that was. I mean not to plug it, but I wrote the book The Perfect Letter because it was based on my grandfather Alfred Salinger who kind of taught us the art of writing letters. And it was just impressed upon us at an early age. If you have to say something to somebody, write a letter, take the time to write something out, and it just meant the world to me. And so
I've always written letters. My dad did that too. My dad wrote me letters. My brother wrote me letters growing up. I have them. My grandfather did. So They've just meant the world to me. And so I've tried to do that with my kids. For each big event and graduations, I write them long letters.
You know what, You've influenced me in that way because I've become more of like a long note writer or maybe letter But I like the surprise element of it, like I like to.
Well, I love finding your notes around.
I hide them in places and I hit a few in your bag when you went to Pebble Beach out of the wedding week, and she.
There was one of my dob kit. And what's funny is I usually will text her when I get them, and I feel dumb sometimes because it's three days later, and I'm like, oh, son of a God.
I love that.
And so we we've left each other a lot of notes and a lot of letters that.
We so do you. I'm not going to be offended. No, no, I do you remember anything in that note or was it too sort of.
No that that day I have a day I remember vividly obviously your mom's letter, obviously about your dad and the cuff links, and then I read yours and I don't remember anything specific about it. Right now, I have it. I have all of them.
Okay, I'll tell you. I'll give you that. So what I really wanted to convey with you it was a card, and now I can't remember the hypocrisy, what the you know what already came printed on the card, but it was something about time and love. And so the wedding gift that I gave to you was this watch. And Chris wore the watch. It's this blue watch, and I just love it because you know, he's got these blue
eyes and blue just is this color. It makes it pop. But I wanted to surprise you with that watch because he I know you love watches. But b and this is what I wanted the card to convey is you are my forever for all time. And so I don't know, I've never I hate saying this because I've been married before, and I don't mean to demean my first marriage, but it's just that when you like, really, I think I
really I would my younger self. She didn't mean to, but she didn't fully understand and fully grasp the foreverness of marriage. I think you're young and you're excited, and you you want to get it right, but you don't really get it.
You've lived a little.
Life, and then you suddenly and you've been through more struggle and you kind of understand that more. And that's why what I wanted to say to you in the card was I wanted the card to explain that the reason I gave you the watch was because my present in my future are.
You in time? And it was no, And it was that. So I got back in that Omega, beautiful Omega box. They put them in these beautiful pine boxes, and so I was.
Sitting there very heavy. My whole care Can I tell I? Can I light the moon and talk about my carry on suitcase for a minute, my carry on suitcase on the way to the wedding. Now, I will say I did encourage you to go to Bubble Beach, but it meant that Chris. He's got like his golf clubs and he's leaving days earlier. So I'm at home and I had to take a lot of wedding stuff. I had to take my dress. I had to take a few things of yours that I'm forgetting now.
Mainly it was all the jewelry.
Well, okay, so that was the carry on. So in my carry on and I checked my dress, which felt risky, but I knew. I'm like, if American loses it, I'm getting there on Thursday. They have till Saturday to get in the bag. I think I'm gonna be okay. And I didn't want to like carry my wedding dress through an airport, and that felt risky. That person, can you I've seen rides do it before. If anyone has a better way about what I should have done, please tell me.
I literally folded my dress and I had one checked bag entirely for my dress. But I've seen people like hang their wedding dress and that little closet on the plane. I'm like, that feels yeah. You somebody spilling a pot of coffee on here.
This is the patriarchy. Why do we have something called ship sticks? This is a company entirely devoted to shipping your golf clubs from point A to point B. So when I get there, it is there. And like at Pebble Beach, I didn't want to carry my clubs the rest of the week. I ship sticks them back home.
You know what, I'm going to look it up. I bet there's something that is dress ship ship your wedding dress, Ship your wedding dress. I guess I could have that felt what's riskier? That felt riskier to me than the airline having the bag. Yeah. Rides dot com a complete guide to shipping a wedding dress. Okay, Well, should have Google said been a lot, some has been planned and some we had.
We had, we had some pretty we had jewelry.
Okay, So my carry on is so heavy because it's not one but two of these Omega boxes.
That are probably about ten pounds each.
Because I gifted you a watch and then you also you wore that on Friday night. On Saturday, you wore a different gorgeous Omega watch with in a nice little nod their signature rose gold color metal.
Yeah, they have a patent rose gold that only Omega.
Watched Cia Gold.
Yeah, and it's gorgeous.
So you wore that watch. It was a loner from M Robinson, M Robinson Fine Jewelers here in Austin. Again, we wanted everything to be meaningful and M Robinson is our favorite local jeweler, although they also have everything online. A little shout out to them. We love them.
Yeah, they took it just they made us again. It's like Kinsmanshop where I got my suits, Like I love places that make you feel like family. You get there, you get some bubbly, you get a glass, that.
Whole thing of like an older generation with say I got a guy. You gotta have a guy. You gotta have a doctor, a tailor, a jeweler anyway, So em Robinson Fine Jewelers is so wonderful here in Austin. And they loaned you this beautiful watch. So I've got two watches of my carry on. I also have like our rings in my carry on, both of our wedding bands, yes, which we both got both at M Robinson. They I have a I guess we can reveal it now. I have a custom designed by them. It's two rows of
pave diamonds on this gorgeous fourteen carrot white gold. I think I could be wrong, and you have this beautiful gold band.
Yeah, I was not sure I was going to do gold, and I chose this. It's a little bit would you say, not rustic, but it's a little bit. I think it's moderssed distressed. It's a little stressed gold and.
It's kind of a brushed gold with a more glossy yeah.
So it has a texture to it. It is a beautiful texture to it. And one thing I can also tell you is inside what I had etched inside, which was something very important to me. My grandfather again, Alfred Salinger, who is one of the idols and uh you know, the patriarch of our family. His ring was a lover's knot, and as each child got married, we all had lovers
not as our rings in honor of our grandfather. And so inside this ring I etched a lover's not, just as a nod to my grandfather, who means so much to me. God rest his soul.
I don't know how they engraved it, but they.
Didn't, I know they and they had to send it out to a special person who would engrave it who. I don't know how they do that. It makes no sense to me, but the the art is so it's spot on, it's perfect. And again it's something that only I will know about in you and we'll see. But it's just I just I mean, but it's like no one will see it. It's on my hand, but it's just it's something I the ring.
Yeah, so I well, now we can share. You didn't think you were gonna know be a gold guy, and I will say I kind of knew it on this one, and I had to let you come to the conclusion on your we went ring shopping. Chris kept saying he wasn't gonna pick gold, but I kept thinking, of my mind, Chris is such a classic guy. He needs a gold wedding ring. I think the problem is you were sort of picturing that very dated gold. You need it in
a more modern gold. But you kept trying on these silver rings, and what was happening.
I tried platinum, I tried graphite, I tried silver, I've tried, I tried everything. And I tried to be funky. I know, I'm not like a crazy funky hipster, so I knew that was kind of out. I wanted to be somewhat traditional. But and again, it's like a dress it's like a suit. It's like anything to me when I know, I know, it's like marrying you. When I know I know. And I put this ring on and I'm done. I'm not one that if I walk into a house or if I'm buying a car, as soon as I see it,
I don't need to try fourteen more on. I'm good. I know my decision. I'm pretty firm believer in my gut. And so I slipped this on and I was like, oh damn, Like she's right. I love this gold ring so much. And everybody, because I had kind of made the announcement to the jewelers at a Robinson as well that I'm probably not going to get a gold so we'll just do those later. Let's let's try this stuff.
And when I put the gold on, everybody laughed at me because I they could tell I was just looking at it and I didn't want to love it, and I did, and so I'm so happy and I new classic man, you, and so I was excited. But then I didn't you know, I didn't get a chance to see it again because you went and picked him money.
Okay, So in my carry on two Omega watches. Yeah, and I'll just go ahead and give the people the numbers, because that's what's part of the intensity of this is how much money I had in my carry on. Two Omega watches were well into the tens of thousands of dollars at this point.
Yeah. The one I borrowed, I'll just say, because I did not purchase it, they loaned it to me for the wedding was a thirty seven thousand dollars watch, Okay, So.
I didn't even realize it was that much. Wow, Okay, I was. I was olden onto this everybody. So probably we're we're over forty thousand dollars in watches. Add in our rings. That's taken us, you know, almost into fifty probably. Then I had in the carry on earrings. I borrowed earrings from m Robinson and Fine Jewelers that were these gorgeous drop diamond earrings, custom designs by them, and those were worth forty five thousand dollars. So I guess I'm not great at math.
We're into the six figures were well, you said, over one.
Hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry in my carry on. And this wasn't like some red carpet situation where I had a security detail with me. I'm just di y bride. You had your mom, Donna, Well, Donna is a scary lady, chures to be. That's a good point. I should have felt safer. I did. I told her it was in there, and if I had to go to the bathroom, I either took the carry on with ears and Mom she was, oh, I'm not leaving it, like okay, I mean she was
sitting on the carry on. Ye, So listen, and you know, I will say airports are pretty safe. It's telling people get their carry anstone all the time. But I had one hundred grand of stuff in my carry on. It was so heavy. So that was what I brought to NAPA, because you had to carry your golf clubspell.
No, I didn't I ship sticks to book. I did not have them. I shipped them back because I didn't want to have them. So we have all this, and so we exchange our letters. I didn't want to give you mine until I wanted you to read it there, and I wasn't sure how to hide that or do it.
So what I did is Josh and Taylor, our kids, rode with me to the wedding site, which we had at this at a private house there in Napa Valley, and you were getting ready there at the house, and so I had Taylor who came up and spent like the last hour or so with you. I said, hey, will you take this to LZ And so she brought you my letter so you didn't get it for you know, there's like two hours before game time is when you got my letter, which was wonderful and it was it
was simple. It was just telling you how much I loved you.
Yeah, I think you'd put a lot. You'd put a lot into each letter up to that day. I actually that final day, I was glad you didn't like throw a ton at me in that one, because I all right in my makeup, boll.
I waited. So what I did was I wrote you all those letters before I went to Pebble Beach, and I numbered them and gave you the date so you would open them on a specific day. And okay, I've never asked you this, honestly. Did you open them one at a time on each day or did you open them all at once? Okay? Because she wanted what she was instructed to do was wait and open the morning of each day.
I wanted to experience it all like that. I wasn't like a little kid on Christmas morning opening every present I wanted to, I really wanted, and that was a big part of what we wanted to do in NAPA again time.
Well, and I did pre write your letter on wedding day because I didn't want to write that days before. I wanted because I knew I was going to be emotional. I knew I would feel things and go through things with you and your family. So I wrote that the day before because I wanted to express us being a NAPA together and those feelings, and so I waited to handwrite that one.
I've kept all of them, and I I do plan to reread them because again, you're kind of I mean, I teared up, but I was glad it wasn't a big long letter because hey, tip out there, think about when the bride's reading it. My makeup was fully done. If I'd really sobbed, it would have been bad. So hey, way to produce your.
Wedding pal, and so we produced every set.
I do want to go back to something really quick. Yes, I asked you if you felt nervous the day of you said no, you felt at peace. I was nervous for it to go well, not nervous about marrying you. And I actually had a really big realization And it's a piece of advice I wish I could give my younger self, and it's that I don't think cold feet is a real thing. I don't think cold feet is something that's normal, I mean, or something that should be ignored. Oh it's just cold feet. Yea cold feet is a
red flag. And I don't think the day of your wedding you should be super stressed and feeling super anxious, like if you don't feel like I think what happens is people might be really stressed out and they think, oh, it's just the stress of a wedding. It's the roller
coaster of emotion. It's all the planning. But the truth is, if you don't feel at peace that day, if you don't feel this is awesome, and if you don't feel like you know what, yeah, I have like the I think the entire wedding planning process, you should feel like, great, you're gonna throw a party, but I would marry this person in my living room.
Rid you should the nerve should be in a good way, that you're nervous about the great things ahead and wanting things to go well, not nervous. Oh my god, am I about to make the biggest mistake of my life?
And as much as as much well certainly not that. Yeah, that's what I mean. Like but people say, oh, it's just cold feet. Cold feet is a red flag, and I didn't. Of course, I didn't feel any of that, and I felt nervous, but like you know, it's also important to I think, and I'm I'm not I made this mistake before. You shouldn't get too wrapped up in the party. I felt so good about the people we had in Napa, the wine, the food, the beautiful setting.
I thought we're good to go. And I kept saying I could spill red wine down my wedding dress right now and I wouldn't care. The irony of that is that we did spill some makeup on my wedding dress.
But anyway, that story, Oh yeah, I know, I know. You told me it was like minutes before.
You were so funny, and I didn't freak out. It wasn't upset, but it just almost felt like God said, you asked I were getting ready we are about to go and walk down the aisle and my sister goes, don't freak out, like what look down down the front of my wedding dress is I think foundation or concealer. I have no idea how it got there, no clue. Then it's the decision of do we try to wipe
it off? If we do well, that make it worse. Right, And luckily my mom, thank you, Donna Zema had brought a little stain remover wipe because hey, I didn't have a wedding planner, and that is something I forgot. Wedding planner probably would have remembered.
Rule number one, by the way, you should always have the stain remover.
Yeah that was bad. That was my bad, but Donna just dabbed at it. We hit it with a blow dryer and it was a little bit there, but it was fine. And yeah, so I did spill something down in the front of my wedding dress, but I didn't care. I was just happy to marry you.
You were so calm, so cool the whole week and leading up to it. It was so chill and so relaxed because we just it was fun. Everything about it was fun. And again I think it's where we are at our station in life. And what I mean by that is our age and our experience and knowing what to appreciate, knowing what to care about. It's not like you said earlier about demeaning and negating your earlier relationship. You're not and I'm not either. It's I was a
different man. It's on me. I was a different human being then. Yeah, I was a kid, and so I just enjoyed it. I knew exactly what I wanted out of that day, which was spend some time with my kids, spend some time with my my friends, and of course my parents were there, and then before the hour before we got there are officiant, our good friend Mike Levitt,
who is just a very dear friend of ours. If people are wondering who officiated or a wedding and why Mike Levitt is his name, he's now People Magazine famous, but he's not of this world. He's not an entertainment in finance. The reason he was the unknown financi year, he's not anymore.
The reason we asked Mike to officiate is he is. He has the biggest heart. He is in his world. He's spoken at hundreds of events. He's funny, he's he's a big lover. He just and he nailed it. He I mean, he is our officiant cride several times.
Yes and he so we asked him because aa he and his wife, Nadine, the opera singer, are incredibly good friends of mine. I met them post my divorce and they became very very close to me and really took me in and became counsel, friends, caretaker. It was many many different hats that they wore, and we've taken care of each other. And then they were the first people that Lauren met. She's there their yeah, the first friends that I introduced you to. And we ended up going to Cobbo with and.
So and I think that I've said this before, but that helped me fall in love with you. Was it made me like you even more that when I started to meet your friends and see what kind of people you surrounded yourself with, and they're wonderful.
And so that was a pretty easy choice for both of us. If we had said, Okay, who do you want to officiate on three one two three, we both would have said Mike Levitt that was a slam dunk. And so but I I knew that I wanted to spend the hour before with Mike, my dad, my brother, your brother, and my best man, my son. That's who I just We hung out down in the wine cellar. You know, we weren't drinking anything. We didn't do any shots or anything like that. It wasn't drink wine. We
just chilled. We listened to a little music, had some country music on. Just very That's the way I like to be before a show as well. Just very chill, very calm.
He has made the joke a few times that he produced our wedding, and he did. I didn't in a good way. I mean, listen, the guy's done a few weddings, put a few on TV. So he's there like we did. We did do a walk through of the venue, even
though we didn't do a rehearsal. And he's there and he's like, okay, so the light at this time, let me see whose eyes it's going to be at He's like, okay, babe, you stand on this time we get married because I'm better at dealing with the sun in my eyes at this So we'll think about that, and Okay, where's Mike going to be and how why does this ile need to be for the I mean, really really helpful.
I know this because here's the thing. I know. I'm a little aal retentive when it comes to that stuff. And I overproduced because I know what I wanted to look like and I know how it's it's going to look great, and if I don't do it and then it doesn't look great, I'm like, if I had just said something, if I had just so, it's really for me and my own neuroses if I just take care
of it and produce it ahead of time. And so that's how I That's how I spent the hour leading up to and then our wonderful assistant who's worked for me for many years, Karen, came down and said, it's showtime. Lauren's ready, let's go.
I need to tell you a little bit more about the hour before for me. Okay, So, well, first of all, I was nervous, But what would you guess I was most nervous about.
Just your dress? I would think your dress.
I was most nervous that you would think I looked beautiful.
Really, yeah, there's no way you weren't going to look beautiful.
Well, but you want that moment, you know, like we did decide not to do a first look. We wanted to be walked down the aisle.
Oh, that was really important. That's a good note because I know a lot of people do that first look and our photographer asked us if we wanted to do that, and I wanted the first look to be in front of everybody at that moment walking down the aisle.
That's why I was so nerd.
That was important to me.
So that's so much pressure, which I'm not upset about it, but I was so worried about Oh, I.
Didn't know I put pressure on you in that. Huh. Thanks for letting me do that, because that was a me thing I wanted. I didn't want it first. I didn't want to cheat.
Well I wanted it too, but it but when you think about it, like every here's what people want from the groom. They want to see that he's emotional. But how does the groom get emotional dependent on how the bride looks. So I was and maybe I'm over simplifying that and making it too much about the aesthetic. I guess you love me and you would have been emotional no matter what. But I wanted to be so beautiful for you, you know, and I was so look like
I said, we shopped together all the time. Usually we talk about we're going to wear before an event, an event we're not Hailey Bieber and Justin Bieber, who apparently don't talk about she recently said what they were two events, but we coordinate. But you'd never seen the stress, and you didn't know how I was going to do my hair. And I was very worried about how I was going to do my makeup that day and how it would look and how it would be me but elevated and special.
So that was the most nervous, nerve wracking thing.
Can I and I just want to cut to the chase. Can I talk about when I saw you? So it's game time and we did a small it was small ceremony. Again, there's like forty something people there, and we did do a little bit of a you know, a procession where we walked in and I, you know, Mike walked in first and took his place. I walked in second, and I tried to slow myself down. It went so fast I was I was halfway down the aisle and it
was a very short aisle, but you know. I still just was like, oh crap, stop man, look at your friends, look at everybody. So I tried to take it in. And it's funny because I'm really good at that in television hosting, and I know to slow the world down. When I'm hosting, I have control over that. I lost control. I lost control of time, and I don't lose control of time when I'm hosting. I have complete.
Control of time. Ever, at any moment in life. Sometimes I wish he would lose control of time.
And I blame my job, because my entire job since I was in college was TV, getting in, getting out on time, commercial breaks, hitting yeah, ins and outs, and so I've always it's just been beat into me. And so I can feel. I can feel ten seconds, thirty seconds, forty five seconds, or a minute in my head. I can talk for exactly that amount of time and stop, and it's a beautiful gift that directors love. But I
lost control of time. I just I couldn't control it, and I wanted to slow everything down and I couldn't. For the first time of my life. And I got to the front and I saw your mom, and I saw my kids, I saw my dad, my mom, and I lost it. You weren't there yet. I start bawling.
I didn't know you.
Cry. Yeah, I didn't even get to the wedding. I didn't get to the wedding. And I start crying. I luckily I have a kerchief in my pocket, and I start dabbing my tears and I'm like, and I'm just thinking to myself. I was really scared about my vows getting through the valves, and I thought to myself, oh, I'm dead. I didn't even see you, and I'm losing it. There's no way I'm going to make it through this. So then everybody starts scattering, so I know it's time,
and the pianist starts playing in the piano. And the door was open, and it was opened in a way where it reflected back up where you were standing. So for three seconds I saw you walk across the reflection of the door. That was my first glimpse of you, and I didn't expect it because it was just a reflection. I didn't know it was coming, and it took my breath away. I saw this glimpse of this strapless dress and then she was gone. And so it was the
most beautiful romantic. If I was a movie producer, this is what I would have produced this moment. Feel free to use this in a rom com if you want.
But I saw this three second glimpse of you, and then you disappeared for another minute because you were getting ready, and then you came around the corner and you walked down this It was probably it's probably about thirty yards of a walk into this private house where we held the ceremony, and so I just got this really long glimpse of you and your brother, your brother John walked you down the aisle, and I just I couldn't could I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't fully see you though
I could kind of see the dress, but you're still pretty far away, but I saw your hair was kind of up, and your veil, and it was just a very simple, clean neck, no jewelry, because you have a beautiful neck and a beautiful face, and so it accentuated your beautiful face and your jaw and your angles, and you just you looked radiant. You were glowing, and I looked like you weren't even walking. It looked like you were just floating towards me. And you stopped at the
top of the eye. When you came in, your brother took his seat and you stopped for a second, and that's when I could really see you, because at this point you're about fifty feet away from me, and you started walking down the aisle and I I was bawling. I lost it. I couldn't take it. You were just such a vision, and you looked at me. We started crying. You were I think if I could speak for you, and then you take over. I think you also tried to slow it down and couldn't.
Yes, it's so funny sometimes we It's like you'll say something I was just about to say, which I don't know if that means we're meant for each other. We're just starting to turn into the same person, as married
people say happens. But I so, my brother walked me halfway down the aisle and then he went and sat, and I wanted to walk the next half myself, in part because I'm an independent person and in part because I just really a huge part of it was I really wanted this moment just for me and you, and I tried to take a moment and take it in and I did, And yet it's still.
What's funny is you don't remember doing it. You go, I wish I had slowed down, And then I go, babe, you did, and you saw the video later and you go, oh, that's right, I did stop. You didn't even remember at the time. You did not remember you stopped.
Now I remember pausing because I remember stopping taking a breath, and yet I still it feels I mean, I was stone cold, sober walking on the aisle, and it almost feels like you're drunk or something. Yeah, Like, I can't remember. This wasn't long ago, so I can't remember whose faces I saw as I walked down the aisle. I was trying, and you're trying to kind of glance at your friends and family, but I was also I did want to
just hone in on you. I was trying to just connect with you and have this moment for you and I, this moment we'd produced and build up to so much. And the moment was perfect. I mean I was tearing up. You looked so handsome, The light was beautiful. It had been a bit of a cloudy morning, and I do think my dad was smiling down on us and making sure our day was perfect. Because the clouds sort of parted and the sun was like.
I call them Jesus clouds. I don't know if anyone else calls them that. You know, when you have those kind of religious paintings and you get the rays, the beautiful rays of light, the pinks, and yeah, I call them the Jesus clouds that kind of hit the horizon and that's what was that broke and started shining through as we started the ceremony at this house and again I just felt like, your Dad is shining down on us, and I was I had the benefit, and we'll get
to the Austin wedding. We manufactured and produced the Austin wedding completely different, but this was very traditional, and I like the benefit of being able to stand there and I get to watch it all unfold. I get to see you walk in, I get to see everybody's faces. I'm staring at my kids, I'm staring at your mom
and everybody just it was so emotional for everybody. And again it was just the two of us standing up there with our efficiant Mike, the kids, and our groomsmen and bridesmaids were sitting in the front row of family, and so we just wanted a very simple, elegant look to the wedding, and there wasn't a lot of pomp and circumstance. That was it.
So I'm there, You're there standing in front of me. Yeah, what was at that point? Were you nervous?
You know? And she didn't do the veil over the face. It was clean, you know, she didn't have to lift the veil. And I remember I kind of kissed you on the cheek and said I love you, and we were both kind of shaking, and.
I was so happy. Yeah, I was so overjoyed. I if I thought I felt at peace before we got married, standing there looking at you, I just felt so calm. That really was when I felt like, okay, now I can take this in.
Well. I always find comfort in your eyes anyway. Like I look at you, and when I look at you, I'm like, Okay, we're good. I know we'll always get through everything together. We've already been through some trials and tribulations in our life, and so I'm like, when I look at you, I'm like, we're good. Yeah, And so I just felt I again, I was just trying to slow the world down. Mike was about to start speaking and he did, and he did a beautiful job.
You're right. It was that we were together. That was when I felt, I'm like, okay, now we're in this together. Now we're not.
But I wanted to look at you because it was about us. Wanted to connect with you, but I also wanted to look around, like I wanted to look at our friends. I wanted to, you know, look at our parents and family, and so that was it was interesting. I was just racing through my head and I didn't have those thoughts. Oddly, in my first wedding. It wasn't like that. I don't remember that. I guess I was just so young and scared to death, you know, the
world coming at me so fast. Everything was so perfect in this moment, I just wanted to connect with you, and I just I stared at you. So the vows the most anticipated, dare I say, the most dramatic moment of our wedding, and it's something that you and I were scared to death to do, which was right our vows. Why we were so intimidated by doing this for each.
Other, It's funny we both were. I think it was the hardest thing of the whole wedding.
For sure, because I just didn't want to let you do.
That's the thing. Yeah, I didn't want to disappoint you. I didn't want them to be uneven from each other. Yeah, but like I had all the Yeah, I didn't want to.
We didn't discuss what we were going to write. We didn't discuss The only thing we kind of mentioned when it was all said and done was about how long are yours? And we kind of discussed the link because we wanted to be somewhat even. But we didn't say what we were going to do, what we were going to say. And you went first. You gave your vows first. I told myself, please hear this, don't just listen like hear this, like try and hear the words. And I
failed miserably. Yeah, Like, I mean, I heard what you said, but you know, I I but I just I agree.
I think it's the blur thing again. I honestly, we should send each other our vows and read them.
Oh we're going to And that's again what made Austin so spectacularly special.
I can't recommend getting married twice. Yes, even if you listen, do it on a low budget, just do it because it's like you you get a rehearsal and then you get a show and you've covered it all.
But so you're you're doing your vows, you start crying.
I think I made the joke during the vows that audio I didn't that audio. Can we fix it in post? Because my voice was shaky and I was crying, and I was worried that you wouldn't be able to understand me, or that the people in the back wouldn't be able to hear me, because I wanted everyone to feel a part of it. But yeah, I was crying because I don't even know if I can put a reason why you cry. I think you're crying because of the culmination of the emotion.
Why do you think I cried? Well? When I was going through my vows, I knew I had I read mine two dozen times because I tried to and and I don't mean this in a bad way. I was trying to desensitize myself to certain parts of it. I wanted to get through it because I wanted to deliver it for you in the right way again, Host Guy, I wanted to deliver it.
Desensitize himself.
That's a word. It's such a negative connotation, but that's what I want. I was trying.
I wanted you to cry.
I know, well there was that was inevitable, but there were parts of it. I knew I was going to choke on and I knew where that was. Of course it was family, but I didn't even make it there, like I had to pause. I don't even I'm scared to even listen back because we videotaped it. I'm scared to listen back because I feel like I was a cat being strangled. I couldn't get words out. I had to stop for me.
I didn't think you sounded that way at all, and you did do your thing. You kind of paused and kept going back into your deep host voice and like projecting, I think, to get yourself out of that. But listen to the vows.
It's my fail safe, it's my defense mechanism. I can always go back into that voice and bury it here in my chest so I can get through it. But I didn't.
I was ready for coming up up next the vowels after the break. The vows were wonderful. I loved yours. I don't think either of us disappointed the other.
Yeah, I knew that the main issue for me was I got to your family, and there was where I talk about one of the things I love about you is that you love your family and friends as fiercely as I do. And it's something that means the world to me. Family and friends and being protective of them, being loyal. And when I got to your mom, I
asked for her blessing to marry you. And how I would have loved to have reached out to your dad and I would have loved to have Oh god, I would have loved to have had a relationship with your dad and been able to talk to him about you. And here's stories about when you were a silly little girl, and you know, just things that you get a chance to do. And I lament the fact that I will not have that. And so that's what I knew I wasn't going to get through as I just didn't.
Again, and you're the first person I've ever dated, maybe who's ever said that, but most importantly, who I've ever known, has meant that. Yeah, like I've said, oh I wish my dad could obviously wish your dad could meet the people you're dating, And of course I feel that way with you, but you're the first person where I know that you really mean them.
And I told everybody that I was wearing your dad's cuff links.
And my mom did say you didn't have to wear them. She didn't know if you had a plan, and I know you actually planned. Were your grandfather's.
Yeah, and it worked out. Again, just the beauty of things coming together. I had some very special cuff links that were my grandfather's. There's an S on them for Salinger, and I've had these. I wear them at special events, and of course this was going to be meaningful. I wanted my grandfather to be there, so I was going to wear his cuf links. And then I got your dad's cuff links, and I immediately thought this is perfect. So I wore your dad's cuf links instead, and I
gave my grandfather's cup links to my son, Joshua. So my best man, Joshi got to wear the cuff links and I got to put him. I had your brother before the wedding. I called him over and John put my cuff links on so and he knew. I said, do you know who these cuff links belonged to? He said, oh, these are my dads. I've seen these a million Timess and I love that he knew right away. And then I put my grandfather's cup links it's his great grandfather, his CUF links on Joshua. So it was just perfect.
And so in the vows, I talked about wearing his CUF links and what it meant to me, and that was just, you know, all of it just and I talked about my kids and you being a part of our family and all of that. I didn't make it through any of that stuff.
Well, I think, you know, as nervous as we were, we both hit on the same themes right on family, on making each other's family our own, on why our relationship works, on our partnership, on the joy of it, on you know, just the blessing that it is to be together. And so A, I don't you know, A, we probably need to read them again, but B, I think you know, some of that stuff well we'll keep for ourselves. But it was so it was perfect.
Well, my beauty of Austin is we got to do it again. Yeah, that was That was the beauty of it is that then we got to kind of really take it in. I think better when we did it in Austin because we had kind of yes, yeah, not that we made it through again, but because we didn't.
But so Napa, we set our vows. Mike was an incredible, efficient, funny and he included the audience and and I really maybe everybody says this, but people did come up to us and they were like, God, we were crying. So it was Napa was a much. Napa was very emotional. I mean, it was all of our best friends. We were all crying. And luckily after that we got to go straight to the incredible Roy Estate and have a beautiful wine filled dinner that had lots of laughs and lots of fun.
So Roy Vineyard, which is where we held the celebration and the dinner after was it's something that's it's a place that's been special to me. Catherine Reynolds. I've been friends with the prior owners who I met and actually we used I think we did Roy on the show, and that's that's kind of was how he was arin. Yeah, Ari season and we met them and you film something there, Yes, we did. Yeah, we filmed it Roy, but that house burned down and the fires.
Of twenty seventeen.
Yeah, and so they've rebuilt this beautiful tasting room. It is magnificent, and it has this huge cathedral architecture and this beautiful window I don't know, maybe sixty foot window that looks out over the valley and over their vineyards, and it's it's a place where you and I when we went to just visit Catherine, a friend of ours, and have some wine. One day, we both left and we're like, this, this is the place. We need to come back here and have our celebration.
It was about a year ago because it was harvest time and napole last year. They said, we've just finished rebuilding after everything burned down in the horrible fires. It's taken years. Come see the new place. We went and it was, you know, we I like a little gut feeling. We didn't know where we were going to get married at this point, and we didn't know where we were going to even by that, I mean even what city.
And we kind of both looked at each other and said, this feels like a place or we should celebrate.
It seemed ridiculous that we hadn't thought of it already. It just how that's how right it fell.
As we were leaving roy that day a year ago, a rainbow came into the sky, and then we really thought, Okay, this is it.
Do you believe in signs for sure? Yes, karma signs, the energy.
This is something we should have discussed before getting I know, I fully believe. I mean I've never asked you that we're married. Yikes, still things to learn about each other.
I'm a big believer in that. And so yeah, we walked out and again if I told you, you know, we have the picture, maybe we'll even post it because it was so perfect and ridiculous the way it arched over the exit as we were walking out. I mean it was you'd be like, this is dumb, this doesn't happen, this is Hollywood, but it was. It was that perfect, and we were like, this is it where we were And so that's we had a little like an hour or so of kind of we have some caviar.
Oh my gosh. I again I sound like a brat, but I it was our wedding weekend and I had caviar every day. I was so happy.
Well, the chef, so the chef at.
Roy, chef Tom Stafford, incredible chef Tom.
We got to give him a shout out and he has a little Chicago tie. I think he worked at Alenea in Chicago, Cruit and he was so brilliant, and so we we had about an hour because we were taking some pictures as well, getting all the family photos doing all that. We had this amazing.
We took some pictures at Roy.
Yeah, we took some pictures at Roy, went into the vineyard and if you've been online on our Instagram, you've seen kind of the hero shots of us in front of the tasting room. And again, their wines are spectacular. Chef Tom is incredible and he meticulously went through with us because we wanted this to not necessarily be a huge party. We wanted a wonderful coursed out wine tasting dinner, wines.
Paired with incredible foods for the forty people we had. I do think a struggle at a wedding is the bigger the group, and it's just hard to feed a lot of people. It's hard for the food to be really good, and we wanted some really good food and wow, did Chef Tom deliver.
It's one of the best meals I've ever had in my life.
I never had a meal like this before. Was fun. The first few courses were plaited. We had a Barodica prace salad. We had a short red bravioli with a marscapone cheese. I don't think I'll ever forget this many. I love the food so much. And then the next part was really fun. It was like self serve it they have a hearth, they're an open fire, wood burning oven kind of and he made these incredible Texas little
Texas nod Wagoo steaks, grilled vegetables, salmon, quail. I mean, if you had a dietary restriction, Chef Tom was looking out for you that night. And so then that was self serve and people kept going up for more and more meat. I've never seen.
The Texas wagu was next level.
Oh my god.
Just the quail, oh man, I'm in every every course had a wine with it as well, and.
Of rose, incredible wines. So the food was amazing. After our little cocktail hour where we had the caveat and a little Haimon, a little champagne, we took some pictures, we sat down for dinner and at the beginning of dinner we did some toasts from our moms, which we were we weren't sure if they were going to be more roast and more toasts, but I think the moms
kept it emotionally complementary. Both of them married wouldn't be where we are today without a little criticism from our wonderful mothers.
They were perfec well. The thing is, I will brag on them both. They are both brilliant women. They are both such well spoken, thoughtful women, both so strong and independent. They obviously did a great job raising you, and I will give my mom kudos for being an amazing mom with me. And so to it. They parted. They each imparted wisdom in very different ways. They both had some life lessons that they dropped.
They were both very complimentary of us.
Yeah, they were. It was beautiful.
It's nice to get a compliment from mom.
It is.
It comes around once in a blue moon, on a wedding maybe.
And then the kids got up. Josh and Taylor came in and then rushed it and they killed it.
I gotta say, we didn't know about Josh, and he will say this. He actually said it in his speech, Taylor, your daughter, Taylor has done theater. She's used to being on stage. Little more. Josh. He opened by saying, I'm not a big public speaker, but oh my gosh, I was so overwhelmed with he was so confident and natural and.
He landed some jokes.
Oh he crushed it.
But Taylor got up and she spoke as well, and she was funny and thoughtful. And you know, parents, can I talk to you for a second, So you know how you feel like every day you're screwing up your kids and you're ruining their life. That is childhood, right, I mean every day we're like this is going to cost offs and therapy because you feel like you're messing
them up. Then there's these moments that your kids show up and they speak or they do something and you think, wow, maybe I didn't screw them up so bad, Like maybe maybe they're gonna be okay. They're great human beings. But they know we all as parents have those feelings of man, you know, am I just screwing them up? But that they the way they arrived in that moment just blew me away. And it was beautiful and so Josh Taylor, I can't tell you how much I love you. I
can't tell you how proud I am of you. But we did. We we buried the lead because before we went in to sit for dinner and the speeches. We all gathered for our first dance, and my daughter, Taylor is a beautiful singer, songwriter, performer. It's not what she's majoring in. She's not a music major, but she was pretty proficient as a pianist and guitarist and as a singer as a child and took voice lessons and all that.
Then she still just loves it, and we asked her to sing, and we asked her to sing a specific song. It's a song that was really popular. It still is, but it's beyond we started dating, yeah, but really when we started dating, it's beyond by Leon Bridges. And I've was fortunate enough to know Leon Bridges. I know Leon. He's from Fort Worth, Texas, and we did some charitable stuff together and so huge fan of his. And that song is obviously probably the wedding song of the decade.
But Taylor sang it for us, and.
I think it was supposed to be our first dance, but we really didn't even dance because we just wanted to watch Tay the whole time, and so we were kind of standing there and swaying, and everybody gathered around and again. A song set the mood we'd been in the cocktail hour, and then Taylor was the perfect way to kind of, you know, get everybody together a little bit. And she had been practicing, which meant so much much, and she was just perfect.
You know, it's funny. And so there's the lyrics to the song, and I swear I know the lyrics to this song by heart. But there was a line in there that Grandma would have loved you.
Yeah, she changed that. Taylor changed that.
It's in the lyrics. Oh it is, it's in I thought so too.
I thought she changed.
I did too. So I spoke about my grandmother, who, God rest her soul, lived in ninety nine and a half and was just this spectacular, beautiful Jewish grandmother, and it was the matriarch of our family. So much wisdom, so much beauty. The way Taylor hit that line, I thought she changed it too. I was like, I've never heard that before. I went and looked up the lyrics to beyond it's in there.
You know what shout out today knows how to deliver a line from her dad.
And so yes, she did so. But that then I lost it again. You're right, we didn't really dance as much as we just stared at our daughter in this beautiful and again, when I tell you, the picture that God painted behind her was glorious. The sun was coming out. It was magic, the.
Type of sky that cameras are never going to capture. How it really looked to the human eye.
It was so because the clouds painted it perfect, gave it the depth of field, and just it was magnificent. And Taylor just just everybody was speechless. And she was performing with this this young woman who.
Yeah, shout out to Ellie James, this musician who came and thank you for keeping our secrets. She was the only, you know, sort of outside the person there. And she played the piano. As you walked in for the ceremony, she played one by You two, a song that you know you love you too, and I just.
Thought it and the lyrics are amazing perfect.
So that was a piano version. Then I walked down the aisle and she played on the piano leve En Rose. Now I wanted to walk down to that song for many reasons. One when you again, when you and I were dating, the movie A Star Is Born was big, and I was obsessed with it on Roses and Rose the Bachelor Recap show. I did, I like, spoofed it a lot. I sang shallow. I was totally into the Lady Gaga version of Love on Rose from that movie
with her and Bradley Cooper. And then the one of the ways I really knew I liked you was that for Halloween Lash that year, you hadn't even seen the movie yet, and I said, hey, I really want to be Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga's characters from A Star is Born, and he said.
Cool, got it.
I'll look up a poster and you came up with a costume that day, and I thought, you know, this guy cares, this guy wants to make me happy. It was a really early sign we'd on evenen dating a few months.
Effort efforts, but in the effort.
I mean, gosh, I could go on about how women women are just like I just want to find a guy who can like talk to people. But anyway, so that song was meaningful for that reason, and also when I really looked up the lyrics, well, and I'll give a little shout out to look Levey on Rose Rose. Obviously there's some ties Roses in your life and line and our life and what brought us together shout out to Roses. But the lyrics are about how when you find true love you see life in rose like through
rose colored glasses, life is in pink. And that is really how I feel. I really I did. I'll reveal I did say this in the vows. I said, I never knew life could be like this, and I don't want to live it any other way. And I really feel that way, and that really is what that song means to me. So so I'm really grateful to be
your wife. And I walked down to that song. And then after you and I got married, Ellie, as we turned around and walked out to go take pictures, she played Beautiful Day by you two, and it was.
Beautiful that was in it, and then Taylor saying beyond and then yeah, the line I know that Grandma would have loved her. And I could not believe that I heard that line for the first time in there. I don't know how I missed it, and it was just perfect. And I went and looked at the lie and maybe it.
Was meaningful that you heard it for the first time.
It is not until that moment because I had talked about my grandmother and my vows as well, and so I really thought Taylor had added it, and I gave sorry, Leon Bridges, I gave that credit to my daughter. But it was it was perfectly.
Meaningful because I loved your grandmother so much.
Yes, and that, and I talked about and honestly, without even knowing that that was in the song, I had talked about how I wish my grandma had known you. I wish you guys had met because she would have loved you. And I can't believe.
I can't believe that's in the song. I thought she added it too. I have to say my little sister spoke Christina. Oh yes, yes, she was wonderful. She is a powerhouse executive and she delivers every time. She's solid and she was. She loves you so much. She gosh, she did everything for me. I didn't have a wedding planner, but I had a little sister. She remembered to go. She was the ultimate maide of honor. You know how people are like, oh what can I help with whatever?
Just like do because that day as a brider a groom, I think you're frazzled like she was, like I got your dress. Don't worry like I picked up this. No, I got that out of the bridle. Sweet. She was just remembering things that day and kind of full.
In those situations you do not have to ask no, they just they are two steps ahead of you because you know your brain is frazzled, and so it's nice when people are around you. That's like, I got you.
She was making sure. That's the ultimate sacrifice, right. She was putting my happiness above her own that day and making sure I had fun, and that probably meant she was a little.
More soubers does your brother, because as you were about to walk down the aisle, you realized it was funny, I don't have my bouquet.
Oops, I forgot the bouquet.
Okay, John, your brother has to sprint up the flight is I.
Mean, we were running a little late because I gotten the makeup down the front of my dress. Not very late, but a few we had to get the makeup out. So I'm a little I'm starting. I'm a little bit like, Okay, we're fine, We're on.
Time, but you know, we're feeling it.
I walked down and a massive shout out to my wonderful makeup artist and hairstylist. If you are in Austin or Denver, use Lola Beauty. This is the company, Lola Beauty. I've just found them. I just got connected with Lauren Parker, the owner, who is here in Austin, and this is
another fath thing. She's doing my hair and makeup. And she tells me, you know, I don't mean to sound weird, but I dmd you like three years ago, asking to do your hair and makeup if you were ever in Denver or Austin, because I loved Roses and Rose I watched your show. I'm like stop. She's like sorry, I was scared to tell you. I don't know if that'd be weird. I said no, it feels even more like faith that you're here. And she made me feel more
beautiful than I've ever felt. So Lauren is amazing. I can vouch for her whole company because she works with and trains and evalue. It's everybody who is a makeup or hair artist for her. So she's incredible.
So Lola Beauty, I only become a friend of ours now. Yes, she's now a part of her life, whether she likes it or not.
I told her your family now, yes, And so I bring her up because another thing I maybe forgot without my wedding planner. As I'm like going to walk down, she goes, well, who's helping you? I got ready in this house with this little guest house up these stairs. She's like, well, who's helping you down the stairs in your dress? Because my mom and sister were gone they had to be in for the ceremony. I said, you know, Lauren, I guess you are. You're family, and nowt thank you.
She did it all. So she helped carry me carry my dress down these steps. But then we're carrying my dress down, my brother comes out. He's going to meet me to walk me down the aisle. We're about to go. He's like, okay, he got the text it's time to go from your wonderful assistant Karen. He's like, okay, we got to go. And I said, John, I was carrying my dress. I didn't carry a bouquet down here. And my little brother runs and I said, god, you're in dress, shoes,
don't fall. Runs up the stairs, finds my bouquet. We forgot to dry it off. It had been in water. It's sopping wet. Each rise it off on his brand new suit from you, my sweet little drawn, and just a few minutes late we walked down the aisle. I did find out later I also asked him to hold my phone, but his suit was so well fitt he said he couldn't keep two phones in the pockets, so he threw his own phone into the bushes outside and
went back and got it later. This is why you have a small, intimate wedding with just your best family and friends, because when you forget crap, they're not mad at you. And also they don't do any weird crap. We should talk about that. In Austin, the bigger the party gets as fun as it was. People do some weird crap. You can rely on your friends and family to not get well, maybe not all maybe not extended family. Your close family and friends are gonna not be weird anyway.
So we wrap up with an amazing dessert, and we wrap up with more incredible wines. And it was again, this was so small and intimate. It was so easy to walk around. Everybody kind of did got up and walked around and.
Visibly we were just at two tables.
Yeah I was, you know, it was too big you know.
It was outside on this beautiful patio at Roy.
Yeah, downstairs, and it was two kind of farm tables that ran the linkage, twenty people at each.
Yeah, we were We didn't really have florals. It was candles. We had a lot of wine glasses per plates. So we had amazing florals at Austin.
No, no, because it was four, four or five wine glasses in front of everybody.
Because I think we were outside, and you know, I don't love when people. I wanted the setting to speak for itself. If you get the chance to go to nap but try to go to Roy. It's beautiful. The outeror patios gorgeous.
The views are gorgeous, bringing sand to the beach. If you're adding flowers to Harvest and Napa Valley, you're not going to touch those colors.
So we had a gorgeous dinner and laughed and cried and it was everything I wanted it to be. We've got to have the entire weekend. We got to have that quality time with the people we love the most. And that's why I wanted to do this small wedding followed by a big celebration in Austin because I wanted that time. Now that being said, yes we party.
We did because we so we all jumped in the shuttle and we all rode back together. By the way, it was like, we didn't do that. Let's leave and there's the car and we ride off into the sunset alone. We wanted to be with these people. And that's one thing I think we've learned in our just experience in life. Everything in weddings, a lot of it is made to separate you from the people you love, and the experience
is so different. You're not a part of the cocktails, you're not a part you know, you're by yourself so much. And R and I were like, no, no, let's you know, not screw all the traditions. But some of them were like, no, no, we want to be a part of these.
Well, I didn't want to spend a million hours taking a million different pictures, although you do got to make sure to dick some. But it's that balance. You want time for each other and to connect and to take it in, but you also want to be with the people you love because it's a special moment where everybody you love has made the time taking it out of their schedules and I'm grateful to be together in one place.
And so we all did. We all hopped in a shuttle. We got in the bus and we went back to the Archer Hotel. And again one of the main reasons we chose the Archer, other than it's this quaint, beautiful little hotel with amazing rooms, the rooftop. I think it is the only rooftop bar in all of downtown Napa.
And it was time for my dream to come true rooftop dance party.
And we danced our asses off. We had late night food. I eat my theory about a wedding and so same as Elsie, you cannot have enough food. Just always have food for people to nibble on. So we got there and they had flatbreads, we had doughnut holes with I think it was raspberry.
French fries, sandwiches, sliders, and again an open bar because I think at this point we're pretty wind out.
Some people still drink some wine, but at this point it was time for maybe a cocktail, maybe even some hydration, but it was time to maybe have a tequila and just settled.
Apologize to anyone who sees our reception photos in Napa or Austin I am so sweaty in these pictures. I have no regrets. I was dancing so hard and I was oh, because I'm like, this is what I game for, Like, yes, I came to marry you, Yes I love you. But when do you get to dance then? Like when you're at a wedding and you're with all your favorite people. And we got to pick the songs. We got to pick our eighties and nineties bangers. I did not want to hear the shuffle slide. I did not want to
hear do you remember. No, it was like eighties and nineties. I sound like a radio station eighties, nineties and today. But it was all bangers and shout out to the brother in law, Andrew. This is how diy and intimate. The wedding was. My brother in law Andrew made the dance party playlist director of Vibe. And I was in a dress by Olivia Botega that I love. This dress. It's called them in Roe Dress. You can get it. It's available and they, by the way, Olivia botake it
for free. Custom does custom measurements and you send them and they do it a custom fit for you. This dress was so fun, sparkly twirling. Really, I went from an a line like, well, I guess I haven't talked about picking the dress, so the dress I chose, I didn't try on money. I saw someone the other day say they tried on one hundred and fifty wedding dress.
That's just that's crazy.
I'm like, oh, baby, you're never going to get that time back. But to each their own, I tried on maybe ten to twelve. At a certain point, I think you start to get like they all look like white dresses, and it starts to run together. But my gauge was
I just kept going back. I kept comparing everyone to this one in my mind, and it's the fit that I think works best for me after getting to wear a lot of amazing dresses on red carpet c et strapless and it gave me a nice waist and then it was a little flowy, and I loved it, and I did. I couldn't believe it. I did not. You didn't think you were gonna cry, or you well, I guess you were trying not to cry. I didn't want or think I was going to cry in the wedding dress.
Try it. I'm like, no, this, I'm not gonna. I'm I'm a chill bride. And I did tear up when I put that dress on it because I could instantly see.
You told me that. I remember you called me and I said, had to go, you go. I tried one on and.
I cried, yeah, because I could suddenly it was weird. I tried it not and I could see walking down the aisle in it to you, and that was all I can that's the dream. So you changed in then I wanted this other dress to kind of be similar but different, like strapless, has a waste, a little flowy, but like sparkling fun, almost like Cinderella went to the ball, but then she she changed and so it was Towrillian fun. But with all that sparkle, it wasn't I don't want
to throw shade. Get this stress. This is not shade. I want to be clear. I love this dress. Get this dress. It wasn't the world's most breathable fabric. And I am a sweaty person. I am the We've talked about this in interviews. When you and I used to do interviews, I'd get nervous because you don't sweat and I do. And the lights hit you for the interview, I'm a sweaty babe, and I was dancing so hard. I was doing so much good cardio and so anyway, I'm really sweaty in all the pictures.
And we tore it up. It was a great night, and it got kind of intimate because the rooftop shuts down around on ten or ten thirty anyway, so we had the place to ourselves. We took over the entire rooftop, had it very private, very intimate, and it was just it was just wonderful because it was just our people.
The kids were dancing, of those our families, our friends. If you see in some of the pictures Harry Potter esque glasses. Yes, my sortie sister surprised me. They all showed up to the rooftop dance party in her Potter glasses. Also another reveal, Harry Potter made it into the vows. I mentioned Harry Potter and the vows. I actually think our fici by the way, and you did so do I need to real it isn't too much, so.
Do you you do? You?
You know what's going to be funny. Also, is now that people know that we got married, if they saw it on Instagram, I did throw a Harry Potter Halloween party. And yes, I did throw a Halloween party at my home the week before the wedding in Austin, the week after our wedding, and two weeks after our wedding in Napa. Why did I do that? I don't know. I love a festivity anyway, I'm tired but happy and so yeah, fun, fun dance party. You babe, you dance.
I love to dance. I am of the age and the era where dancing was cool, like I wish still in the footloose era, like where you know, going to school in the you know eighties and you know nineties, And we danced. When we went to dances, we danced. We loved it. And so I still love to dance. Not saying I'm good at it. I'm not, but I still love it and I will go at it hard and enjoy it. And so we danced our asses off, had a blast, and then it was time to shut
it all down again. They said it's over, y'all, need to go home. No one wanted the night to end, and I guess I don't know. When it was twelve thirty one o'clock in the morning, we all kind of started making our way back to our rooms, which was somewhat eventful.
I was pretty tipsy at one point. You know, when you're the bride, you're like forgetting to I mean, I ate the meal. I loved it. I probably could have eaten more food physically, but I.
Was chatting, and every bride and groom probably has that same thing. I wish i'd enjoyed the food.
Oh, I enjoyed it. I just should have eaten more.
I that is why I love nap as. I truly truly enjoyed every bite, and it was spectatorical.
I was tipsy, and we are about to at back to hotel room, and I think we should end this podcast on this story. Yes, we're heading back and two floors down, we are down the hall from your dear friend, and you and I are like being I think, just kind of loud. As we're heading back.
To Project the Innocent, we'll call him Chip.
Yeah. I had tried to grab some French fries and a fried chicken sandwichess. We walked out, but at some point the meat had fallen out of the sandwich. The chicken was gone.
Yeah, she's just holding two pieces of bread and a thing.
I didn't really realize that. So we're laughing. You're laughing at me loudly because you're like, babe, where's the meat? You're just eating bread.
Well, you had given up halfway to our room down the hall. You had decided your feet hurt and you gave up and you sat down on the floor in the hall and said go on without me. I can't make it. She's folks, she's not dramatic or theatrical at all. So here we are. It's one o'clock in the morning. She's holding two pieces of bread with lettuce in it, and she's like, where's the meat in here? And now we're being kind of loud again. It's one in the morning.
So your friendship open a person.
No, we don't know who this is. A door opened, so I'm like, oh my god, we've just woken somebody up. We're gonna get yelled at. I feel terrible. The door flies open and a gentleman walks out in his underwear. In his underwear, it turns out it's my best friend Chip.
He had come out to see what the ruckus was. I love how comfortable he felt at the Archer Hotel. If it was his own home.
I don't know what his plan was. I don't know if he had a plan at all, why he what was he going to accomplish if it wasn't us, because he didn't know, he couldn't see us through the people. He didn't know who was out in the hall.
I love his confidence.
He just walked down his underwear to like confront whatever was going on.
So we're already laughing because chips come out in his underwear. And I should reveal that I did have people where I had sort of themes aesthetics for each night. Yes, Friday night in Napa was I called it Hampton's chic. I wanted everybody in Cream's blues. They were actually Malakoya and the aesthetic. I like to have a thing to dress for. I don't know if everybody did, but I liked to have a thing to dress work. So I told them that on our website, I said, dress like
you are the TikTok trend of coastal grandmother. Dress as if you are in a Nancy Meers movie. Dress as if you were Gwyneth Paltrow in courts elevated neutrals with pops of blue. Saturday Night, I said it's harvest in nappa dress in the fall colors Ron's is and greens and fall. Chip was so on theme that on Saturday night he wore boxers with pumpkin pie pieces on them in.
A pattern pumpkin pie underwear.
So this man is not only in this hotel all the way in his underwear, but his underwear are covered in it is a pattern of pumpkin pie and harvest.
We get Lauren to her feet, but then we realize as we start walking away, Chip has locked himself out of his room. He's standing in the hall in his underwear. We're walking after a room and he realizes, oh crap, the door had closed, because where are you going to put the key? You have no pockets. He walked out again. Zero plan from this man, and he's standing there in the hallway and we start to leave him.
And you say, well, you were gonna leave your best friend. I mean, I guess you're thinking, it's my wedding night.
Every man for himself, it's my wedding night. I'm getting my girl to the room. And you can use your imagination why.
Your own peril bezz friend locked out of his room because his wife was asleep locked out of his room in the hallway in his underwear.
You know why he's my best friend. He understood, he said, you go, you go, buddy, it's your wedding night. I am not going to slow your role as I'm standing here in my pumpkin pie underwear. And that is how our wedding night ended. Well that's not how it ended, but okay, that's how we got to the room that was NAPA.
NAPA was beautiful and perfect the only other thing and we don't even need to get into it because everybody was kind of hung over and exhausted in the best way. We did a little morning after brunch at the Archer Hotel. Well, I love the debrief the morning after. It's so fun to relive everything. And you know what, it's been really fun to relive NAPA on this podcast.
But it's only everything we ever wanted. It was everything I ever dreamed of, everything you and I ever dreamed of everything. Again, I use this word a lot. Everything was so intentional between us. We had planned it to a tea produced it, if you will, being the TV people we are, and it came off beautifully.
I couldn't feel more grateful, blessed, not just yeah, I had the perfect wedding, but that I got to marry you, well, you know, the beauty.
I think of that wedding had a lot to do with. Yes, we're in Napa and the wine and the food and the people and all that. But we talk about this a lot seasons of life, and we are in a blessed season in our life where everybody's healthy, which is huge, everybody's happy, everybody's good. And when you were in this a season, the season's this will not last. Bad things and shame things are going to change. That's inevitable. Life
is inevitable. It comes at you. So to embrace all of this happening, our wedding and our marriage coming together in a great season that was beautiful and it was not lost on us, and it made us even more emotional to respect that and enjoy it because it's fleeting and it won't always be that way, so we will always have that memory.
I feel so lucky. We got everything we wanted, and I feel luckiest to have you. And the thing is, as much as we've loved to reliving this, it's only just begun because we haven't even gotten to Austin and Austin was a lot more spicy, yes, a lot more ragy, and a lot more dramatic, so we will get into it all. Wedding number two.
You won't believe who stood side by side at our party at the house. Oh we'll save that for the next one. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic pod ever and make sure write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.