This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast.
Hi wife, Hello husband.
We're married so many times, we are officially officially married, and we have the rings to prove it. I actually now, I think the thing I am most excited about is we get to be public about this because we did have the two weddings, and one of the things I didn't think about was that I wouldn't be able to wear my ring and really celebrate us in public until we had this second wedding. And so I'm excited to
actually get to wear my ring. Something I'm looking forward to because I would wear it around the house and then I would have to take it off, leave it in our bedroom and then go out about the day.
So everybody, we had two weddings. We want to make sure we spill all the details for you all today and share everything that we can with thank you over these next few episodes of the most dramatic podcast ever. And to clarify, yes, we had two weddings.
Let's start there, and you're right, we have some dirt. We have some exciting things to talk about, some things that I think are going to shake up Bachelor Nation for sure, especially from our second wedding, and so yeah, we have so many details, so many great stories, so many things to dive into. We will break it up over several episodes. And we were excited to tell all right here, so.
You were so okay, we're to begin. So we got married for the first time October fourteenth in Napa Valley, California, a place near and dear to our hearts. We got engaged there as well, And I just want to clarify what you explained about the ring, because you were so sweetly. We had this wedding in Napa and then we had another one in Austin, and in between the two weddings, we wanted to keep it private and just announced that we were married all together as one and kind of
make both events feel really big. So yeah, you didn't wear your ring in between. But what was so cute was that you wanted to wear his rings so much that I bought him. I bought Chris this watch as a wedding gift, and he was wearing the watch all the time, saying, well, this is kind of like wearing my ring in between the two ways.
It was my hidden way of wearing something representing us in public without making things public and yeah, the purpose. People are like, why'd you do two weddings, Well, because we wanted two different things. We wanted that intimate, very small, private affair with our family, and that was NAPA. Again, a very intentional wedding. Everything was intentional in that we
were in a place that was special to us. Not only we got engaged there, but we've spent a lot of time there and it's just a place that we have found so many friends, we forged so many memories. So it was a no brainer to go back to NAPA. But that wasn't like the raging party that we wanted to have with all of our friends.
You know what, Yes, there were any reasons, but a huge part of what we kept thinking, I have heard from so many people, I had this great wedding, but I didn't get to even see this person. I didn't get to say hi to this person. I didn't get to talk to this person. And so we really wanted to be able to spend important close time with the people who have been with us since the beginning of our relationship, our family, our closest friends. That was NAPA. Austin was a blowoutrage, rage party.
It really was was, it was everything. I just want to put this into context for the listeners, because well, Lauren's voice, you mean I sound great. I probably sounds a little tired, maybe even a little hungover. Are you hungover a little bit? I was.
Yeah, it's seven pm at night on Sunday, November fifth. We are about twenty four hours after I'm just and you're just by the way all day.
I don't know if I'm hungover specifically because of you know, a few tequila shots that we did do I did several with Bachs or Nation friends last night. But this is the culmination of so much emotion stress because we wanted to pull this off and do it right and keep it secret and announce it the right way and save it for the podcast. So there's just I think my body is just finally relaxing.
There's hungover, which is your nauseous, maybe you're vomiting. Oh yeah, no, no, you've a headache. And then there's like a type of hangover where you have an emotional hangover. Actually a friend of ours, my friend Jen, who came to both weddings. She's a real close maybe of mine. She had the perfect phrase, I thought, after NAPA, she told me. She was like, I'm so exhausted, and I think I figured out why. She said, it's a love hangover. She said NAPA was so full of so much love, and she
said Austin was a there too. But you know we had toasts and speeches from the kids and my siblings and our moms and your dad and your brother and dear friends, and and you know we we had I loved our vows. I'll say it, but she said I left the events with a love hangover, where it was so much wonderful emotion that she said, my body feels exhausted from all the love.
And we'll break both weddings down. We'll get into the nitty gritty and the details and the good, the bad, the ugly. But overall, if we were to paint with a broad brush, I would say NAPA for me was emotion level a fifteen out of one to ten. I mean, I cried seventy times.
I cried so much.
I cried like a baby. At NAPA.
You cried, but babe, hold on, I need to take a minute. You cried way more than I thought you would.
I really and you said that to me. I wasn't sure how to take it. Is that a bad thing? Like you're like.
Oky, well, because you're just a very strong person. Like you're really not a big crier. I mean, I know sometimes you're like, oh, I'm a ball back, but you're only You're only a crier in like like sometimes things with the kids can make you cry. To be honest, you haven't really cried over you and I very much, and I would never. I know that our love is what it is, but I understand that parental love is so different. I have to tell you the truth, and I don't mean to dear up now saying this. I
was a little scared you weren't going to cry. And I know that you love me, but I was a little scared. You're just not like you're emotional, but you're not the biggest crier.
Yeah. I'm usually pretty even keeled in situation.
Which is something I love about you. You stay very strong. I'm a little more wacky, and so you're very centered for me. But I was I think I I think I would have been hurt if you hadn't cried at all. I thought, Okay, he's gonna cry a little bit, But you cried during the vows and NAPA oh, probably five times.
I could not get through the vowel in Napa Valley, I just and again we'll get to the details of it, but again I would say Napa on a scale of one, it's an emotion wise was a fifteen because I did. I cried. I started crying in the morning. And again, I don't want to reveal everything about Napa, but there were just so many things that triggered me during the day in such a beautiful way. Because it's all about family, and that's the one thing that you gives. Let's talk about it, okay.
So why did you cry so many times?
Because the things that trigger me are family. That's what always gets to my heart. You are family. Now you have been family, but now your family is mine. So your mom gave me a gift. This is where it all started. Your mom. We I was doing pretty good. I went to breakfast, I went to work out with my buddy Chip. We got our we got our workout in it's our tradition. We went back to the room and your mom had left me a gift. And I didn't quite understand exactly what the gift was because I
didn't dive into it. But I could see on our bed table that she had left a picture of you and your father, and so the a picture of you and your dad, your late father for those that don't know. And so I write there I just said, I'm not ready for this yet, because I knew what was in that letter, and I just thought it was a picture in a letter. I didn't know that there was a gift in there. I didn't see that. I waited for
you to leave. You left, I think around noon or something to go get ready, and I had the room to myself. So we actually, by the way, spoiler alert, we saw each other the day the morning of our wedding. Yes, we also decided that we stayed together the night before our wedding.
This was a big debate and it's funny, do you in looking back. So Chris was saying we should spend the night apart the night before our wedding in this very traditional way, which is sweet. But I said, look, we have this special three day weekend that we've planned in Napa with our best friends, with our family. I want every minute with you. I want to be together
every minute. I want to wake up with you on the morning of our wedding like a kid on Christmas morning and I won and we spent the night together. Are you glad or looking back, do you wish we hadn't?
No, I don't even know why I was going through the motions of getting a different rooms. I think somebody had given me the advice to stay apart that night. It would make me, I guess, long for you or get excited. I didn't need that.
Well, you know what made me long for you the fact that, let's really tell it all, the week of our wedding, and I think twenty four hours into marriage should get some kind of wife award the week of our wedding, Chris Harrison says to me, Babe, I have an opportunity.
Okay, No, I didn't announce this the week of our wedding. I announced this many months before, but it was going to take place the week it would be.
I have an opportunity the week of our wedding, a couple days before. In fact, I can go to Pebble Beach and play golf and hang out with Tiger Woods, and I would like to do that. It means we're no longer going to travel and nap it together for the wedding. I'll meet you there and I'll meet you there on Thursday. And I said, Babe, absolutely go hang with your real husband as Tiger.
Okay, so revision is history, and I will get back to what made me cry about you.
Can I get a wife award?
No, because, oh my god, I mean, can I just tell the real story of how way because it's actually very complimentary first fight, because you'll agree this is how it went, and this is very complimentary of the kind of woman you are and why I love you. I got invited to this event that I play in every year with Tiger and a few other PGA guys and some of my very close friends that I have known for about twenty years, and I got this call to
go and I turned it down. I said no, And you heard about this and you said what was that? And I said, oh, that was a deal to go play at Pebble Beach And you go, well, Babey, aren't you going? And I said, well, it's it's our wedding week. Zero chance I'm going on our wedding week. There's no way I'm going because it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. No, And so I just I said, don't Eve worry about it. I've turned it down, and you said, Babe, I know you love these people, and I know you love this event.
You love to go do it, and you know I love Pebble Beach. Go do this. And it took a little time because I said, this is a really bad idea. It's not going to end well. But you are the one that actually pushed me and said, no, no, go do that. My mom and sister are going to come in. You go, and that's we will meet up in Napa.
You know what. You're right, and I stam corrected and I don't know why. This is why I witness testimonies unreliable in court. I really didn't remember it that way, but you're completely right. It was like that, and I should have told it that way because we actually both look and sound like better people in the correct version.
And if people will go back to my social media, there was this bit I did with Max Homa, who just came off the Ryder cup one of the golfers, and I announced on that Instagram post that video, I said, if you make this shot, you will officiate my wedding. What people didn't realize is that wedding was in two days and so Max and Tiger, and all those people knew about my wedding coming up. So that made that video even better if you go back and watch it that it was two days later he would have come
to our wedding. Takes were actually kind of the stakes were high. But so I drove over Wednesday night of our wedding, and I got there a day a night ahead of you, which was actually really good because I did some shopping. I got some things for our room, I got some things for you. I was able to kind of lay the groundwork and get things together. Being the organizer, I like details done.
I'll sing your praises because I do remember this accurately. Yes. So I ended up flying in with my mom and my sister who came and stayed in Austin with me while Chris was in Pebble Beach, and it was fun because we kind of had a little girls a week beforehand. And then what Chris did before we got there was he got me flowers. He got me a candle, a Marlow scented candle. What a perfect I mean, I love
a candle and we're low for NAPA. And he got my mom flowers and my sister flowers and wrote them notes that were in their hotel rooms and wrote me a note and while you were gone in Pebble Beach,
you all. So he left me a note for every day that he was gone, and I had a letter to open from him for every single day of our wedding week leading up to our wedding, and then I ended up opening the final letter on the day of Wow, I'm really glad we're doing this podcast because now this is a good record, because I was wishing I had like journaled because I'm worried I'm gonna forget everything. So this is good because.
It did go by. It went That's one thing about That's one thing about NAPA that was I knew it was so good because it went by so fast. And I even thought, in my wisdom and experience, slow this down, breathe it all in, take it all in, and it's it's impossible. And obviously those who have been married and had these moments, everybody knows the same.
Somebody. I think there's got to be a name for the phenomena that happens to your body. Obviously, we're having a lot of wine, and obviously I was just forgetting to eat because I was talking to people in stress. So, look, was that a little tipsy at our wedding events in Napa, Sure, but not to the point of something else was happening to my body. It's an out of body I don't know if you're on an adrenaline high, if your emotions are high, but you feel almost like it's a blur,
you're watching it all happen from above or something. It's kind of surreal.
And we had set originally to have a Saturday wedding, so a Friday night kind of get together, a pre wedding party. I guess it wasn't. It wasn't a rehearsal dinner. It was this amazing thing. And then that we had set up at this vineyard, and then Friday, and then that was Friday, then we're gonna have Saturday. Well, we all love each other so much, and there was this great group of people, a very small group. There's only
forty people at this particular wedding. Forty what what was the final number?
I think we had forty three or forty five people including us at our wedding in Napa. Yeah, And so, like you said, Friday, we did a welcome wine party.
But before we got to that Thursday became a thing. Yes, well we had not planned on, but this was what.
We'd hoped for exactly, I really look. I guess Napa was a destination wedding, even though a lot of our friends live in California. But we really wanted everybody to be fully present for the entire weekend. It wasn't a thing of like, oh, we can't make Friday, but what will be there Saturday. No, we wanted everyone there the whole weekend. It was a destination wedding and I wanted everybody to enjoy Napa. We had lots of great events, but like, go do a tasting on your own if
you want. Though, people gotta be careful about coming in hot to Napa. It's like Vegas, Okay, you can't as professionals in Napa. I would say, if you're going do two wine tastings a day, go to dinner. You can't do more than that, or you are on the floor, which should happen to some people on Thursday. So people
got excited. They started coming in on Thursday. Before we knew it, thirty something people were already going to be there on Thursday, So we had it a Thursday night dinner, which was great and where people also got a little drunk. Everyone's so excited and you get there and then you do a tasting and you've been drinking all day. And I think that was good because people sort of got it together and then didn't end up getting super drunk on Friday and Saturday.
And so Thursday night ended up being kind of this beautiful I called a family meal where we just everyone mixed and matched and no seating chart and we just had this room to ourselves at this great.
We literally the week of grabbed a private room at comp Lined. By the way, you haven't been an amazing restaurant downtown Napa so yummy.
And by the way, we should say from the beginning we stayed at the Archer Hotel in downtown Napa.
My new favorite hotel in Napa. I'm so glad we found it. We only ever discovered it because we were looking for a place with a rooftop view in Napa and a friend of ours, Catherine Reynolds of roy Winery, where we at her wedding dinner, which was amazing, she told us about the Archer and gosh, if you're in Napa, I mean they've got this rooftop. They have music, live music there every Sunday for brunch. The rooms are gorgeous and it's so conveniently located to everything, and so that
was another fun part. Every wanted everybody to stay at the same hotel. Everybody stayed at the Archer. They put us all on the same floor. I felt like I was in a strority again. We were walking on the halls, like knocking on each other's doors, hanging out. It was the experience that I wanted.
Yeah, I love the Archer and I like downtown Napa. There's so many great resorts there and I've stayed at resorts. Well, you and I have stayed at resorts around and it's fun to be out in the countryside. And there's something about being in downtown because you're buying Model Bakery, which is famous for their English muffins, and you know, gots Burgers, and you can go to I think Monday Bakery, and there's tasting rooms and so being in the city is
just cool because it's such a walkable little downtown. It's really cute. So the Archer is it's newly renovated, beautiful, beautiful hotel, and then.
Big takeaway for me, I would say, if you're having a destination wedding, it's helpful for everybody to stay somewhere that has walkability, because then you know, and people are drinking, you don't want them like renting a car, and so everybody could walk and grab a coffee and we didn't have to worry about everyone renting cars on top of getting hotel rooms.
And so Friday, you and I kind of hung out because people were arriving. Most of the guests that were there went off and did tastings and enjoyed Napa Valley. My family, the kids came in from college and they arrived with my mom. My dad arrived on Friday as well, and so we kind of hung around the hotel until late afternoon when we headed off to our Friday event, which was it one of our favorite wineries in the world and just a beautiful tasting room at La Quoya.
Yes, now there was a forty minute shuttle ride to Laquoya. Yeah, did people get to tips here?
Well, we decided to break up the buses.
Was this weird? I in retrospect? Okay, here's my idea. So we, of course people are drinking, we want to shuttle them all around, so we had two shuttles and though tell the la Quoya was going to be the longer one of the weekend, forty minutes. So I'm like, we gotta have some champagne and tequila on the buses. And I thought, you know'd be fun. It's to a babes bus and a boys bus. Everybody's going to be with their a couple all weekend. Let's split up girls and boys. So we had a girl's bus and a
boy's bus. It was sort of like a really really quick bachelor and bachelorette.
Party it was. And our bus we had great tequila and it was pretty chill, had a little music going. Your bus was not chill, no.
Which I thought the boys would have turned it up more. Yeah know, your mom decided she was the bar tendress of the bus, the bus tendress, which I loved, and she was I don't know if she was violating transportation rules, but she was walking up and down the aisle of the bus, pouring the gals champagne throughout the bus ride. At one point she did take the bus driver's microphone. I don't know if that was a violation either, but shout out to Mariabeth Harrison for making a party happen
on the bus. It was a party bus and became.
A flight attendant, just walking up and down the aisle, serving.
Drinks, absolutely telling us to buckle our seatbelts and hold on tight.
She's she's a bad woman.
There's zeals in Napa. It was a bit windy. I was worried at some points, but we were ready to catch her.
I can see his mom going down the day before that.
I don't want that to happen. But so, what was happening on your bus? We never even talked about this.
It was so quiet.
I mean it was quiet.
To say it, it was chill. It was like everybody because the guys were just there was lot a lot of people. The guys didn't know each other, and so it was a lot of just getting to know each other, talking a few tequila.
Wait, you're saying the guys had the deep conmos.
No deep deep. We were talking sports. We're talking golf.
Of course, it's never deep. Guys getting to know each other means so what football team teams? That's guys getting to know each other. Women give us forty minutes on a bus, you will walk off crying. You know each other's how many breakups you've had, you know, like the names of each other's siblings. Okay, got it? That?
Like today, And I'm going to flash forward to today because we had a brunch today post wedding, and our dear friend Sage Steele was here at the brunch along with one of your sorority sisters. And we look over in the kitchen. They're both bawling. They've only been talking for five minutes and they're bawling. That is the difference between them, the women's bus and the boys bus, who they just know. I root for the cowboys and I like to play golf. So we get to La Koya
and they have rolled out the red carpet. It is decked out, It is beautify It's perfect weather. We got so blessed with the weather.
And there was a heat wave in Napa the weekend before our wedding. Our wedding weekend was perfect. It was like crisp and seventy and sunny. So we were just so blessed. I do like to think I sometimes think that my dad is kind of watching over me with those moments. I really feel like because in Austin. We had the weekend before torrential down four and thirty five degrees and then we just sad. The wedding in Austin. It was seventy and sunny and beautiful.
Gary's looking up for it.
I think he's part in the clouds for us. So Laquoia Winery on Friday, and oh my dreams came true because right as I entered, I was handed I'm gonna be a little bougie, a caviar bite, a caviar bite, and like a little what was it? It was in a pastry. It was so good. The food was so amazing. Look, there was one thing. I'll be honest, I don't know if I'm a bride on a budget. My dress is not that expensive. My dress was pretty. You don't even know how much it was.
Can I guess five thousand dollars?
Dress was like fourteen hundred dollars.
You're dress as fourteen hundred dollars, not fourteen thousand. It was fourteen hundred, which is still a lot of money. I'm not like negating that.
It's just it was.
And by the way, that dress, we'll talk about it. But man, that dress, Okay, that woman in the dress.
Thank you. Well, yeah, I mean, I'm not saying fourteen hundred dollars is a small amount of money. In fact, that's part of why waiting. But that's part of why I wanted to wear the dress twice. I'm a Midwestern gal. You've got to get your bang for your buck. Okay, I love the dress. We spent some money on it, Let's wear it twice. So, but I do want to spend money on food, on wine, on like the experience in the room and the space, and if you ever get the chance to go to NAPA. We are giving
some recommendations on this podcast. Lacoia Winery. This it's stunning.
Yeah. So they're tied in with Cardinal as well, same wine maker as Cardinal, this guy Chris Carpenter, who's a genius. And this is up on Spring Mountain, so it's a bit of a drive up there, back into the valley and then back up on Spring Mountain. But man, it is at elevation on the mountain. It is so stunning, so beautiful the architecture, but the views, and it is some of the best wine in the valley as well.
And so we had multiple somaliers doing what we wanted to do is also make it like a tasting experience, so they were doing pourings and tastings with people. I would call this a welcome wine party. We didn't want to be two traditional guys. We didn't do any type of rehearsal really, and we did a welcome wine party. Have some taste. It was all past apps. We had, oh, some crispy fries made in duck fat.
Heck, yeah, duck fat makes anything better. And just I think the difference is we curated and again everything was intentional. We curated the wine and the food and the music and the scene that was Napa and that rolled over into the next night as well, that was not Austin. Austin was like rip roaring, bootscoot and let's have a blast shooting tequila. And we should say, very different crowds and different people attended both because in Napa very close
friends and family of both of ours. As far as the bachelor world goes, there was just.
One, well he's a lot backed into the strong body.
It was Andrew Firestone.
Andrew Firestone m Seed our Friday night welcome wine party. That's the man's happy place, isn't it is Andrew Firestone happier than when he's em seeing something.
When he's holding a microphone in a public forum, that is that is his superpowers.
You know what subtle difference. You're a host, you're a tvo. So I'm not saying you can't m see an event, but Andrew like is an emsy And when I say that, I mean the man lays it all on the table. And when I say that, I mean he literally while he was emceeing this event, jumped on the table full body slid down the table at one point. So we just really wanted Napa to feel like, first of all, every single person who was there we've both known for years.
They are intimate, close friends of ours. And then we wanted, you know, people to kind of feel really part of everything. So we said, Andrew, can you emcy Friday night? And what he did was he brought up different people who we'd asked to give toasts, your brother, my brother, a really good friend's chip and list who did a dual
couple's toast. My dad spoke, and then Andrew was the last person to speak, and he printed out the lyrics to my all time favorite song I Want to Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston, and after giving a wonderful he led the crowd in a group sing of I want to answer Somebody, and he slid it did a penguin belly side across it.
He was a team effort because his beautiful wife and dear friend, Evanna, as Andrew was speaking, kind of gave the she was.
His Vanna, she was his Evanna White.
And Evanna kind of went around the room handing out something. We didn't know what it was. And when Andrew kind of started going into the lyrics of the song in his speech, it took us a minute to catch on to what he was doing. And then we got into the chorus and everybody jumped in and the whole room was singing.
I think what was so funny about it? And clever is he introduced it trying to mess with us and not be too obvious. He said, and now we're reading by the late great W. Houston's that's miss Whitney Houston. So he was amazing, and and Andrew was the only bachelor alum at NAPA. And by the way, it doesn't mean I mean we love That's why all of the
wonderful people were in Austin. We'll get to that. But Andrew, I think, is someone who you like, we're just very close to you and I with both him and Havanna, he's very near and dear.
He's been one of my best friends throughout this whole thing, and we've become very close. But what I love even more is that you have become close to him and Evanna. And yeah, I've been friends with him for over a decade. That's how long ago we did that. Gosh, probably two pictures.
You guys have of like, you know, when their kids are little, you're like sending you're helping change their diapers.
I was at the and it was really cool because I was at their wedding when he got well. I was at their engagement party actually when they came back from Pismo Beach, and then I was at their wedding as well, up at Losa Livos and Santy Naz and so to have him there was really special. And spoiler alert, we knew as well the Firestones could not make the Austin party, so I'm glad that they were able to make nap.
Up because I ask you an intimate question please, as we're talking about like men the way men ways men get closer than the ways women get closer. I kind of feel like all my best friends of me naked, maybe in part because we lived in a sorority house, but I don't know, like women change in front of each other, I don't know what we change front of each Other's no big deal. Have you ever seen Andrew Firestone naked?
I've seen him in his underwear. I've seen most of the guys in their boxers or briefs or whatever from the show. Well, from the show, especially back in the day, we didn't like really it was so on a budget
and on the fly and cheap. I guess we could say that when we were at the original Bachelor house, there was one real master bedroom and primary closet, and all of our clothes were in that one primary closet, and so we would just get dressed, so you know, like the makeup chair was there, so we'd each take a turn and makeup and then we'd get dressed. And so not a big deal that we've all kind of
been in our boxers. So but no, I don't think I'm trying to think if I've really I mean, this sounds weird, but if I've been naked with any of the Bachelor's and I don't think so, but I think I've probably been in our boxer briefs with everyone.
I think that that much like having sex, that that just instantly increases your intimacy level with someone if you just are in the room when they're changing or see them change like all of a sudden, like we're really close. Now, that's what happened to Ben Higgins and I, which made it into his wedding toast to us in Austin, which we will get into. But anyway, it instantly uh bonds.
Yeah, so I get Yeah, I guess, well, because you're so vulnerable, right when you're truly stripped down, you're also stripped down emotionally, and it's like you're.
Not That's exactly why you just nailed it.
Yeah, that's why the naked shows do so well, because what are you hiding?
Oh you mean like Naked It Free? Yeah, all those shows, Naked and Best Friends. Okay, So Andrew Firestone m Seed absolutely crushed it. We had our I mean, like you know, I love when your friends and family can bring their talents to the table. My brother's speech was so amazing. My little brother John. He made us laugh, you made us cry. And then we had our dear friend Nadine Levitt. She is a world class opera singer and she had actually started the evening with an opera rendition, which I
think really set the tone. I recommend music using music to help set the tone at the beginning, middle, and end.
Because everyone can quiet down, settle in, and Nadine did such a beautiful job. And the acoustics in the place, the opera, it just it brings tears to your eyes.
So there's nothing like a song, no matter what you could say. It's kind of like why American Idol always worked so well because you get instantly emotional from music. So we're all making small talk and chatting and getting to know each other Friday, and then she comes up and sings, and it instantly set this beautiful emotional tone for the night. The speeches were amazing, and then you know Andrew ending the night on a high by jumping on the.
Tape, and there was just the whole party was just a way for everyone to start to get to know each other, have some great wines, good food. It did turn into a bit of a dance party. We cranked up the music.
I forgot about that. We were dancing around the charcuterie board.
We did dance around the charcuterie board. It just turned into a and I guess wow, I was about to say, yours our brother in law.
My sister's husband. He's both of our brother in.
Law laws, singular brother laws. So Andrew kind of became a DJ. Started playing the bangers, and we started dancing. Had an absolute blast until they kicked us out. That was really a theme for everything is we got kicked out of every place. And I don't mean in a bad way. It was just you guys have to go.
We're shutting it down.
We are closing this joint. And so we close the joint again.
Let people do their thing. Andrew, he is so good. He's the director of Vibe. He's so good at creating really good playlists. He brings dance moves. So he went in the back of Laquoya Winery found their like control room. We was in there with their security cameras taking over their sound system. I'm shocked they didn't kick us out sooner, to be honest, but luckily there are friends and we know them. Can we talk about one thing quickly before
our outfits. Oh yeah, Friday night, Yeah, you looked so handsome, thank you.
I wore a Billy Reed jacket that I bought. We bought together when we were in Monterey together previously hosting an event for the AIM Gala, and we saw this jacket and we just both said, that's the one. So I wore this beautiful Billy Reed kind of jacket vest and you know what, I just.
Realized my dress I wore Friday night we also bought together. That's right, because we just went. I listen to you, guys, I planned a lot, but I was also I didn't have a wedding planner at all. We didn't have a wedding planner at all, not for NAPA, not for Austin. You're looking at your wedding planners right here, Chris Arison and Lauren Zema, and listen. I come from a place of grateful privilege, like right now, I wouldn't say I have Like when I was full time at entertainment tonight,
I don't think I could have done this work. Was just too demand it. But it's been really fun to over the past I don't know, a little less than a year spend time on all this and get to do it together. And part of that was a lot of planning, and part of it was a little, you know, fly by the seat of your pants kind of stuff. I'm a bit of a procrastinator, and I don't know. I went and bought a bunch of dresses and we're online,
shopped and returned and I hadn't found anything. And the week before I still didn't have a Friday night dress. And you said, Babe, let's just go shopping. We went to our favorite little boutique store in Austin Estilo where we always find stuff, and sure enough, walked in and got two white dresses and you.
Tried one on and it was I knew when you walked out there was actually another woman trying things on next to you. She stopped, The store owner stopped, and I stopped, and we're like, that's it, ballgame, that's the dress.
One thing I love so much about you is that your years of television have made you pretty stylish. And I love like we genuinely go shopping together and you are into it and you will give me yes as or nos. And he also knows it looks good in photos and stuff so you'll tell me that stuff. And it was really fun and I just realized that I love that. Friday night we both wore stuff that we picked out together, and Saturday we both wore things that we picked out on our own.
So cool because obviously I had no idea. I'd never seen your dress and I.
Wanted to make sure I didn't see your suit, and.
My suit was something very special to me. There is a store, a men's It's one of my favorite words, habitasherie, a true habitasherie, and it's old school.
I think you need to find it is a.
Men's clothing shop and when. But there's a difference between like they have men's clothes and a habitasherie like they that is when they you go get a suit, you have a suit made, and the service there is second to none. They truly this isn't clear.
I've made him explain it to me more. I think a habitasherie how I would describe it as like it's custom. They might even offer you a drink while you're there. It's kind of an experience. It's like what Julia Roberts wanted and pretty woman, but they wouldn't let.
Her shop big mistake each So I go to Kin'sman Shop in Dallas, Texas. And this shop has been in my family for decades, almost a century. It was owned by my uncle Ken and it's now run by my cousin Corey. And if you ever go to Kin'sman Shop, asked for Corey greatest service in the world. So I brought my brother, your brother, my son Josh, who was my best man, and we had suits made. We all
had our own suits made. We picked the color and the fabric and then the inlay and what was monogrammed on our inside coats, and we made shirts as well with everything. Everything to a tea was handmade. And it was a phenomenal experience. It brought us all closer together. It turned into a kind of my bachelor party. We ended up going to a Texas Ranger game that night, just the boys, and it was such a great experience. So that was my suit from kinsman Shop, custom made
suit that fit like butter. I love that suit. Black, beautiful, and I went very It wasn't a tux, but it was a beautiful black cut suit with a black tie, so it looked like black tie.
You looked so handsome. I just wanted you in a black suit. I know you kind of thought about gray, but I did.
Kind of tell you about it.
Well, you're just so classic in a black suit.
I was going to go. I was thinking between dark dark gray, and when I got there, I was like, Okay, this is a no brainer. But the boys all, I guess my grooms men I would call them, although we didn't have people stand next to us. We'll talk about that. But my grooms men all had gray suits, and they got the same ties, matching suits, matching ties.
So gosh, I feel like we're like running through the logistics and you just made me think of something and I want to just pause and take a moment. Everything about both of these weddings was perfect.
Yeah.
I feel so grateful. I feel so lucky. I am overjoyed. The day after our wedding and NAPA, I probably cried six more times just out of sheer joy. At one point, I was showering because we're gonna go to a morning after the wedding brunch and I'm crying and Chris comes in. He's like, what's wrong. I'm like, I'm just happy.
We were getting dressed and crying, heaving in the shower and I run it. I was like, oh my god, babe, what's wrong. What's wrong? You're like, I'm just so happy, which is great. And I mean, honestly, as I sit here now and I look at you, I and my ring, I feel on my finger and I am I am so happy to be your husband. I'm so excited to be married. I'm so hopefully we're not just dragging this on because I love talking about I love reliving this.
We've talked about it a million times, and that's that's how I know this is great because we have so only great memories from every event. And that morning, Saturday morning, was our wedding day. What did you do in the morning? Because I got up and I went to work out with my boys. We went to the gym, got a little sweat on. What did you do?
Well, I need everything get takes women getting ready takes a lot longer, so I kind of just woke up, got coffee and went.
To go get ready.
I would have loved to get a work out in well. I mean, look, we didn't have bridesmaids and groomsmen in the way of like yeah that they stood up there and we both like, like my mom got makeup and hair, and my sister did, and and you know, Taylor did, and so we needed to get everybody ready, and they did. You know, my sister and Taylor and your brother and Josh did walk down the aisle with us. So so you know, you're just getting ready, is what we were doing.
And I probably at that point I was a little Okay, let's let's we haven't talked about this. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, So let's set the scene. It is our wedding day. And I will say that now that both events are done, and they were both so magical, and I wouldn't have changed a thing. They were different, and each was exactly what we wanted it to be and had planned it to be, so I couldn't be happier. But I do think NAPA is to me, our anniversary is when we got married.
October fourteenth will be I think the anniversary.
NAPA was so much more. Austin was emotional because we were with a lot of people we know in love, but NAPA was emotional because it was with our very closest people, I think, and also it was the first time, and so that's what made me think of it, because we haven't talked about this when you said how would you do that morning? How nervous were you that morning or what was going through your mind in the morning of so.
At peace with everything. Everything had come off so well, and again you and I had a fingerprint on everything that was happening, from the gift bags to the hotel.
To the way we are going to go a big announcement career change. We're going into wedding planning.
Yeah, that's it.
It's called let the Journey Begin, Wedding Planners Incorporated. And we're here to start your journey.
By the way, good idea.
Write that down.
Yeah, write that down, somebody write that down. I was so at peace, and there was something I really wanted to have happened that day, which was be around the people I love. You know, you and I were going to separate. You were going to the wedding site to
get ready. I was kind of left to my own devices, and so I went to work out with my boys, and then we got done, got showered up, and I grabbed the kids, Josh and Taylor and my mom and we walked down to Model Bakery, one of our favorite places there, and Napa to get the famous English muff and breakfast, and so we walked down there and it turned out your Theta sisters were there for Missoo, your sorority sisters, and a few other of our wedding guests were there, and so we ended up like like twenty
of us just sitting around having this breakfast again impromptu because it's such a small town, one of the things I love about Napa. And then on the way back, because it was kind of late in the morning, football had started, and so everybody had gathered at one of the local saloons. And yes it was called a saloon.
You know, as much as I wanted every moment with all of our friends of the family, that we again, I'm okay that I missed the football go on.
So like Michigan was playing, and of course the man who officiated our wedding was a big Michigan fan. TCU was playing, so Josh and I and Taylor we wanted to see TCU play, and so we all just hung out, had a little bite and then they stayed there and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. And that's when I headed off to go get ready to head to the wedding site as well.
So you were at peace.
Yeah, really, we're you know the I got it back up though, because this whole thing came full circle to why I was so emotional. I had not looked at the gift. I left at lunch and I went back to our room. You had left by now, and so I'm now alone, really for the first time in the day, and it kind of starts hitting me. And I walk in our bedroom at the hotel and there's the gift that you left me. There's the picture of your dad,
and so I'm like, okay, here we go. I grabbed the letter and when I realized that the picture was not holding up on its own, it was leaning against a jewelry box, and so I didn't look in the jewelry box and I sit down on the bed. I open the letter, and your mom explains to me that in this box, oh god, I'm not going to get
through this, h Okay. In this box are a pair of cuff links and they are your father's and she has never given anything of your dad's to anybody else before, and she gave me a pair of well, your brother John has some stuff but outside the family, and so she gave me a pair of your dad's cuff links. Didn't ask me to wear them, just she wanted me to have them and said she loved me. Now you see why I didn't make it through my valves and NAPA. And she was excited that we were going to spend
our life together. And she loved the way that I loved you. And so I am bawling like a baby, sitting by myself in bed, losing it just and now I'm done. And I think that was the impetus for being done for the day. I am now an emotional basket case. I'm at the tipping point now the rest of the afternoon. So your mom just gets me. So I shower and I get ready. But your dad's cuff links were very much just it hit me. It hit me that I have expanded my family. I love your mom,
I love your brother, I love your sister. I love the people in their lives. Your sister's husband and your brother has an amazing girlfriend, Casey. So it just hit me like I'm family and you're my family. And so I got ready and I.
Think, I, well, what it just means so much to me to say that, because you know I have in the past, I've I've never been in a relationship where someone I mean, obviously it's the the reason why I married you, but I just want to spotlight the simple fact that you respect and cherish the meaning of becoming family. And I love the way you put it that. Yeah, we're married and our husband and wife, but like you, I said this in my vows that you love your family as you love my family as your own, and
I feel the same way. And I feel like we're really on equal footing about that. And I didn't have that before, and it should have been more of a red flag for me before. I think I was in relationships before where I thought, oh, this will come in time. In time, they'll grow to love and appreciate my family. It takes time. But you've always respected my family, and I can see how much you are are grateful that my mom like that. My mom gave you that, and
it is a big deal. My mom had never given anyone. I have some of my dad stuff, my sister and my brother, no one else had ever gotten anything.
Well, I guess I buried the lead too. So Louren and I are big letter writers. We like to leave each other's notes we like to write letters. I had written letters to her all week, and then we wrote letters which I didn't know, but she wrote letters to my kids, Josh and Taylor, our kids, Josh and Taylor, and gave them to Josh and Tay the day of
our wedding. I had done the same for your mom, Donna, your brother John, and your sister Christina, and so I delivered letters to their rooms and slid them under the door the day of the wedding because I just wanted to say thank you and just show my appreciation for being welcomed into your family, and just let them know how excited I am to love you, how excited I
am to be a part of this family. And so that's how we also started the day, was exchanging letters with our loved ones, and then we gave each other letters. I didn't give you yours yet, but you left mine,
and so after I read your mom's letter. This may have been a mistake, but after I read your mom's letter, I then opened your letter because you left me a note when you left to go get ready, and now that I was back from lunch, your letter was sitting on the bed, so I went straight from your mom's letter, and I said, well, I'm already bawling, I might as well just keep going. And so then I opened your letter.
There were other letters that we left each other, but you, yeah, you left one letter in my suit bag, and I, you know, like, how there. You know, we traveled, and so I put my suit in a little suit bag, a little cloth thing that you zip up, garment bag if you will, and I pulled it off and I just threw it on the closet floor and I did not realize that you had left a letter in there. And it wasn't until that day when I'm like, you know, I guess I'm not going to get dressed here. I'll
get dressed at the wedding site. So you know, I'm going to put everything back in the garment bag. And so I picked it up and I'm like, this feels a little heavy, it's weird. And I reached in there. I was like, oh my god, there's your letter was in there. I would have missed it.
Well, that was fate because I was trying to surprise you with it, and I just assumed you would be taking the suit house, so, okay, learn more about suits.
So then it was time to head to the wedding and we'll pick that up in the next episode. Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic pod ever, and make sure to write us a review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.