Braden Bowers and Christina Mandrell are officially husband and wife!
Tuesday, January 21, at Bachelor Nation the couple revealed that they were secretly dating on December 12, 2024. They gave fans a sneak peek of their big day in a wedding video shared by Bachelor Nation. YouTube page.
“We just got our marriage license. Nobody knows!” Bowers, 26, noted. Unlike them January 2024 proposal switched on The Golden Bacheloris live Golden wedding They especially wanted to keep this relationship twist a secret—for a little while, anyway. “No one knows about it,” he said, with Mandrell, 30, adding, “Except for the people who drive by when we get married in the gazebo.”
The couple said “I do” in a small gazebo in front of a small lake. On the way to their venue, Mandrell filmed Bowers carrying her 8-year-old daughter Blakely “like a taco” because she wasn't feeling well after they picked her up from school. Fortunately, Blakely was a “trooper” and served as the ceremony's flower girl and videographer. (Mandrel shares Blackley with her ex-husband, Blake Dennis.)
The couple kept things simple in their intimate wedding as Mandrell carried white roses that they picked up from Target. Mandrella kept warm by wearing a white fur coat over her wedding dress, which featured a large leg slit. She accessorized her bridal look with diamond earrings and a white hair bow. Bowers, on the other hand, looked dapper in a navy suit and light blue dress shirt.
In their vows, Bowers and Mandrell said, “When I place this ring on your finger, I give you my promise. From this day forward, I give you all that I am. You will never walk alone. I give you my heart and soul all the days of my life.
The officiant also reminded the two that from this day forward they would be “holding your best friend's hands.” “These hands will work alongside yours to shape your future. These hands will love and cherish you passionately and will be able to comfort you like no other. … And finally, those hands, even if wrinkled with age, still reach for yours,” she added.
After Bowers and Mandrell were pronounced husband and wife, they had their first dance as a married couple at the gazebo. “It's the best wedding ever,” Bowers exclaimed in the video.
Bachelor Nation fans met Mandrell Zach ShallcrossSeason 27 Bachelor in 2023 and Bowers Charity Lawson20th season Bachelor later that year. In the December 2023 season 9 finale Bachelor in Paradiseit turned out that both met after Bowers' short novels with Cat Izzo and Rachel Recchia in the show.
Two months after Bowers got down on one knee Golden wedding special, he and Mandrell sparked wedding rumors after they posed a wedding themed photo session in March 2024.
The couple revealed their decision to have a smaller wedding on Tuesday's episode The Bachelor Happy Hour Podcast.Mandrell explained that a larger celebration would have drawn attention to their guests.
“We want a guest experience, like if we're doing something, even if we just have people in town… we want to make sure that our focus is on them, that everything's perfect, napkins are swans and little things like that I know , how crazy it makes me, and I know you are too,” she stated. “And so we'd probably visit them. We like to do it, and that's the thing. It wouldn't be hard work, but it's like, 'Okay, it would be less about us.' And so I like how we did it.”