To Puerto Rico, straight from paradise!
The stars of “Bachelor in Paradise,” Kenny Braasch and Mari Pepin, were married on Saturday at the Hacienda Don Carmelo in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, in front of sixty-five guests.
“I do believe in signs and numbers, and so 11/11 is obviously seen as a special number and it means good things,” Pepin, 27, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview why she and Braasch, 42, picked the date after becoming engaged for the first time during the season 7 finale of the dating reality series. Braasch proposed to Pepin during the episode.
Given that Pepin’s father spent 25 years in the military, the fact that their wedding ceremony will take place on Veterans Day will have additional significance for her. “Being his only daughter makes me unique,” she explains. “That makes me special.” “He hasn’t had the best of associations or memories with Veterans Day, so hopefully this year we’ll be able to change that, and for Veterans Days moving forward.”
Pepin explains that she and Braasch wanted to make their big day “smaller, easier to manage,” and “more intimate,” so they decided for a destination wedding in Puerto Rico, where a large portion of Pepin’s family resides.
“But we’ve always had the idea to do a couple of other celebrations so that we can include more people as well,” she continues, hinting to a potential future party with pals from The Bachelor Nation.
Pepin made sure that the couple’s dogs, Dice and Monster, who attended the ceremony in tuxedos, were included on the guest list even though there was a limit on the number of guests. “We definitely wanted to have our dogs included, so they flew out here with us,” Pepin recalls, adding that “That was a bit of an adventure.”
During the wedding, which was handled by Braasch’s sister, the pair exchanged vows that they had written by hand for one other. Pepin said “I do” while wearing a gown designed by Justin Alexander, and then she changed into a second garment designed by the same designer for the reception.
Pepin says of her wedding appearance that it was “completely different from what I had envisioned before I was actually starting to plan everything.” Her bridal style includes unique earrings made by Gage Diamonds, glam makeup done by Victoria Duke Beauty with help from Alexis Santana, and hair done by Gia Anderson. “It was completely different from what I had envisioned before I was actually starting to plan everything,” Pepin adds. “When I went to try on dresses, I ended up selecting something that was the exact opposite of what I had anticipated picking out for myself.”
During the event, the DJ played a selection of traditional songs from Puerto Rico as part of the playlist. As an homage to the 1980s-themed prom that the newlyweds went to together on the season of Bachelor in Paradise, the newlyweds selected Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” as the song for their first dance after getting married. “When we walked in, that song was playing, and everybody was slow dancing,” Braasch remembers. “When we left, the song was still playing.”
Sammie Cockerham, a live wedding painter, created a piece of artwork depicting the newlyweds at some point during the evening’s festivities.
Keik by Andrea, a local Puerto Rican baker, provided the guests with a chocolate cake filled with dulce de leche. Guests appreciated the dessert very much. Pepin is heard gushing, “It’s so insanely good.”
The weekend also included a stay at the Hyatt Vacation Club Hacienda Del Mar, Dorado, as well as a welcoming celebration for all of the guests, a rehearsal dinner for the wedding party, and a welcome reception. In addition, Pepin held a brunch for the bridesmaids, at which time they prepared the floral arrangements that will be used on the wedding day. (Jeremy Kregar was in charge of doing the bridesmaids’ makeup for Pepin’s big day.)
Pepin continues, “I am a huge do-it-yourself girl.” “I have done a lot of various projects for the wedding using the do-it-yourself (DIY) method, and I thought this was something new and something that I haven’t heard of before. Because of the high cost of wedding flowers, this is a very helpful strategy for reducing costs. We came across this firm that goes by the name Flower Moxie; they have provided all of the flowers as well as all of the instructions, and they have sort of truly held our hands through the whole of the process.
The reality stars are thinking of going on a cruise across Europe for their honeymoon the following year, while Pepin would like to have a mini-moon somewhere in Canada. “We’ll go stay at Blake Moynes’ cabin in Canada,” says Brassch of his fellow Bachelorette alum, who is also a Canadian.
At the end of the day, all that Pepin and Braasch want to do is spend the rest of their lives together.
“When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of my wedding day and what’s it going to look like and what am I going to wear, but as you get older, you realize that that’s not the important part,” Pepin says. “What’s important is finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with.”
“The most important part is actually finding a person that you want to spend the rest of your life with and that you get along with so well,” she said. “It’s important to find someone who makes you happy.” And it wasn’t until I met Kenny that I realized, oh yes, I’m not thinking about that as much as this is the type of person that I want to be with. This is the kind of person that I want to spend my life with. “That has truly opened my eyes to the fact that it was appropriate,” she goes on to say.
The former beauty queen is glad to be out of the dating world at this point as well. “There is no more wasting time trying to determine whether a person is playing games since this is it. “There are no entry points,” she explains. “I am confident that Kenny is the kind of man who I would like to spend the rest of my life with,”
The institution of marriage is something that Brassch describes as “something that I didn’t think would ever happen.”
“As you get older, you get comfortable being alone for a while; it becomes normal,” he explains. “As you get older, you get comfortable being alone for a while.” “So, to be able to end up where we are and the manner that we met each other, it’s just crazy to me how many things had to happen for us to even meet and get to where we are right now. It’s crazy to me how many things had to happen for us to be able to end up where we are. In order for this to take place, a great deal of luck was required. She is a source of great calm for me.”
Now, the manager of the boy band is feeling positive and optimistic about his future with Pepin. He adds, “It’ll be exciting to see what happens in the next five years,” and we couldn’t agree more. “I have this feeling that we could create a company at some time in the future – we joke about it. However, it is comforting to know that our future is bright and filled with many opportunities for us to pursue. We have already spent a significant amount of time living together, and as a result, we already have a pretty decent idea of how things are going to turn out.
