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Love is in the air (for better or for worse) at the La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, California.
Bachelor Nation‘s brand new couple ⏤ consisting of Brayden Bowers and Christina Mandrell ⏤ are officially engaged, with the former presenting the latter with a stunning Neil Lane ring just moments before The Golden Wedding on Jan. 4. How wild is that?
After getting engaged to one another during the finale of the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor, Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist tied the knot on live television in an event called The Golden Wedding, which streamed on ABC (with next-day streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus). Seemingly all of Bachelor Nation was in attendance, from the Golden Bachelor girls ⏤ including Susan Noles, who officiated the wedding ⏤ host Jesse Palmer, bartender Wells Adams, reigning King and Queen of Bachelor Nation Trista and Ryan Sutter, and more.
Claiming to have gotten the blessing of both Turner and Nist beforehand, Bowers and Mandrell sure made a splash with their entry, stunning fans of the Bachelor franchise with their decision to get engaged at another couple’s wedding. Naturally, viewers took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share their true thoughts.
For those who are unfamiliar with how the happy couple came to be, in an exclusive interview with Bachelor Nation, Bowers admitted that he and Mandrell connected in the early fall ⏤ right after he had returned from Bachelor in Paradise ⏤ after seeing that she had commented on a couple of his Instagram posts while he was away.
“I didn’t respond right away, but then I saw a cute Instagram story of her and her daughter, Blakely, and I responded to her story. I specifically responded to a story of her with Blakely, because I wanted to subtly let her know that having a daughter isn’t something that scares me away. Her being such a good mom is actually something I’m attracted to, so then we started talking on Instagram and shortly after we exchanged phone numbers.”
After exchanging phone numbers with one another, things got really serious between the pair.
“From there, we talked like that for a week or two, and we realized we had so much in common and liked all the same silly things, like Tenacious D. She was like, ‘I actually have tickets to see them next week in Nashville,’ and asked if I wanted to go see them with her. I ended up buying a ticket to go see her, meet her in person, and go to the show. It was amazing! She had to pick me up incognito at the airport and it was the funniest thing ever. We just instantly clicked. We had been talking for a couple of weeks, but there was no awkwardness at all in person and we just flowed the entire time.”
After the concert, Bowers and Mandrell committed to a long-distance relationship, which consisted of going back and forth to visit each other in California and Tennessee, as well as FaceTiming every single day. Now, Bowers has plans to move to Nashville to live with Mandrell and her daughter before tying the knot sometime in the near future.
While it might not have been the most appropriate time to pop the question, we could not be happier for Bowers and Mandrell and wish them nothing but the best. It’s safe to say that we’ll be keeping up with the lovebirds on social media until further notice for all of the nitty-gritty wedding details.