Why 2019 Was the Year Bachelor Nation Really Felt the Love

When the Bachelor in Paradise alum returned to the beaches of Nayarit, he was initially hesitant to pursue the Bachelor finalist, worried his peripatetic lifestyle wouldn’t “mesh” with the former beauty queen’s. But six months (and one brief breakup) later, they, and the van he calls home, are gelling just fine. 

“Obviously I was wrong about that because things are going well,” he shared on his podcast Help! I Suck at Dating in October. Mostly, he appreciates that she has a healthy level of snark and the ability to handle his jokes. “I can be myself around her,” he continued. “Which is a nice change.” 

A little more than a year ago, Tartick had no idea he was describing the former Bachelorette when he declared on her Off the Vine podcast that he was looking for “someone that’s sassy, independent, strong-willed, funny, can hold their own and just be really strong.” But after solidifying their coupling this January and moving into Bristowe’s Nashville pad this May, they’re on the fast track to forever. 

“We have so much going on right now that I think we want to continue to move in the right direction, and the next direction is getting engaged, getting married and having kids,” Tartick told E! News this summer. “That’s the timeline of the relationship.”

Though he skipped the Neil Lane-sponsored proposal on Bachelor in Paradise last summer, Wendt was ready to take a knee this fall, proposing in his native Toronto where he and Loch share a home.

With the date set (next November, in her Florida hometown) and the dress purchased, Loch is on the hunt for a planner who can carry out their desired vibe. “We want it to be like a small, intimate romantic wedding and nothing big and flashy,” said the firefighter. “It’s just going to be, like, a garden. Just something really sweet.”

When the Bachelorette duo took their love to Mexico for their August vows, they skipped the beaches of Nayarit for the rooftop of the Royalton Suites Cancun and red roses for tasteful green and white florals. “Our wedding was about us. It was about the life we built together outside of [The Bachelorette],” she shared with People. “And we stayed true to who we are.” 

Now she’s enjoying her new status as Mrs. Abasolo. “I decorated our entire apartment,” she told E! News of their holiday plans. “I got our stockings with our letters on it. I went Christmas shopping with his mom. It’s not our first Christmas together but it is as a married couple and I have really been stepping it up a notch.”

Even the most wishful of Bachelorette fans likely weren’t betting on Fletcher and Rodgers’ journey leading them to an altar. Because with the persistent rumors of the former Vanderbilt quarterback’s ill intentions ramping up even before they took the stage for the requisite grin-and-gush After the Final Rose appearance in 2016, it seemed unlikely she would still be wearing her 3.75-carat Neil Lane diamond years later.

Which, she’s not. But only because Rodgers presented the real estate developer with an upgrade this past August. When they wed in Santa Barbara next summer, invitee Chris Harrison will be watching with pride.

A year after Goose got his gal on Bachelor in Paradise, they returned to Mexico to solidify forever with elegant June vows. (Save for the drag-out fight between John Paul Jones and Derek Peth.) Content to keep up their accelerated pace, the sales rep and the yoga instructor are now eying their next milestone. “We’re going to spend the rest of the year just detoxing, putting good stuff in our body,” Nielson told Us Weekly. “We want to start trying for a family at the beginning of the year.”

Consider Iaconetti the poster child for ignoring all of the standard he’s just not that into you signs. Because after four years of lusting after the guy she declared her dream man upon sight, she was proven right at their August vows in Newport, Rhode Island. 

Every bit as all-in as his bride, Haibon reflected on their perfect day on Instagram, writing, “Ashley is my best friend, my person, my soulmate and now my wife. I love this woman more than words will ever allow me to express.”

Who needs Neil Lane and a beach backdrop when you have this much imagination? The Dallas-based real estate agent went big when proposing to his Paradise love this May. “She thought it was a normal shoot day,” he told E! News of his plan to turn a set up for her online boutique into an engagement shoot.

“We were at the helicopter pad on the roof and Raven had roses in her hand. She was throwing the petals up for cute photos. She did a few practice runs and then the videographer slipped me the ring and once she threw the petals up, I got down on one knee. I blacked out, but I got everything out that I wanted.”

Get you a man that will scale a fence to prove his love. Because while Underwood’s Bachelor run may not have ended this winter with a Neil Lane diamond, he got the girl after a brief breakup. Choosing to take things at their own pace (rather than, say, commit to forever in just six weeks) has made their bond that much stronger, insist the pair who marked their first anniversary in November. 

“We’re still really building a foundation in our relationship,” the former football pro told E! News. “We get to spend the rest of our lives with each other hopefully so there’s no need to rush anything.”

Sure, she waffled a bit in the early days of Paradise, unsure if her heart belonged to Barbour or Blake Horstmann, but once she zeroed in on the tech entrepreneur, she truly committed. Now the California-based duo are busying themselves with putting together their dream nuptials. While Barbour is set on a good DJ and “maybe an In-N-Out truck,” Godwin is thinking big picture. 

“I have a few little things saved on social media,” she told E! News in November. “I have such fun ideas, but good weather, a cool view and a really good time. That’s the one thing we do talk about and reiterate.” 

Yes, the wedding is off for now, but the fact that the couple’s romance was celebrated on camera (and the beaches of BIP) is pretty much a win in our book. “They still love each other,” a source told E! News, “but felt it was best to call off the engagement for now.” 

So he pulled a Mesnick? Nearly a year after Bachelor Luyendyk Jr. dumped onetime fiancée Becca Kufrin on-air to start things up again with Burnham, the pair are married (Harrison officiated their January wedding in Hawaii, natch), loving life with their nearly 7-month-old daughter Alessi Ren Luyendyk and already making plans for a second child. 

“The fact is, I’m really happy with Lauren,” he told GQ in 2018 of their origin story. “So for me, it was all worth it.”