Photo:Elina Upmane
Elina Upmane
Jillian Michaels’ official bridal gown was anything but ordinary.
While the couple’s wedding location was rooted in history, Jillian wanted to wear a dress that was a “spin on the traditional,” she tells PEOPLE exclusively.
For the television personality, that was a black wedding dress.
Jillian wore a sequin mermaid design with an elegant V-neck trimmed with opaque black fabric, embellished with sparkly flower motifs and long sleeves. The sequin skirt stopped around her knees and cascaded into a flared chiffon-looking hem.
She completed the ensemble with black sandals and a tousled side-parted bob.
There was another catch to the non-traditional look: DeShanna volunteered herself to select her wife’s altar ensemble. Because the two originally expressed different opinions on Jillian’s choice of color, their resolution was to leave the dress shopping process up to DeShanna.
“I found Jill’s dress and I was like, ‘Oh my God, if you want to wear black, I found the most feminine, beautiful black dress,' (the poor woman doesn’t even know the details of the dress). I’m like, ‘I’m just ordering this dress, we’re fixing your measurements and hopefully it looks great.”
TheLetterinofounder also applied her style savvy to her own outfit — a boat-neck mermaid Zuhair Murad gown adorned with cascades of asymmetrical handmade beadwork with a faille overskirt and bow detailing. The dress took over a year to create.
Before exchanging their vows for the third time in front of 50 guests, Jillian and DeShanna kicked off their three-day weekend celebration with a sunset welcome dinner at the Belmond Cipriani, for which the couple wore Dolce & Gabbana.
Jillian and DeShanna legally tied the knot at a courthouse in Miami on July 11, 2022, in front of their close friends and family (including Jillian’s two children Lukensia, 13, and Phoenix, 10) beforetraveling to Namibia for an intimate affairlater that year. “We both love Africa,” Jillian told PEOPLE in February.
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A trio of ceremonies later, the two still have only words of endearment for one another.
“She’s beautiful, she’s funny and she’s so creative,” Jillian tells PEOPLE. “But all that shiny stuff in the beginning doesn’t last. So what makes you say to yourself, ‘I want to walk alongside this human for the rest of my life.’ And I take that really seriously. I’m 49. I’ve never married anyone. I just didn’t believe that there was a human I could do that with until DeShanna."
“She really is my best friend and my rock,” adds DeShanna. “She has this insatiable desire to learn and that’s really been such an amazing thing for me and for us as a couple just to grow together.”
source: people.com
