Briana Culberson Shares a Rare Look at Her $132 Las Vegas Wedding: "This Is Only 1 of 2 Pics"
Briana Culberson took a trip down memory lane in celebration of her 14th wedding anniversary.
The Real Housewives of Orange County daughter reflected on the milestone in an October 24 Instagram post, which offered a rare peek at her and Ryan Culberson’s Las Vegas elopement. Briana posted a photo of her and her husband standing outside a drive-thru chapel, just hours after they decided to get hitched.
Briana Culberson looks back at her 2011 elopement with Ryan Culberson
“Our $132 Las Vegas midnight drive thru window marriage is 14 years strong!!!” she captioned the Instagram. “Love you [Ryan]. Thanks for our 4 amazing children and all the adventures so far! And thanks for being my best best friend… This is 1 of only 2 pics we have from our wedding night.”
Briana — the only daughter of RHOC alum Vicki Gunvalson — went on to share more details about her wedding night, suggesting she had no idea she would end the day as Mrs. Culberson. Briana said she and Ryan were watching a Sunday football game at Dave & Buster’s when they decided to take a six-hour road trip to get married in Vegas. Although the journey included a dinner stop at Chipotle and a speeding ticket, the couple managed to get to the Vegas courthouse before midnight. They then rushed to a drive-thru chapel and made their marriage official.
“Drove right back to Orange County and Ryan was on base at Camp Pendleton at 5am Monday morning for work,” Briana recalled. “Me: 8 days out from total thyroidectomy [and] Ryan: exactly 1 week home from Afghanistan deployment.”
How Vicki Gunvalson reacted to Briana Culberson's drive-thru wedding
The Sin City wedding was addressed in RHOC Season 7, Episode 12, when Briana and Ryan informed Vicki about their last-minute elopement.
“We've just kind of realized that life is short and we just wanted to be spontaneous and we know what we want," Briana told her mom at dinner. "A couple of days ago, Ryan and I drove out to Vegas, it was just the two of us, and we decided to go to the courthouse and get a marriage license, then we found a chapel with a drive-thru window and we got married.”
Vicki was understandably shocked and began to question whether Briana made the right decision. The OC mom said she struggled to get excited about the marriage and was even "embarrassed" by how it all went down.
“I didn't tell any of my family members or my friends because I didn't even know how to begin to discuss it,” Vicki wrote in a 2012 BravoTV.com blog. “All of my dreams for my only daughter's BIG DAY were taken away from me in an instant (and for that matter taken away from HER). More importantly, the family had not met him or his family. I knew very little about Ryan and now I had an instant son-in-law.”
Vicki, thankfully, had a change of heart and realized that Briana and Ryan had an authentic love.
Briana Culberson & Ryan Culberson have a formal ceremony
About seven months after the elopement, Briana and Ryan had a formal wedding with their friends and family. The outdoor ceremony was held on Santa Barbara hill overlooking the ocean. Vicki and her ex-husband Donn Gulvason walked Briana down the aisle.
“Briana was glowing and the most beautiful bride I had ever seen,” Vicki wrote about the event. “I went ‘all out’ for her… There wasn't a dry eye at the reception."
DWTS to bring in big changes next season including all-new ‘modern’ fan voting process
DANCING With the Stars plans on bringing some big shakeups to the ballroom next season – including a change that will give the show a more ‘modern’ spin, The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal.
The big shift comes off of season 34’s historic year, which included a record-high number of over 50 million fans voting from home.
With the increase in voting, which was up 11% from the previous week, ABC executives have been weighing the options of how they can lean even more into the process.
Currently, the main way to vote for DWTS contestants and the pros is by texting the celebrity’s name to the code 21523.
However, production is looking into how they can implement more modern technology, such as social media, into the process.
“While this season has seen an increase in ratings and votes, execs are looking into how they can modernize their voting process.
READ MORE ON DWTS
“As of right now, they do it old school with texting a number to vote for a celeb.
“The execs have been adamant about integrating things like social media into the voting process, specifically TikTok.
“It hasn’t been ironed out yet, but they’re trying to make voting more accessible and want it to reach a wider audience for season 35,” the source claimed.
In addition to texting, viewers can also go to dwtsvote.abc.com; however, the majority of the votes still come from texting.
Currently, voting is limited to 10 votes per person and per method of voting.
Voting is also only allowed during the window the show airs live on the East Coast and varies by time zone, which is regularly encouraged by show hosts Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro.
While voting has always been done primarily by text messaging, the time window is a more recent change to the show.
In 2019, DWTS implemented the current protocol of voting only being allowed during the live East Coast feed – meaning those in other time zones wouldn’t get to vote when their show aired.
DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba slammed by two furious pros for ‘unfair’ critiques after fans call for her to be fired
While the move was labeled as “unfair” by many, the show has continued with the method.
BALLROOM BUST?
The current season of DWTS has been a huge success for ABC and Disney – but it has not been met without its fair share of drama.
Throughout the season, the judging panel has been called out by both the pros and by viewers at home for low scores and harsh comments towards select contestants.
Fans have also accused judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Derek Hough of “overscoring” their “favorite” contestants, including The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Whitney Leavitt.
Things have apparently gotten to the point where members of the show felt the need to confront production over the direction it’s heading.
“There are a handful of pros, both some who are still on the show and some who have already been eliminated, who are fed up with how they are being treated.
“Some feel the judges have been harsher than they needed to be to them, which not only impacts scores, but it also impacts how the at-home viewers see the season.
“It impacts who they vote for and who they want to watch week by week.
“Other pros like Alan and Pasha feel extra protective of their partners and feel the judges have been too harsh on them.
“Multiple pros have stepped up to meet with production over the judges’ bias and are demanding some kind of change and more fairness moving forward.
“What that change looks like is still to be determined, but they at least got the conversation rolling,” a source claimed.
Dancing With the Stars season 34 airs on Tuesdays at 8pm EST on ABC and is available to stream the following day on Disney+ and Hulu.
