Katie Thurston and Jeff Arcuri are tying the knot!
The 34-year-old The Bachelorette alum and the 36-year-old comedian got married over the weekend, Us Weekly reports.
The two had an intimate backyard ceremony at their own home on Saturday (March 22), which Jeff revealed during an interview with Us two days prior.
When asked about Katie‘s stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis has affected their relationship, he said: “You would think it would cause more tribulation or problems between you, but it’s bonded us more than anything else, which is why we’re moving up the wedding a little bit. … We’re getting married in two days.”
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Katie began to cry, recalling her now-husband’s “sweet sentiment of being there for me,” and becoming her husband before she begins her treatment on Thursday, March 27.
According to the report, Katie will be part of the I-Spy breast cancer trial, which is aiming for personalized treatment based on a patient’s tumor. Following that treatment, which could involve several rounds of chemo, she will undergo surgery.
“It was so sweet. Obviously, we were wanting to plan a wedding and there’s a lot of emotions that come in with chemo and the impact and the health and we don’t know what the next year looks like,” she said. “And one night he said, ‘I want to show you that I still love you and that I’m here to stay. I’ll get married to you tomorrow.’ We flew our parents in from Michigan and Washington State. We got our marriage license and a friend is just gonna marry us.”
They exchanged vows at home alongside their dog, Charlie, and their parents, and had dinner at Da Andrea. They plan to have a bigger celebration after she beats cancer.
“It was this kind gesture of him saying, truly, in sickness and in health,” she explained.
“He is proving that he’s here to stay. He shows up every day and he does it in ways that just continue to surprise.”
“I want to be able to be in the hospital with her and just be like, ‘My wife’s in there.’ There’s more power to that,” Jeff said. “I don’t want to be not with you for any of this.”
The two first met over Instagram, after she sent friends a clip of the stand-up comedian a year ago.
“If you’ve ever looked at his page, you just can’t help but truly fall in love with him as a person. His personality — he’s so pure and just charming,” she recalled.
“So on March 22nd of last year, I sent a clip to my girlfriends. I had never talked to him. We had never met. I sent this clip and said, ‘Future husband.’ At the time, I didn’t realize, but I was manifesting my actual future husband, so when we were looking at dates, I was like, ‘Wait, it has to be March 22nd.’”
They met in person for the first time in Los Angeles on May 5 of last year, and were engaged by August.
“I’ve been in a handful of relationships. Obviously, you have too — on TV,” he joked of his now-wife’s relationships on reality TV.
“Sometimes when you’re in a relationship early on, you feel like you’re being dishonest or there’s a vibe of 10 percent things you don’t know about them yet. And I never felt that with her. I felt that way [about] myself with her. I’ve always felt like an open book with you. There’s nothing I’d ever hide from you. There’s no reason to.”
“You’re the first person to not be upset with my goofiness,” Jeff said. “I’ll dance and sing … and she’s the only person that’s ever been cheering me on for it and then videotaping me and joking with me about it as opposed to being like, ‘Oh my God, what are you doing right now?’ I just love that too. You make me feel not stupid.”
“He’s been great at matching my energy. … People say, ‘You’re so strong.’ I might appear that way,” Katie said. “But I’m also in therapy and some days, I’m very sad. Some days, we’re very fun and playful and make very, you know, out of pocket jokes. So him just being able to match whatever mood shows up that day [is supporting me]. He’s been to every single appointment with me so far. He’s done every single shot that’s involved with IVF.”
Katie also said she underwent fertility treatments at RMA of New York.
“Chemo does impact your reproductive health. It does raise the risk of you not being able to conceive. Knowing that we wanted kids in the future, we thought, ‘OK, let’s do IVF just to have that option.’ We dedicated two weeks before doing anything else breast cancer wise to doing IVF,” she said.
“RMA was amazing. I don’t want to say they specialize in Oncofertility, but they understand — and all that really means is taking care of patients who have cancer who also wanna do IVF. [Some] doctors almost frown upon it or they want to put fear in you and say, ‘No, you need to take care of this cancer.’ So a lot of women don’t even realize that you can take 10 days to dedicate time to your reproductive health and your future family plans. We were able to retrieve 17 eggs and of those 17, six became embryos.”
“The amount of times that she walks into a room reading a message from somebody saying they got checked because of her — she’s taking what’s happening to her and doing good,” Jeff said. “She’s like, ‘I’m glad it happened to me with my platform so that I can help other people.’”
Congratulations to the happy couple! Find out who else just got married.
