Jennifer Lopez Reveals What Ben Affleck Told Her In His Wedding Reception Speech

Bennifer is beginning their happily ever after. On Sept. 1, Jennifer Lopez shared sweet photos and sentimental details from her Georgia wedding to Ben Affleck, a multi-day event that took place over the weekend of Aug. 19, through her “On the JLo” newsletter. The singer opened her letter to fans with one of her “favorite” lines that Affleck has written, from his 2016 film Live By Night — “This is heaven. Right here. We’re in it now.” “He also said it the night of our wedding reception in his speech, and I thought... how perfect,” she revealed.

Lopez explained that many outside factors almost ruined Bennifer’s big day, including the Georgia heat, a stomach bug that their families caught, and thunderstorms “that arrived almost on cue each day at the exact time the ceremony was supposed to start that Saturday.” She also mentioned a “few unexpected setbacks,” possibly nodding to the hospitalization of Affleck’s mother earlier that week, but she “never had one doubt” that their big day would be perfect.

“At six forty-five, Saturday, August twentieth, the sun broke free and cast its rays like little diamonds dancing across the river behind the makeshift altar in our backyard,” she wrote. “A warm breeze swept over the lawn where our closest family and friends sat and, at long-last, I started my walk down the stairs that would become the aisle that would lead me toward the rest of my life. Ahhhhh...it was actually happening.”

In the newsletter, J.Lo revealed that she surprised her husband with a performance from Marc Cohn to perform his song “True Companion,” which the two agreed would be their wedding song at Affleck’s Georgia home when they were dating 20 years prior. “As I walked down the aisle, the first song he played wasn't 'True Companion,' however,” she wrote. “It was his ‘The Things We've Handed Down’ — a song about the wonderful mystery of children — something we could only guess at back then, but it was the perfect choice as our five children preceded me on the walk.”

Lopez went on to explain that their children were the only members of their wedding party. Affleck shares his 16-year-old daughter Violet, 13-year-old daughter Seraphina, and 10-year-old son Samuel with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, and J.Lo shares her 14-year-old twins Max and Emme with ex-husband Marc Anthony. “We weren’t only marrying one another; we were marrying these children into a new family,” she wrote. “They were the only people we asked to stand up for us in our wedding party. To our great honor and joy, each one did.”

Before their Georgia wedding, Bennifer tied the knot on July 16 at a Las Vegas wedding chapel, with only some of their children in attendance as witnesses. J.Lo wore “a dress from an old movie,” while Affleck donned a suit jacket from his closet. “In the end it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined,” she wrote at the time. “One we dreamed of long ago and one made real (in the eyes of the state, Las Vegas, a pink convertible and one another) at very, very long last.”

In comparison, the couple’s 3-day soiree in Georgia was a much more extravagant affair. J.Lo shared snapshots from their rehearsal dinner, reception, and post-wedding brunch, all of which had “its own personality” but fit the “rustic country-chic” vibes she was aiming for. She concluded by wishing her fans the same “hard-earned” happiness she’s now experiencing with Affleck after two decades. “Years ago, we had no idea the road ahead would mean navigating so many labyrinths and hold so many surprises, blessings, and delights,” she wrote. “It all culminated in this moment, one of the most perfect of our lives. We couldn’t have been happier.”