Why Rachel & Bryan May Not Get A TV Wedding After 'The Bachelorette'

Rachel Lindsay has accomplished what she set out to do nearly a year ago on The Bachelor — she found someone to spend the rest of her life with! The Bachelorette chose Miami doctor Bryan Abasolo as her dearly beloved, and that’s great for this couple. Now come the tabloid stories, the Chris Harrison interviews, and, of course, the wedding. Will Rachel and Bryan get married on TV after The Bachelorette?

Personally, I see it from both sides — it is quite the temptation to have a television wedding because ABC is paying for the whole thing. That means that if you want doves to be released in 45-second intervals throughout the entirety of your nuptials, you can probably arrange that. You can have lamb chops and sushi at the cocktail hour, because you are making ABC an awful lot of money in being able to broadcast your wedding. The other side of that coin is that you have to invite a lot of people from the franchise that you probably neither know or care about. Blech. It also doesn’t leave a lot of time for you to party with friends and family, which is kind of the whole point of having a wedding — to celebrate with those you love, and not those who were eliminated 8th from last on the 32nd season of The Bachelor.

Rachel hasn’t given any indication of whether or not she wants to get married on television — the only thing that she’s said in interviews so far is that she wants to get married stat. She told Access Hollywood reporter (and Bachelor alum) Ashley Iaconetti that she wants it done soon, saying, “I definitely want to do it sooner than later, but we're going to get to know each other at the same time. It's not happening this year. Maybe next year."

It's worth noting that there haven't actually been a ton of Bachelorette-spawned TV weddings. Trista and Ashley Hebert were about it. Desiree elected to marry in private, Andi never made it that far, and Kaitlyn and JoJo are still in the engaged phase. So there's not a ton of precedent for it, but I'm sure if Rachel goes the public route, ABC would make it happen.

Iaconetti also did her due diligence and asked about a television wedding, and Rachel played it off, saying, "Honestly, I'm not thinking about the wedding because I'm like, 'Are we gonna make it?' which I honestly think we will. I just want us to get to know each other better."

It’s the responsible thing to do, to get to know your fiancé a little better, since Rachel and Bryan have only been together for, like, 25 minutes. I would want to know the middle name of my intended husband before we get married, and I’m not even sure they’ve had that conversation yet. So far, Rachel and Bryan are focused not on making sure Chris Harrison is the officiant at their wedding but on forming a tight bond instead, and I think that’s just great. Given both Bryan’s and Rachel’s big, tight families, I’m not sure that they’ll go the televised route, but if once they actually start wedding planning, I’m sure we’ll have some answers.