Not here for the haters. Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon fired back at claims that their wedding was paid for solely through social media endorsements.
“We paid a lot of money for the wedding, so for people to accuse us of having a totally free, promotional wedding really annoys us,” Iaconetti, 31, told Us Weekly exclusively at the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Light It Blue event on Tuesday, September 3.
Haibon, 30, added, “Even if it was, would there have been anything wrong with that?”
The Bachelor in Paradise couple tied the knot in front of family, friends and Bachelor Nation alums in Rhone Island on August 11. Fans speculated that their nuptials were free after Iaconetti tagged a series of companies in her first post from their special day on Instagram. While the twosome admitted to Us that they were given discounted prices from some vendors, they both made it clear there was “nothing for free.”
“We certainly had help, of course. I’m not going to say that we didn’t get anything discounted,” Haibon explained. “No, the majority of it we paid for.”
The duo also opted not to have their wedding televised because they wanted it to be “personalized,” according to Iaconetti.
“If you were in that position to get a free wedding like a lot of the Bachelor and Bachelorette couples, who have been married on the show …” she started to explain.
“Go for it. Do it,” Haibon interjected. “Absolutely. We didn’t do that. … We just made that decision early on, and I’m really glad we did.”
Despite any backlash from social media trolls, Iaconetti told Us that their wedding was “perfect.”
“Seeing him cry when I walked down the aisle — that was my greatest dream,” the former Bachelor contestant told Us.
Haibon admitted he was “crying the entire day.”
“It’s an overwhelming day,” he explained to Us. “Just waking up, and then, you know, after a weekend of rehearsal dinner and seeing everybody, and then everybody’s there for you and just so happy for you, and then people that know you your entire life that have seen every step of my journey in life, and then obviously with us, and going over my vows and trying to figure out what exactly I want to say to you in that moment … It’s overwhelming thinking about our friendship that turned into this romance, and everything that happened, and everything that could have happened if it didn’t fall in line.”
With reporting by Nicole Pajer
