Jennifer Lopez Shares Memories From Rehearsal Dinner, Ben’s Wedding Speech and More: Why It Was the Right Age to Get Married

Credit: John Salangsang/Shutterstock

Jennifer Lopez Shares Memories From Rehearsal Dinner, Ben’s Wedding Speech and More: Why It Was the Right Age to Get Married

Living in heavenly bliss! After Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck tied the knot for a second time, the Marry Me star is revisiting her favorite memories.

“'This is heaven. Right Here. We’re in it now,'” Lopez, 53, wrote in the Thursday, September 1, edition of her “On the J. Lo” newsletter before detailing her account of the pair's wedding weekend festivities. “That is one of my favorite lines that Ben wrote from a movie he directed called Live By Night. He also said it the night of our wedding reception in his speech, and I thought, ‘How perfect.’”

The “On the Floor” songstress and Affleck, 50, wed for a second time on August 20 at the Argo director’s Savannah, Georgia, estate. The newlyweds — who eloped in Las Vegas earlier this year — were surrounded by their loved ones, including all five of their children. Lopez shares twins Max and Emme, both 14, with ex-husband Marc Anthony. The Massachusetts native, for his part, coparents daughters Violet, 16, and Seraphina, 13, and son Samuel, 10, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

Lopez and Affleck’s Southern wedding comes nearly two decades after their initial romance. The Second Act star and the Deep Water actor first connected on the set of Gigli before they started dating. The twosome got engaged in 2002 before eventually going their separate ways two years later. Lopez and Affleck reunited in May 2021 following her split from ex-fiancé Alex Rodriguez. The Tender Bar star proposed for a second time in April.

“Years ago, we had no idea the road ahead would mean navigating so many labyrinths and hold so many surprises, blessings, and delights,” Lopez added in her Thursday newsletter. “It all culminated in this moment, one of the most perfect of our lives. We couldn’t have been happier. I wish all of you the same kind of happiness … the hard-earned kind that’s all the sweeter for the journey that came before it.”

As Lopez recalled the twosome’s nuptials, she shared a handful of photos of the pair sharing their first dance, taking in the reception decor and even a peek at her multiple Ralph Lauren wedding gowns.

“The truth is everyone’s story is different and we all have our paths to travel. No two people are the same,” Lopez wrote. “But for us, this was perfect timing. Nothing ever felt more right to me.”

Scroll below for an inside peek at Lopez and Affleck’s dreamy wedding — from the Hustlers star herself:

Credit: John Salangsang/Shutterstock

Jennifer Lopez Shares Memories From Rehearsal Dinner, Ben’s Wedding Speech and More: Why It Was the Right Age to Get Married

Living in heavenly bliss! After Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck tied the knot for a second time, the Marry Me star is revisiting her favorite memories.

“'This is heaven. Right Here. We’re in it now,'” Lopez, 53, wrote in the Thursday, September 1, edition of her “On the J. Lo” newsletter before detailing her account of the pair's wedding weekend festivities. “That is one of my favorite lines that Ben wrote from a movie he directed called Live By Night. He also said it the night of our wedding reception in his speech, and I thought, ‘How perfect.’”

The “On the Floor” songstress and Affleck, 50, wed for a second time on August 20 at the Argo director’s Savannah, Georgia, estate. The newlyweds — who eloped in Las Vegas earlier this year — were surrounded by their loved ones, including all five of their children. Lopez shares twins Max and Emme, both 14, with ex-husband Marc Anthony. The Massachusetts native, for his part, coparents daughters Violet, 16, and Seraphina, 13, and son Samuel, 10, with ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

Lopez and Affleck’s Southern wedding comes nearly two decades after their initial romance. The Second Act star and the Deep Water actor first connected on the set of Gigli before they started dating. The twosome got engaged in 2002 before eventually going their separate ways two years later. Lopez and Affleck reunited in May 2021 following her split from ex-fiancé Alex Rodriguez. The Tender Bar star proposed for a second time in April.

“Years ago, we had no idea the road ahead would mean navigating so many labyrinths and hold so many surprises, blessings, and delights,” Lopez added in her Thursday newsletter. “It all culminated in this moment, one of the most perfect of our lives. We couldn’t have been happier. I wish all of you the same kind of happiness … the hard-earned kind that’s all the sweeter for the journey that came before it.”

As Lopez recalled the twosome’s nuptials, she shared a handful of photos of the pair sharing their first dance, taking in the reception decor and even a peek at her multiple Ralph Lauren wedding gowns.

“The truth is everyone’s story is different and we all have our paths to travel. No two people are the same,” Lopez wrote. “But for us, this was perfect timing. Nothing ever felt more right to me.”

Scroll below for an inside peek at Lopez and Affleck’s dreamy wedding — from the Hustlers star herself:

Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

Making It Past ‘Unexpected Setbacks’

The pair’s wedding weekend made headlines that Friday after an ambulance was spotted leaving Affleck’s property, which was only the tipping point.

“It had rained at sunset every day that week. Everyone was worried about the heat, the aptly named ‘love bugs,’ the details, would the guests all arrive on time, etc. — not to mention the thunder and lightning that arrived almost on cue each day at the exact time the ceremony was supposed to start that Saturday,” she noted. “Oh, and all of us caught a stomach bug and were recuperating ‘til late in the week, that, and along with a few other unexpected setbacks, had all the makings of a doozie of a wedding weekend.”

Despite the health and weather concerns, Lopez “never had one doubt” and felt “calm and easy certainty” all week long that their plans would go smoothly.

"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,” the “On My Way” songstress added. “The sky was clear blue, and distant clouds of pure white held fast in the sky. As the sun set behind the live oaks draped in Spanish moss, 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.”

Credit: John Salangsang/Shutterstock

One Blended Family

Max, Emme, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel all walked down the aisle, preceding Lopez’s turn. “The twenty years between those dreams of youth and the adult world of love and family we embraced that day, brought more to this marriage than either of us ever could have imagined,” the bride recalled in the newsletter. "We weren’t only marrying one another; we were marrying these children into a new family. 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.”

Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock

Finding Their Perfect Wedding Song

Lopez and Affleck had previously found Marc Cohn’s “True Companion” to be the “perfect” wedding song during their initial engagement. As a surprise, Lopez enlisted Cohn to perform the number live.

“As I walked down the aisle, the first song he played wasn’t ‘True Companion’ however,” she revealed. “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. … As the eldest of our children finished her walk, Marc began 'True Companion,' a song we first listened to together what seemed both like yesterday and forever ago — and life came, strangely, beautifully, mysteriously, divinely full-circle."

While the Good Will Hunting star was shocked by the musical performance, it was Lopez’s arrival that took his breath away.

"When he saw me appear at the top of the stairs that moment it both made absolute sense while seeming still impossibly hard to believe, like the best dream, where all you want is never to awaken,” Lopez noted. “I would have had many of the same thoughts probably had I not been focusing so hard on not tripping over my dress, but when I got close enough to see his face, it made the same wonderful sense to me. Some old wounds were healed that day and the weight of the past finally lifted off our shoulders. Full-circle — and not at all the way we planned it. Better.”

Credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP/Shutterstock

Laughing Through Their Rehearsal Dinner

“Ben and I laughed the night before about getting married again at our age. We had both been married before and we aren’t exactly kids anymore but somehow now seemed like the only age that made sense,” she recalled on Thursday. “I had recently read something Rainer Marie Rilke wrote in ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ about love. He said one has to be ready for love. … Being able to love someone so that you want to be better for them and make them happy, because giving happiness and love becomes more joyful than receiving it, is true sublime adult love.”

Credit: Matt Baron/Shutterstock

Ready to Settle Down

“For us, this was perfect timing,” Lopez explained. “Nothing ever felt more right to me, and I knew we were finally ‘settling down’ in a way you can only do when you understand loss and joy and you are battle tested enough to never take the important things for granted or let the silly insignificant nuisances of the day get in the way of embracing every precious moment. We find ourselves in that long-desired time of life: having gratitude for all that life has shown us, even its trials and tribulations. That night really was heaven.”

Credit: David Fisher/Shutterstock

Ben's Heartfelt Speech

Amid the reception, Affleck paid tribute to his wife, reciting a quote from his movie Live By Night as he referred to their union as “heaven.” Lopez, for her part, thought its inclusion was “perfect.”

A source previously told Us Weekly that the Oscar winner made an “impassioned” speech that night, professing his love for Lopez and their blended family. He noted that “the children are the blessing and gift that happened because they didn’t get married before and that is proof that everything happens for a reason.”

Credit: ETTORE FERRARI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Post-Wedding Brunch Fun

The day after the main event, the bridal party and the wedding guests gathered for a brunch by the lake and Lopez designed its decor herself. “I wanted each day to have its own personality but fit the setting we were in for the weekend: the vibes were down-home, rustic country-chic,” she wrote on Thursday.