The Bachelorette fourth-season star DeAnna Pappas has a simple message for those who scoff at the notion she's really ready to wed her selected suitor Jesse Csincsak.

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"I'm really in love.  I'm really happy.  I'm really engaged.  I'm really going to marry this man," she told Reality TV World during a Tuesday conference call.

"People are always going to be skeptical.  We can't change everybody's mind; we can only do what's best for ourselves.  Yeah, we decided to go on a reality show and meet each other and fall in love.  But that's just the way we met.  It doesn't make or break us.  We are a normal couple.  We have a normal relationship."

Pappas and the 25-year-old professional snowboarder from Breckenridge, CO got engaged during last night's pre-taped The Bachelorette fourth-season finale, and during the subsequent The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose special, the couple announced plans to wed May 9, 2009 in the Bahamas.

"We chose the Bahamas because that's the place where we really fell in love.  We chose the date because that was the date -- exactly a year from the date when we got engaged," Csincsak told Reality TV World during the conference call.  "We just thought it was appropriate."

Pappas told reporters during a pre-finale conference call last week that she's "not really opposed" to having her wedding be televised because there are "a lot of fans behind" her, and Csincsak echoed that --although he did so with a bit more caution.

"We're just kind of taking it one day at a time.  We haven't been approached by anyone to do a televised wedding," he told Reality TV World.  "It's our day.  We're not really too sure if we're interested in it being a super-publicized wedding day.  We're not necessarily opposed to it, but we haven't even really discussed it."

Pappas also reiterated her plans on keeping her home in Atlanta, but intends to call Breckenridge home for a portion of the year.

"We're going to live in both places.  I'm going to keep my house in Atlanta and he definitely has to live in Breckenridge because that's where he works," she told Reality TV World.  "As of right now, we're going to spend some time in Atlanta with my family and we're going to live in Breckenridge over the wintertime so that he can work and snowboard."

As for their immediate plans, Pappas said dinner in public will be followed by some downtime.

"In the next few weeks, we're just going to travel.  We're going to hit up San Diego, we're going to go to the beach, we're going to go to Ohio," she explained to Reality TV World, as Csincsak lived in Amherst, OH through high school and still has family there.  "We're just going to try and vacation and be a normal couple together."

While the two may finally have the opportunity to be a normal couple, Csincsak said he tried to be a normal guy from the start of the competition for Pappas' heart.

"I went on and I was like, 'She's going to eliminate me night one,'" he told reporters during the conference call.  "Once I realized she was into getting to know me, I was like, 'Whoa!  This is for real.  I better act like a normal guy and simmer down.'  That's what I did.  I'm a normal guy and I'm me no matter what.  That's just how it is.  I don't change for anyone."

Part of being a normal guy meant Csincsak delayed acting on his physical attraction for Pappas, which she said was part of the reason why they wound up together.

"I have said many times that I believe mine and Jesse's relationship progressed as normally as possible -- especially given the experience, cameras and everything else around," she told reporters.  "Our relationship progressed normally.  We were friends first, and then he waited until I met his parents to kiss me.  He didn't jump on the first moment he possibly could."

It was also on Pappas' visit to Csincsak's hometown of Breckenridge when both said they realized that their relationship was something serious.

"When she impressed my mother and father and they fell in love with her, that was when it was go time for me," he told reporters.  "I think I even said on the show, 'I'm going to turn it up 10 notches and those other guys aren't going to know what hit them.'"

Pappas' recollection about when it became serious for her is more precise.

"We had just gone snowboarding and we were riding in the car on the way back to his house to meet his parents," she explained.  "I was just sitting there and we weren't speaking -- he was just holding my hand.  I was just thinking, 'Wow, I don't want to live without this person in my life.  I will not be okay if I don't get to see this person everyday.'"

Csincsak subsequently got invited to meet Pappas' family in Newnan, GA, and he had a hard time opening up and was being grilled with questions by various family members.  Still, DeAnna's father Greg said during last night's After the Final Rose special that he knew Csincsak was the one for his daughter -- even if she still didn't know.

"This is why it's so important to take the guys home to meet my family, because sometimes they know me better than I know myself," she explained.  "I think that when my dad said that, he knew but I subconsciously didn't know.  Maybe that was his way of telling me he knew all along.  My dad knows me very well.  He's my father, but I can also talk to my dad about anything in the entire world."

At the conclusion of their final one-on-one date in the Grand Bahama Islands, Csincsak decided to lay his cards on the table and tell Pappas he was "ready to settle down and spend the rest of [his] life" with her, adding he was "falling in love." 

While Pappas declined to say the same thing since she wanted to know that, in the end, she only looked one of her final two suitors in the eye and said, "I love you" in return, Csincsak told Reality TV World he never second-guessed his decision to open up.

"I knew during that whole process that -- even if she wanted to say 'I love you' -- she probably couldn't say it," he said.  "I just wanted to make sure that she knew how I felt and just put myself out there.  It's nerve-wracking, but at the same time I was in love with her and I had to make sure she knew that."

Pappas reiterated her After the Final Rose claim that "it really wasn't until that morning" of the final Rose Ceremony that she knew she was going to choose Csincsak over Jason Mesnick.

"I was torn between the two guys," she said.  "You have Jason on one hand, who's this fantastic person, a great father, a great personality, a great outlook on life.  Then you have Jesse, who I was also drawn to because he brings out this softer, crazier, care-free person that I loved."

For Pappas, selecting Csincsak could be considered the conclusion of some self-change, as she said during the After the Final Rose special that she realized during The Bachelorette "maybe I don't know myself as well as I thought I did." 

However she set the record straight and said she didn't change her mind on wanting to settle down -- instead altering the type of guy she wanted to do it with.

"I came into this process knowing exactly what I wanted.  I knew myself, I knew exactly what I was looking for," she told Reality TV World.  "Somewhere along the way I realized maybe I don't know myself as well as I thought I did.  Maybe what I was looking for was wrong all along and that's why I hadn't met the right person yet."

Csincsak said Pappas would have never met the right person if it wasn't for his cousin.

"My cousin actually applied for me when she was at college -- she goes to OU -- and she decided one night with all of her girlfriends to go online and sign me up.  I had no clue," he told Reality TV World. "My mom went to Christmas dinner and she was talking to my aunt and they told my mom about it.  My mom called me and told me, and I had no clue."

Csincsak said he didn't have high expectations heading onto the show, partly because he "knew nothing about DeAnna whatsoever" and also because he was unsure how she'd react to his outer appearance.

"I never thought in a million years a girl as beautiful as DeAnna would look through the physical features.  I thought she was going to judge a book by its cover and send me packing on night one," he told reporters.  "She really took the time to get to know me.  I'm not that Abercrombie & Fitch model, I'm the average guy.  The fact that we fell in love doing this proves that it's real and we're just normal people."

Of course Pappas had some help in presenting one of her first-impression boutonnieres to Csincsak, as she did so at the recommendation of Jenni Croft -- who was also rejected by The Bachelor eleventh-season star Brad Womack.

"I talked to Jenni last night as soon as the episode was over and she was so funny.  She messaged me and she was like, 'I was right!  I was right!  I was right all along!  I love Jesse!'" Pappas told Reality TV World.  "So she's really excited.  I think her and her fiance are going to come out to Breckenridge and visit us this winter."

Despite being spurned twice by Womack, Pappas said she never lost faith in love and was rewarded with the happy ending she sought.

"I never stopped believing in love and relationships and everything else just because one person didn't see the good stuff in me," she told reporters. 

"When ABC approached me with being the next The Bachelorette, I didn't waste any time in saying yes.  I believe in the show and I believe in the experience. I can't help that it didn't happen for Brad, but it happened for me.  I believe two people can find each other, fall in love and hopefully have a successful relationship."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio

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