Jason and Molly Malaney: We controlled 'Bachelor' wedding, not ABC

Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney's weekend wedding will be televised on ABC on Monday night, however the couple insists that they still had complete control over every detail of it.


"I read a lot of articles that came out that said that ABC was telling us who to invite and whatnot. That was not the case at all," Molly -- who has since taken Jason's last name -- told reporters during a Thursday conference call.

"I had absolute, 100% control over every single detail that had to do with the wedding. I picked the colors, I picked the dresses, I picked the jewelry, I picked how the tables would look -- Jason and I collaborated together. We had all the power in the world to make this any sort of wedding that we wanted."

While the guest list included at least a dozen The Bachelor and The Bachelorette alumni, Jason told reporters that they were invited because the couple wanted them to be there -- not ABC.

"There are people from The Bachelor that we knew and were friends with," he explained.


"Obviously the couple of couples -- like [original The Bachelorette couple Trista and Ryan Sutter] and [dating The Bachelor seventh-season couple Charlie O'Connell and Sarah Bryce] -- were important to be there, and those are discussions that we had. But we were absolutely okay with everybody being there."

Jason and Molly were married on a grassy bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA on Saturday -- and the rain-interrupted ceremony will air as part of ABC's two-hour The Bachelor: Jason and Molly's Wedding special on Monday, March 8 at 8PM ET/PT.

"I loved every minute of the rain," Molly told reporters.

"It started in the middle of the ceremony -- actually right when I started to say my vows. We both just looked at each other and laughed. It just will always make this day far more special than it ever could have been."

In addition, Molly said that the wedding wasn't just a made-for-TV special.


"A lot of people see this as a television show, but for Jason and I this really was our wedding," she said. "That's what we focused on the entire time."

Former The Bachelor and The Bachelorette stars weren't the only reality television personalities at the wedding, as former American Idol seventh-season finalist Jason Castro sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" while Molly walked down the aisle.

"Jason and I both love the rendition of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' that Jason Castro sings -- the person that originally sang the song has passed away," she told reporters.

"We knew [Castro] sang the same version of it on American Idol, so it was a very easy choice to see if he would participate and do this favor for us. He was absolutely phenomenal."

Jason and Molly are only the second The Bachelor or The Bachelorette couple to actually wed, following in the footsteps of Trista and Ryan -- who were married in December 2003.


Jason said both marriages prove that it's "definitely possible" to find love via the ABC reality dating series.

"The probability is obviously not huge, but I think [it is] if you relate it to real life," he explained.

"Let's just say there's 20 [total The Bachelor and The Bachelorette seasons] and two have gotten married, that's 10%. Most people have dated more than 20 people to find one partner. I think it's really similar as far as that goes."

Molly agreed with her new husband's assessment.

"I think that the show definitely brings people together and you see enough of the person and spend enough time with the person to know that you want more time with them," she said.


"But I do think that the period after the show is done filming is crucial for your relationship. That's when you're back in the real world being normal people, seeing what their day-to-day life is like, and that's what's really important about keeping a couple together."

Molly added that the reason she feels her relationship with Jason worked was because they "stayed away from Hollywood" and went right back to their "normal lives" after filming.

"I went right back to work the week following and Jason went back to work. We just focused on being a normal couple," she said. "It wasn't about keeping our face out there. He has [his son] Ty, and we wanted to integrate each other into our own normal lives. I think that really, really helped us stay strong."

Jason added that his feelings for Molly were true, which helped the couple grow stronger after the show ended.

"Everybody goes on TV for a different reason," he explained.


"Part of it is definitely experience, but I think if you look at the people that have been on the show recently, some people have gone off and done different things -- like [The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love star Jake Pavelka] is going on Dancing with the Stars, and more power to people who want to do that kind of stuff. But Molly and I have really focused on just getting back to Seattle and just doing what we want to do."

In addition, Jason said the couple took some advice from fourth-season The Bachelorette star DeAnna Pappas and her now-former fiance Jesse Csincsak.

"After Jesse and DeAnna split up, they said one of the hardest things was being out in the public in L.A. trying to do some of that stuff and that really was part of the reason of the downfall of their relationship. So I think one thing is we could never do that," said Jason.

"We really listened to other people's advice. Plus it's what we really wanted to do -- get back to normal."

Now Jason and Molly are the ones dishing out advice, as they said they've talked to engaged The Bachelorette fifth-season couple Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski about whether or not their ceremony should be televised.

"We've actually been talking to Jillian and Ed quite a bit about it," said Molly.


"We ourselves had an absolutely incredible experience doing it, and I know when we were thinking about whether or not to do it we reached out to Ryan and Trista to see how their experience was -- and they had nothing but wonderful things to say as well. But obviously it depends on the people, but we had a wonderful experience doing it."

The Bachelor's thirteenth-season filmed in Fall 2008 and concluded with Jason getting engaged to Melissa Rycroft and rejecting Molly.

However Jason later dumped Melissa on-air in favor of Molly during a January taping of the season's After the Final Rose special.

The couple had been dating ever since and got engaged last October during a trip to New Zealand, which is where Jason originally rejected Molly and got engaged to Melissa during the season's Final Rose Ceremony.

"I don't think Jason and I would be sitting here today if we hadn't gone through everything that we went through when The Bachelor ended," Molly told reporters.

"It was a very, very difficult period of time for us. It sounds very cliche, but it brought us so much closer. But there is a piece of me that is so happy to have this happy ending for everyone to experience with us. It really is like our true absolute happy moment."


The happiness will continue next week, when the couple leaves for their honeymoon in South Africa.

"We're going to be there for two weeks and Molly and I have had these discussions, we wanted something that's going to be part relaxing and really fun and adventurous," said Jason.

With their wedding behind them, Jason and Molly are now focusing on the future. While Molly said kids are "not in the near future," she added they are "definitely in the future."

"I think -- as everyone knows -- we had a very crazy year-and-a-half, and I think the next couple of months are going to be crazy," she explained.

"So we want to take a couple years to just really settle down and slow down and get back to whatever our sense of normal will be and then we'll expand our family."






About The Author: Christopher Rocchio