Photo: Getty Images
Kimberly Williams-Paisley said her friends “were so confused,” at her surprise wedding.
Williams-Paisley, 54, tied the knot with country superstar Brad Paisley, 53, on March 15, 2003. They met for the first time in 2001, when Paisley invited the actress to appear in his “I’m Gonna Miss Her” music video. He’d remembered her from her film debut in the beloved 1991 movie, Father of the Bride. Paisley proposed in 2002, and the couple said “I do” in a chapel on campus at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
Williams-Paisley joked in an anniversary post last month that “we think” Sunday, March 15 marked 23 years of marriage, “but math isn’t our strong suit.”
“It goes fast some days, and some days it goes really slow,” she said with a laugh of her 23-year marriage during an appearance on LIVE with Kelly and Mark on Wednesday (April 15). “I asked him if he would just do something meaningful [for the 23rd anniversary], and he wrote me a letter. And it was the sweetest thing ever. That’s all I wanted. Then we just went and watched the Oscars in a dark bar, and it was a blast.
“We did [have a surprise wedding], yeah,” Williams-Paisley continued as she reflected on her wedding day. “We got married at our rehearsal dinner, so we had all of our friends show up for the rehearsal and they were so confused. And I came down the aisle in a denim coat with my ribbon bouquet from my bridal shower. And then we just changed it out, and I took off the coat and I had this wedding dress on, and I changed out the bouquet. ...When I came down the aisle, everyone was sitting down. My husband was chewing gum. They had no idea [the wedding was happening].”
Williams-Paisley joked that her husband “stalked me.” Paisley wanted to meet his now-wife after he saw Father of the Bride with a former girlfriend. Williams-Paisley starred in the iconic movie with Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Martin Short and more. She was 19 when she landed the role, the same age as her oldest child today, she pointed out. Williams-Paisley and the “Mud on the Tires” star share sons William "Huck" Huckleberry, 19, and Jasper Warren, turning 17 on Friday (April 17).
“He stalked me. So, it could have been like, you know, marriage or jail, and I was like, ‘marriage seems easier,’” Williams-Paisley joked on LIVE with Kelly and Mark. “He was so cute. He went and saw Father of the Bride with his girlfriend, and then she kind of broke his heart and he went and wrote all these great songs from his heartbreak. and then one day, he was like, ‘you know, maybe I should call that girl that was in Father of the Bride,’ because Father of the Bride had been the movie with his girlfriend. …But that’s also how confident he is. He’s watching a movie and he’s like, ‘Not this girl. That girl on the screen.’ And he did it.”