Three months after going public with their engagement, the couple couldn't be more in love.
Rachel Lindsay and Bryan Abasolo are in it for the long haul!
ET's Lauren Zima exclusively sat down with the couple at one of their favorite date night restaurants, Terilli's in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday, where they opened up about their new life together three months after The Bachelorette.
"We're in Dallas now," Abasolo excitedly exclaimed, revealing that the pair lives together full-time in the city, and he even got his chiropractic license so he could practice in Texas. "I'm getting acquainted very well."
"This is my city. This is where I was born and raised, but it's been forever since I've had a man with me here, and let alone a fiance," Lindsay added. "It's great to have Bryan here with me and to show him my city and where I'm from. I'm glad he loves it. That's what's key."
Fans saw the pair get engaged on the season finale of The Bachelorette in August, weeks after Abasolo actually proposed. Living in the spotlight has definitely been an adjustment for the lovebirds, who admit that the day following After the Final Rose was their "toughest day" as a couple.
"It was a very tough situation. It was a lot of backlash on social media, but I think it just made us stronger," Abasolo explained, noting the attention circulating Lindsay's dramatic breakup with her runner-up, Peter Kraus. "We were very communicative and we definitely talk about all the issues that come about, and all the press that's out there negatively."
"It was tense... the focus was taken away from our happy moment and placed on the drama," Lindsay agreed. "It was important for us not to turn on each other and to really stay strong, honest [and] open. Just really understanding each other and everything that was going on, that carried us through and really built a foundation for our relationship."
"[Bryan is] a very good balance for me... Bryan was the one who was like, 'Let's continue to be ourselves and then people will fall in line -- and if they don't, they don't. But we're just going to continue living our lives and the relationship that we have with each other," she continued, as Abasolo noted that "being a little older than the average couple on the Bachelor franchise" helps them avoid some negativity.
Lindsay is 32, and Abasolo is 37 -- and while their age may or may not be a factor in the success of their relationship (the last Bachelor, Nick Viall, is also 37, and split from his pick, Vanessa Grimaldi, 30, over the summer), these two definitely have their eye on the prize: marriage.
"We're getting married," Lindsay declared, though admitted that she hasn't started "any serious wedding planning."
"I talk a lot about the bachelorette party," she added.
Both confessed they're not exactly "the wedding planning type" -- but they have moved up their date from winter of next year to "anytime in 2018."
"Now we're talking about fall. To be honest, I can do spring," Lindsay said. "It's really been six months at this point, since we've been engaged. We know at this point how we feel about each other and that we want to get married. I used to think spring was too soon. Now I'm like, 'Bring on the spring wedding.'"
"We both came on the show with the same goals... I came on the show to meet someone. Hopefully the person I fell for, I wanted to marry, which I got all of that. I fell for Bryan. I want to marry Bryan," she gushed.
"I didn't know if we would click as well as we did," Abasolo revealed. "But she exceeded every one of my expectations. And here we are today, moving forward and getting married soon."
While the couple isn't interested in more reality TV -- definitely not "another love show," Lindsay said. "I've been very vocal [that] I don't want to do it." -- they are open to a televised wedding.
"That's as much reality as you can get," Abasolo offered.
"We have to see what that looks like, and if that works with our families at the same time," Lindsay added, noting that her father, Judge Sam A. Lindsay, never appeared on an episode of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. "I want my dad to walk me down the aisle, so we'll see how all that works."
Before they say "I do," however, Lindsay and Abasolo are enjoying life as an engaged couple -- and learning more about each other every day.
"It's the little things we're learning," said Lindsay, who has only spent two days apart from Abasolo since her finale aired. "Sometimes I take too long [to get ready]. Sometimes Bryan takes too long. Sometimes Bryan has selective hearing. It's the little things like that that we learned about each other that you can't get when you're on TV."
"What I have realized about myself is that I'm more Type A than I like to admit and he has a more laid-back [personality], so that can be a struggle to get ready for events or anything that we have going on," she shared, while Abasolo shared a somewhat sweet revelation.
"She's a really good cook, but doesn't cook as often as she should," he revealed. "I would say that."
The two, who recently took their first "real" vacation together to Turks and Caicos, might soon be establishing a permanent residence in another sunny locale: Los Angeles. Abasolo even interviewed at a couple of chiropractic practices in the city while the couple was in town for Halloween. As for Lindsay, who works as an attorney in Dallas, she said her plan is to take the California Bar -- and explore opportunities on camera.
"We've worked so hard to get those careers, we don't want to give them up, but it's no secret for me -- sports is my background. That was my undergraduate major, that's what I went to law school for," she said. "I've had some amazing opportunities to be on camera doing some broadcasting, so I want to dip my toes into that as well."
And years down the line, the couple also plan to have children.
"We just need to get married first," insisted Lindsay, who wants four kids, while Abasolo wants three. "We are focused on the wedding first and then we can start talking about kids... A basketball team would be great for me."
"She says that now," Abasolo interjected. "Give it one or two and we'll see how she is feeling."
