Really - would it be a ‘Dancing with the Stars’ wedding if there weren’t any stars?!
What has been the hardest part of wedding planning for Dancing with the Stars pros Val Chmerkovskiy and Jenna Johnson (or really for any couple)? Narrowing down the guest list!
“It’s hard because you want to invite people who mean something to you and are special to you, so we have been going through who we want to invite and who we want to share that moment with,” Jenna Johnson told ET’s guest correspondent, Telemundo’s Francisco Cáceres, explaining that they’re still finalizing the guest list for their upcoming wedding.
ET caught up with the couple as they checked another box off their wedding day checklist by tasting cakes at Vanilla Bake Shop in Santa Monica, California. Back in December 2018, the couple told us that they were hoping to have an “intimate” wedding of about 200 people. So how good were they about sticking to that number?
“We’re still making eliminations, so TBD,” Jenna joked before Val added “It’s a double-elimination tomorrow.”
“We want to keep a small guest list, but at the same time, it’s a beautiful thing that we’ve built real sincere, genuine relationships,” Val went on. “And the number grows, but it doesn’t from like a shallow standpoint of having everybody there that we know. It’s growing because we realize, ‘Wow! There’s a lot of people that mean a lot to us in our life.’”
And it just so happens that some of the people who “mean a lot” to the couple are pretty big stars in their own right. Val’s past DWTS partners -- Season 23 winner Laurie Hernandez, Season 20 winner Rumer Willis and Season 24 finalist Normani Kordei -- will be on hand celebrate the couple’s big day, while Jenna’s partner from last season, "Grocery Store" Joe Amabile RSVP’d with girlfriend Kendall Long as his plus one.
But the stars won’t all be spectators, there will be plenty of star power on both sides of the aisle.
“Adam Rippon is my ‘brides-man,’” Jenna revealed, sharing that the remainder of her bridesmaids will be her sisters and close friends, So You Think You Can Dance Season 12 winner Gaby Diaz, and fellow DWTS pro Lindsay Arnold.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy is “very excited’ to return the favor from his own wedding by serving as his little brother’s Best Man, while the rest of Val’s side of the aisle will be made of longtime family friends.
“We grew up together. Twenty-five years of friendship minimum between each one of us,” Val said of his groomsmen, noting that fellow dancer and wedding planner Nicole Volynets will be serving as his “grooms-lady” and will be walking down the aisle with Rippon.
Val also confirmed that his adorable nephew (and Maks & Peta’s son) Shai will be walking down the aisle with Jenna’s nieces. But if you were hoping for a cute doggie tuxedo moment from Jenna & Val’s pup Ziggy, we’ve got some bad news.
“I don’t know if he’s trained enough,” Jenna laughed. “He just has a mind of his own, so I’m not sure that commanding him to come down the aisle [would work]. I think he’d be way too interested in biting things and eating the plants and running around crazy.”
For more details on how the couple is preparing for their upcoming ceremony, check out this tease from another Mrs. Chemkovskiy about how Jenna Johnson looks in her wedding dress.
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