Kristen Bell Says Her Wedding to Dax Shepard Was the “Easiest Day” of Her Life

Wedding planning is a notoriously stressful and busy time for engaged couples. From making a guest list and choosing floral arrangements to selecting the dinner menu and finalizing the seating chart, there are so many different tasks that need to get done. But for some couples, completing all of those tasks doesn't lead to high anxiety. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard are the perfect example. In an interview with Today on November 7, 2022, The Good Place star reminisced about her wedding day, which took place in October of 2013, and admitted that the celebration was the “easiest day” of her life.

When Bell was getting ready to tie the knot, the Defense of Marriage Act was still a law, so the Veronica Mars actress said throwing a huge wedding didn’t seem fair considering many of her friends didn’t have the same rights. Instead of hosting an extravagant affair, Bell decided to stick to an intimate event at the courthouse, which didn’t require much planning—including their attire.

“The minute we were like, 'Oh, I have next Tuesday. How about you?' we drove to the courthouse, and I thought we were just gonna go as is," Bell reflects. “I came out in sweatpants, and my husband was in a tuxedo, which was so cute, and he was like, ‘I’ll pick your outfit out,’ and he picked out a little black jumpsuit.”

After changing into their outfits for the day, the couple drove to the courthouse while listening to a playlist that the Armchair Expert podcast host made. Once they arrived at the Beverly Hills courthouse, they said “I do,” just the two of them. For a no-frills event, the entire wedding cost them $147, which might just set the record for the most affordable celebrity wedding.

Although the couple enjoyed the intimacy, their friends weren’t too pleased with the decision to tie the knot in private. “Our friends joked a lot about the fact that we invited no one, and later that afternoon, they got us a cake that said ‘The World's Worst Wedding,’” Bell shares. For other couples planning a wedding, the When in Rome star recommends creating a celebration that feels authentic to you. “You have to really look in the mirror and ask yourself what you want," the actress advises. "Do you want to have a day that you know could end up being fussy, and you'll have to take into consideration what napkins your grandmother wants? And if that's for you, like 'Yes, I want that challenge,' I say go for it."

Since swapping vows in 2013, Bell and Shepard have had two daughters. Throughout their marriage, they’ve supported each other in their professional endeavors and have even made guest appearances on one another's projects, such as when Shepard guest starred on an episode of The Good Place and when Bell was a guest on her husband’s podcast, Armchair Expert. The couple is also known to be huge advocates of couples’ therapy, which they attribute to keeping their marriage strong.