'Dancing with the Stars' Judge Derek Hough Wedding Details
After eight years together, Derek Hough and Hayley Erbert made it official on Saturday, Aug. 26, when they took their marriage vows in a wedding ceremony in Monterey, Calif.
"We're in a redwood forest, but we got married right in front of this mother tree that's surrounded by all these smaller trees," Hayley told People magazine, who has the exclusive photos. "They drop all the seeds, and it plants kind of like an army of children to protect the mother. The symbolism of it was beautiful. We're here, planting our seeds to grow our family."
The wedding was a six-day event, beginning with a welcome party at a cliffside estate in Carmel and culminating with the wedding ceremony in front of 106 people, including Julianne Hough, Jenna Johnson, Frieda Pinto, Amy Purdy, Maria Menounos, Shawn Johnson, Nina Dobrev, Shaun White, Robert and Kym Herjavec, Alfonso Ribeiro, and Derek's best man Mark Ballas.
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In between, the couple celebrated with a rehearsal dinner with family and the wedding party at which they were toasted.
People also reports that Hayley wore a custom duchess satin gown, designed by Georgina Chapman from Marchesa, which she paired with a long veil, blusher and jewelry by Ring Concierge. While Derek donned a suit by Tom Ford for the ceremony.
Photo by David Livingston/WireImage
As earlier reported, Derek designed Hayley’s four-and-a-half-carat engagement ring with the help of Chau Lui, co-owner of Paris Jewellers. The couple followed through with wedding bands also from Paris Jewellers.
"I searched far and wide and landed on this beautiful ring and I love it. It's flawless,” Derek told E! News at the time.
The reception following the wedding ceremony was rustic, held in a 100-year-old barn with a menu that included steak, salmon and vegetarian options for dinner, followed by a dessert of huckleberry lavender cake by Kelly Gray Cakes and a dessert bar.
"When we were thinking about location we asked ourselves, 'What's important to us?'" Derek told People. "Nature was the first thing. We want to be around trees and plants and Northern California kind of spoke out to us. We just want people to experience this place that we love, this nature, but also, it just feels incredibly romantic."
Related: Derek Hough Reveals Who Has Surprised Him the Most on Season 31 of DWTS
The Dancing With the Stars judge and the So You Think You Can Dance alum met when Hayley joined Derek and Julianne on their “Move Live Tour” in 2014, but the two didn’t officially begin dating until July 2015.
Even so, the newlyweds did not choreograph a special first dance for the occasion, rather they let the emotion and music—"Fall Into Me" by Forrest Blakk —move them.
Earlier Derek told ET, “I want to marry once. I want to be with that person that I love dearly. I want to get to know that person. I feel like, if anything, it’s something that I don’t feel like should be rushed into doing at all.”
The couple will follow up their wedding with a honeymoon in Italy—and it looks like they plan to cover the entire country.
"We've never been," Derek told People. "I've been for a competition, but that was it. We've never experienced it properly. So it's really great because it's a place that we're going to be able to experience together for the first time. And we're hitting everywhere from Lake Como, Positano, Amalfi Coast, Rome, Tuscany, Florence. We're hitting it all."
Then, this fall it will be back to the ballroom for Derek when Dancing with the Stars returns for Season 32, airing simultaneously on ABC and Disney+.
Next, Dancing with the Stars Reveals Its Second Celebrity Contestant for Season 32