Everything We Know About Ty Pennington's Wedding
It's "Extreme Makeover: Wedding Edition"! Ty Pennington, host of the popular home-improvement series "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" for 10 seasons, and HGTV's "Trading Spaces" is officially off the market, choosing to marry his bride in his own renovation project. The TV host first announced his engagement to social media manager Kellee Merrell back in July with an Instagram post showing off his bride-to-be's pear-shaped diamond. According to People, Ty decided to ask for Merrell's hand in marriage at his Florida home over their daily morning coffee.
"I have admired Kellee from afar for years," Ty said to the outlet. "She's a beautiful person inside and out." The couple reportedly met back in 2010 in Toronto, but it took a decade for the duo to turn their friendship into romance. "Luckily our paths finally crossed at the right time. It's one of those things where you just feel happy being around a person. I never thought I would get married, but she changed that. Glad I waited for the one," he shared.
In 2020, Ty and Merrell chose to ride out COVID-19 quarantines together and their relationship quickly got serious, with a wedding just a year later.
Ty Pennington wed in a home still under renovation
The first glimpse of the wedding between HGTV's Ty Pennington and his bride, Kellee Merrell came via Instagram, when the star shared the first photos behind his wedding. "We did it!," wrote Ty in the caption of the photo, which featured the reality host's grey suit and his wife's white blazer over her wedding dress.
According to People, the wedding went down in Savannah, Georgia with just a few guests. The outlet reports the couple wed in the host's 19th-century home he is still in the process of renovating. The star shared a sneak peek with more photos from the reception, which looked to be in a romantic private garden setting. "A perfect evening," the reality star captioned the post. "Thank you to everyone who made this night so special."
Ty's wedding has taken some fans by surprise after the TV host revealed to Entertainment Tonight his reality career almost went from home improvement to relationship improvement. "I got a call from a producer in L.A., 'You would live in a house with like 20 girls and you would have to spend time with them in hot tubs and at the end of it, you'd have to decide who you should marry," began the celeb. "What a different trajectory my life would have been if I had done that." The show in question was "The Bachelor," and we wonder how Bachelor Nation would've felt about a Ty take-over of the series.
Ty Pennington's wife hates taking photos
Luckily for Ty Pennington (and for Bachelor Nation), the HGTV star's possible run on "The Bachelor" remained an offer on the table, and the TV host was able to find love the old fashioned way... on set.
Ty and his wife Kellee Merrell have given fans a glimpse into their marriage via cute couple Instagram posts and, while Merrell used to be a social media manager behind the scenes, she's learning to love being in front of the camera thanks to her TV star husband. "If you've ever wondered what it might be like to be married to me, please enjoy this series of me forcing Kellee to take pictures with me," Ty wrote in an Instagram post with two laughing emojis.
After the "Trading Spaces" host proposed to Merrell, he again joked of his then-fiancé's disinterest in selfies in a thank you post to his friends and fans alike. "Just wanted to say thank you for all the love and nice messages about our engagement," Ty began. "We are feeling the love! Kellee hates having her picture taken so we're practicing our best 'blue steel' for the wedding.... clearly hers needs some work (she hasn't taken my classes)."
Ty Pennington and Kelle Merrell bought a home together
Prior to falling in love with his wife, Kelle Merrell, Ty Pennington's lifestyle was the opposite of settling down.
The home improvement host gained fame thanks to the famous "move that bus" line he screamed from a megaphone for almost a decade on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Back in 2012, the HGTV star told ABC News that, after years on the bus going home-to-home to surprise families with improvements, Ty became "a traveling gypsy." The series finale of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" meant a change of lifestyle for Ty, who finally sought out to start a family and settle down. "I've sort of become distant, because I've been working so much," the host told ABC. "So, I'm really excited to be able to still continue to help people, but also have a little bit of time so that I can focus on, you know, my family."
Just under a decade later, Ty and his new wife Merrell are focusing on settling into their Savannah, Georgia home they purchased together in hopes of creating their own happily ever after.