Vanderpump Rules‘ Brittany Cartwright tied the knot with boyfriend Jax Taylor on Saturday, June 29. According to People, the two got married in a gorgeous fairy tale-themed ceremony at Kentucky Castle in Versailles, Kentucky, near Lexington. (Kentucky being, of course, the state Cartwright is famously from.)
Among the 240 guests at the wedding, reports People, were friends, family—and, of course, cast members of Vanderpump Rules as well as other Bravo shows, like Shep Rose from Southern Charm and Lauren Wirkus and Stephen McGee from Summer House.
The ceremony took place outdoors in the courtyard of the castle under a bright blue sky, with flowers in shades of white and off-white decorating the area. Taylor sweetly left a place for his late father in the front row of the guests’ seats. “My dad, always early. ??” he captioned the Instagram.
*NSYNC’s Lance Bass officiated (he’s also Taylor’s business partner) in place of Lisa Vanderpump, who was unable to due to her mother’s sudden passing—but managed to show up for the wedding and surprise the newlyweds on their big day, according to People. Cartwright’s dad also gave a blessing and prayed during the ceremony.
“I wanted to make sure that even though we weren’t having a pastor officiate the wedding that my religion was still very much involved, and Jax’s as well,” the bride told People.
According to E!, Cartwright wore a custom Netta BenShabu dress she purchased at L.A.’s Kinsley James Bridal (you can see the gown here), which transformed not into only a reception dress, but a third look during the evening as well. Hairstylist Bradley Leake gave Cartwright’s hair waves, and the bride opted for a natural makeup look by her MUA Jared Lipscomb. Taylor, for his part, wore an elegant Jack Taylor tux, the outlet reports.
People also has details on the wedding party: Scheana Shay, Ariana Madix, Stassi Schroeder, Kristen Doute, and Lala Kent served as bridesmaids and Katie Maloney-Schwartz as matron of honor—all wearing blue Wtoo by Waters dresses (they also all received Victoria’s Secret goodie bags). Taylor had 13 groomsmen, with Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz as best men (they all received Givenchy sunglasses by Trendsavvy).
After the reception, according to People, everyone roamed the grounds of the castle for a bit, where a pool was lit with floating castles. Canapés included crab cakes and Kentucky hot browns (a local speciality), and signature cocktails—a tequila-based drink and a bourbon-and-blueberry one—served as aperitifs. After that intermission came dinner in the greenhouse, decked out in sunflowers, and then a dance party in the ballroom with late-night snacks from Hooters (where Cartwright was working when she met Taylor in Vegas).
The cast of Vanderpump Rules—Bravo’s hit reality series about a group of sometimes-servers and bartenders in Los Angeles—will fight about anything: birthday parties, cheating accusations, rap lyrics, one another’s physiques, couch cushions, pasta. (Though to be fair, that one probably wasn’t about the pasta.) During the course of seven seasons, this group has hooked up and broken up, friendships have started and stopped, and they’ve seldom seen eye-to-eye on anything. Except their love of Brittany Cartwright, the Kentucky-born fiancé of reality TV’s reigning bad boy Jax Taylor.
With her Southern drawl and overwhelmingly accepting disposition, Brittany has been a breath of fresh air for the long-running series filled with characters once described as “pieces of shit” by one of its own leading ladies. Since making her first fresh-from-the-farm appearance in 2015, Cartwright has managed to swoop in and elicit a softer side of the cast’s queen-bee clique Stassi Schroeder, Katie Maloney, and Kristen Doute, women who refer to themselves as the Witches of WeHo. She made impetuous, hard-drinking, conscience-free British DJ James Kennedy feel remorse after he made her cry. She seamlessly charmed the show’s matriarch, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump who owns and operates SUR, the restaurant that serves as the series’ central backdrop.
The 29-year-old’s biggest hat trick, however, was pulling a feat few others could have managed: Taming Jax, a man who inspired headlines like “The Villain of Vanderpump Rules” thanks to his knack for lying, pot-stirring, cheating, and drunkenly stealing sunglasses while on vacation on Hawaii, which landed him a year’s probation.
The point is, Cartwright has become the unexpected moral center of Vanderpump Rules. But when I tell her as much when she arrived at the Glamour office, she demures. “I think they all thought I was just a little girl wanting fame or following them around [at the beginning]. I understand. I know what it’s like to have somebody new come around—you don’t know if you can trust them at first. But once they got to know me and realized who I was … what can I say? I try to be myself, and I take their friendships very seriously.”
It seems impossible now that the cast would ever doubt Brittany’s motives, but given her origin story with the show, it’s not too hard to see how they might have. As Brittany tells it, she and Jax first met in Las Vegas after her friend, a fan of the show, saw cast-member Maloney at a bar and asked for a photo. From there, they started taking shots when Jax walked up. “I found out later he was on a date with a girl that night. She walks away, and he comes up to me and gets my number.”
Brittany admits she thought he was hot, but she was fresh out of a relationship and figured nothing would come of it, especially given his role in the reality TV hierarchy. (“You just hear all of the rumors about everything.”) But then he texted her “good morning beautiful” the next day and asked to see her. They spent the rest of their time in Vegas together. “He told me after the first night we met that he wanted me to move to L.A.,” she says. She flew home to Kentucky instead, but they talked daily. She started going to L.A. every other week to visit. After two months, she moved to be with him. “I’ve never done anything that crazy before in my life. But it just felt so right.”
Moving to a new city came with its challenges: Brittany and Jax were living together in his tiny West Hollywood apartment and still getting to know each other. The studio didn’t have central air or closet space, and if she used her hairdryer the whole floor’s electricity would combust. And she now was on a hit reality show with little preparation. “[Jax said], ‘I think they’re going to want you to film. It’s probably not going to be a lot. Do you care?’ At first I was like, ‘Umm, I don’t know.’ I was so nervous.” His advice: Just focus on him and ignore the cameras. But, “That’s really hard when you’re brand new. By that time, he was a seasoned pro.”
“I didn’t really speak the whole first season I was on,” she continues. “I kind of just let Jax lead the way.” The first day she filmed, she went to SUR and met Vanderpump—an unexpected encounter that she wasn’t fully briefed on, thanks to Jax, who took her shopping beforehand to get an outfit. According to Brittany, she thought she was going to the restaurant to meet the cast, not her potential new boss. “He picks me out this sexy little romper because he was like, ‘All the girls dress sexy there. It’s West Hollywood.'”
What her new guy neglected to tell her that she wasn’t meeting Lisa to just say hello, but was about to undergo a job interview for a server position—viewers will remember this as Brittany’s first official scene—while wearing a barely-there romper, with no résumé prepared. “That was like one of the most nerve-wracking things I think I’ve ever done in my life. It probably will always be.”
“[Brittany is] humble and kind—qualities many people in L.A. lack.” — Kristen Doute
When the rest of the cast did meet Brittany, they took to her quickly—a rarity for groups of women on reality TV who almost always seem to exhibit a type of xenophobic “you can’t sit with us” mentality when it comes to new and attractive blood. “I’ve been very lucky, I guess. I haven’t had any bad fights or anything,” she says. It’s hard to stay completely out of the drama, but Brittany usually refuses to pick sides unless a “girl code” is broken. And, shocking to anyone who regularly watches Bravo, her friends respect that. “I’m not huge on the drama,” she says. “I like to help bring people together more than push them away from each other.”
Kristen Doute told me via email that Brittany lends a “soothing, sort of calmness” during these chaotic moments. “[She’s] truthful but not judgmental … She’s humble and kind—something many people in L.A. lack.” Doute—a notoriously tough nut to crack—also said Brittany is everything she could want in a best friend. “She’s kind, sympathetic, trustworthy. My favorite thing about Brittany is her zest for life. She never fails to make me laugh. Her energy is contagious.”
So, yes, everybody on Vanderpump Rules loves Brittany. But with any type of spotlight and status comes a hoard of social media trolls. If she’s wearing too much makeup in a picture, they say L.A. has “changed” her. Some commenters will call her fake and posit she’s had her nose done. “I haven’t had any plastic surgery on my face,” Brittany says. “No matter what I’ve done I would tell it. I had my boobs done on national TV, so let’s be real. I’m not hiding anything. I had Botox once six months ago. I don’t even know if it’s still in there anymore. I had Kybella under my chin awhile ago. But I also lost 25 pounds. I hate when people say I got a nose job or my lips done, because I lose weight in my face.”
“I’ve aged,” she continues. “If you’re a true fan of Vanderpump Rules, go back to the first episode when I started. Look at how skinny I was! I gained weight on the show, then lost weight again.”
The plastic surgery comments don’t cut too deep—”If they want to say I had a nose job, whatever. I know I didn’t have a nose job.”—but the judgments on her character do. Like people saying, “I thought you were a Christian” after she posts a sexy photo. Those get to her.
Her fiancé and the rest of the cast help keep things in perspective. “Jax [will say], ‘Stop reading that, Brittany.’ I know he loves me, and that’s another reason I think [negative attention] doesn’t bother me: All these people comment on my looks, and I’m like, ‘Well, I’m engaged. I don’t care what you think.'”
When she does get overwhelmed by it all—with 1 million Instagram followers at press time, how could she not?—she says she craves alone time, snuggled up in bed with her dogs, Monroe and Kingsley. Her values kick into overdrive: She calls her mom every day. She talks to her friends back home (their group chat is called Cheaper Than Therapy). She prays and goes to church.
The plastic surgery comments don’t cut too deep, but the judgments on her character do. Like people saying, “I thought you were a Christian” after she posts a sexy photo.
She also has a chat group with the women on the series—called the Pumpettes—where they share screen shots of nasty comments. They’ll joke about them and give each other compliments. “Because of Brittany I feel more comfortable in my own skin than I ever have,” Doute says. “In the social-media world we live in, it can be very easy to sweat the small stuff—whether it’s people attacking our character or physical appearance. She always picks me up when I’m down and is able to show me a more positive outlook.”
And, in true Brittany fashion, she’s found a way to hit back at haters with that positive outlook. “I swear it’s mothers who are writing mean things about my looks [the most],” she says. “So I’ve found the best way to get under a cyberbully’s skin: If they have kids and they’re writing horrible things, just go to their picture, tell them how beautiful their child is, and say that you hope one day their child never has to deal with cyberbullying like I am from you.” She says the trolls usually apologize.
Brittany says this season of Vanderpump Rules is her favorite yet. She dreaded filming last year, because she knew the issues she and Jax were facing were going to be an inescapable arc—a cheating scandal, after all, makes good reality TV. Now, though, she’s excited for everybody—cast members and fans—to see how much her man has changed and how hard he’s trying. Brittany says it’s the little things that really show the effort he’s making: He helps out around the house, he makes her (turkey) sandwiches, he buys her tampons at the store, he’ll surprise her with gifts, he’s even going to church on his own. “I’m so proud of him,” she says. “He has changed almost 100%. He tries harder at every single thing he does, and it makes me….” She tears up. “After his dad passed away, he could’ve spiraled out of control. Went crazy. Just became this horrible person, because he was so unhappy with himself. But he turned it all around and made every change he wanted to make to better himself.”
This new Jax also came with a marriage proposal during the season premiere. “I had an idea it might happen this summer, but I didn’t know it was going to be that early,” she says. “It was perfect.” Jax popped the question at Neptune’s Net, a classic, casual Malibu seafood spot. (“We love crab places. It’s what we do, whether we’re in Florida, Kentucky, anywhere we’re at we always find a crab place.”) The show’s editing made the location seem like a random choice, but Brittany says it holds importance, having been the scene of an early date and also a favorite of Jax’s late father.
Brittany cried watching the footage back. “He’s my best friend in the whole world,” she says. “We want to be together all the time. No matter what I always saw these good parts of Jax, even when we were fighting. People on the show only see the worst parts, of course, but knowing his heart and knowing how great he actually was kept me going. I loved him too much to let him go, honestly.”
And now, she’s looking forward to planning the wedding and the business ventures they’re starting (beer cheese, cocktail mixers). “I’m so excited for us to have a good season for once. This season is a lot of me and Jax being happy and our friends slowly getting on board with that. He had to prove to everybody that he really has changed.” Brittany says they also want to be parents, though it might be tricky with the show. “I don’t know how having a baby on Vanderpump Rules with all the drama…I think as we grow the show might have to grow a little bit too,” she says. “But we’ll see. I can’t imagine Jax not being on TV in some way.”
Whatever happens, Brittany trusts they can tackle it as a team. “It would be very easy to get lost,” she says. “At the end of the day you have to be very confident in yourself. I know I’m not a bad person. I know I have a great family. I know I have great friends. I know at the end of the day, I have to get back to that and being a Christian woman.”
Anna Moeslein is Glamour’s senior editor. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @annamoeslein.
Photographs by Michelle Rose Sulcov Fashion stylist: Amy Hou Hair and makeup: Mia Santiago at See Management
Vanderpump Rules isn’t typically a show one looks to for role models of any kind. The cast drinks heavily, cheats on each other often, fights like it’s their job (which, I guess it literally is), and sometimes steal shades from a Sunglass Hut in Hawaii. Oh, and they occasionally work at S.U.R, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Vanderpump‘s West Hollywood lounge and restaurant. Watching Vanderpump Rules brings the same kind of joy people find in delicious soap operas, like Dallas or The Young and The Restless—which, ironically, one of the former cast members has starred in. (Remember Vail?)
So imagine my surprise this season when I found myself rooting for cast member Lala Kent. At first, Lala wasn’t somebody I’d consider a feminist role model for our times. She’s a more recent addition to the cast—joining the show in season four as a recurring character—and initially she seemed to be filling the tried and true reality show (and soap opera) archetype of the pretty newcomer who arrives to stir up trouble. She wasn’t afraid to flirt with whoever she wanted and she didn’t back down from the show’s own Mean Girls-like clique of Stassi, Katie, and Kristen. Though to be fair to them, Lala didn’t endear herself when she chastised them for not “working on their summer bodies.” Lala even walked away from the show for a chunk of last season after rumors (that continue, even now) that she’s seeing a married man were brought up. (Recent reports claim he’s now officially divorced and once previously filed for legal separation in 2015.)
But it turns out Lala was so much more than any of us—or the cast of Vanderpump Rules, frankly—bargained for. The more I see of Lala, the more I love her. She’s a pro-woman, sex-positive, body-positive badass who isn’t afraid to own her beauty…or anything she does to enhance it. There’s nothing wrong with Botox and fillers, if that’s your choice as a woman. “I’m not the type of person who’s going to walk out and be like, ‘I’ve had nothing done! My face just changed like this,'” she told Bravo’s The Lookbook. “I’m pretty open about things like that.” She’s also unapologetic about asking for—and getting—what she wants, and, yes, that includes flying on private jets and making her friends sign non-disclosure agreements. That doesn’t always sit well with some on the show, but I love that she doesn’t feel obligated to please everyone.
Now that Lala is back, she’s fiercer than ever. After (re)securing her hostess job at S.U.R., she has unleashed a fury of feminism. She has no time for the crappy behavior exhibited by the men on the show, most specifically the cheating Jax and Tom Schwartz. When the married Schwartz makes out with a friend of Lala’s during a night of blackout drinking, she tells his wife, Katie (no friend of hers, mind you), that she “needs to feel safe” in her relationship. When Jax cheats on his live-in girlfriend Brittany, Lala shares a recording of him speaking horribly about the relationship to the woman he just slept with. Some might find this mean (the guys on the show certainly did), but I think it’s information Brittany needed to hear. Lala even rallies the other women around Brittany, to the point where the men are exiled from the party they’re all at together. “God forbid women stand together…We’re not going to deal with your bullshit,” she shouts as the men scurry away. “I’m so sick of these guys thinking they can get away with whatever the fuck they want!” Even Andy Cohen gave Lala props for her “Norma Rae moment” on Watch What Happens Live, saying, “Lala should be on the #MeToo committee, I feel like she could get some stuff done.” The show’s so-called mean girls have come around too, joking on social media that they’ve signed the NDAs her boyfriend requires—from his private jet, no less.
And then there’s the way Lala so openly accepts others. The new transgender hostess, Billie Lee, calls her the “only one I can like kick it with after work.” That feeling is reciprocated by Lala, who says, “I love and adore Billie. She’s genuine. She’s open about who she is. She just embodies everything a human being should embody. She has great tits too.” When Ariana confesses to Lala that she’s battling insecurities that stem from a past relationship, Lala will not stand for it. As she says, “Every woman [should] know her worth.” This inspires the best moment we’ve seen of Lala yet: She admits she looks in the mirror every morning and talks to all of her body parts to say, “I love you.” While her mantra might not be the same as yours, damn if it’s not incredible: “I don’t love my feet, but I thank them because they walk me around. My hands, even though I think they’re man hands, they give great hand jobs. I thank my little kitty cat because it takes that D like a champ.” Owning your body and your sexuality—isn’t that something we should all strive for? I sure think so.
I certainly took this final message of Lala’s to heart, “So maybe getting in that routine of like, ‘I’m a fucking badass and not one thing that someone says to me is going to make me think otherwise.'” Keep doing you, Lala. I am here for all of it.
It’s hard to stand out in the golden age of television, but The Crown does just that. Netflix’s hit series about Queen Elizabeth II’s life and reign debuted in November 2016 to rave reviews and social media pandemonium. It racked up five Emmy nominations—and one win for John Lithgow—and reignited the world’s fascination with the Royal Family. Most people whipped through the first season in a week, which means they’ve been waiting over a year now for more episodes of The Crown. And now they’ve finally arrived: Yes, the second season of The Crown will be available in its entirety on Netflix Friday, December 8. The wait is over—well, almost. You still have about five days to go—so it’s a good thing there’s plenty of other TV shows and movies airing this week to keep you satisfied until then.
Here are the 14 things happening in TV and movies this week that you can’t miss:
Sunday, December 3
My Christmas Prince: It’s like The Prince & Me, but Christmas-themed. What happens when a teacher realizes her European diplomat boyfriend is actually a prince…and in line for the throne? Shenanigans, that’s what! 8 P.M. ET on Lifetime
Christmas at Holly Lodge: A real estate developer gets a crush on a lodge owner when he arrives for an undercover inspection. But will their sparks continue to fly when she realizes why he’s actually at her lodge? You’ve got nothing going on Sunday night, so tune in to find out. 8 P.M. ET on Hallmark
Monday, December 4
Supergirl: The Dark Arrow and Overgirl have been unmasked, so you know shit’s about to go down in this midseason finale. Yes, you read that correctly: This is the last Supergirl episode of 2017. Devastating, I know. 8 P.M. ET on The CW
Vanderpump Rules: As if you need incentive to tune in tonight. Fingers crossed we see some good Jax and Brittany wedding-planning drama. 9 P.M. ET on Bravo
Tuesday, December 5
The Flash: Remember, last week’s episode was a crossover with Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow, so what elements of those worlds (if any) will trickle into this week’s Flash? We’re excited to find out. 8 P.M. ET on The CW
Stripped: It’s a pretty literal title: Participants in this reality series are stripped of both their clothes and belongings and must simply exist for an isolated period of time. 10 P.M. ET on Bravo
Wednesday, December 6
Happy!: Christopher Meloni, your favorite detective from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (well, save for Olivia Benson), stars in this whacky series about a corrupt ex-cop who wakes up to find that his best friend is now a cartoon talking horse. I wonder how Ice-T would handle this situation. 10 P.M. ET on SyFy
Shut Eye: The life of a failed magician turned psychic (Jeffrey Donovan) is way more interesting than we thought. Season two of Hulu’s hit original series kicks off today. Streaming on Hulu
Thursday, December 7
Supernatural: Soak in Jared Padalecki while you can, my friends: Tonight is also the midseason finale of Supernatural. 8 P.M. ET on The CW
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow: Hey, you guessed it! Tonight is the midseason finale of Legends, as well. How am I going to make it through the holiday season without Hawkman? 9 P.M. ET on The CW
Friday, December 8
The Crown, season two: The trailer for this new season alone proves there’s a lot in store for viewers. It starts with Her Majesty’s Armed Forces battling in Egypt, illegally, and ends with the downfall of her third prime minister, Harold Macmillan, after a controversy rocks their country. There’s a rebellious spirit to the plot this season that perfectly matches England’s actual political climate in the 1960s. If you can only watch one thing on this list, make it The Crown. It’s just too damn good. Streaming on Netflix
[embedded content]
I, Tonya: Margot Robbie is a tour-de-force in this dark and hilarious film about figure skater Tonya Harding, who found herself in the middle of a scandal in 1994 after her ex-boyfriend hired someone to break her competition Nancy Kerrigan’s leg. We smell an Oscar nomination (and maybe a win) for Robbie. In theaters
Saturday, December 9
Christmas in Mississippi: A woman returns home to Mississippi for the holidays and decides to help plan the town’s annual light show—not knowing her high school sweetheart is at the helm. This sounds cheesy, sure, but these types of movies are exactly what the holiday season is for. 8 P.M. ET on Lifetime
Christmas Encore: Which is why you should also watch Christmas Encore on Hallmark. This one’s surprisingly meta: A New York actress snags a role in a Broadway production of A Christmas Carol and falls in love with the director. 8 P.M. ET on Hallmark
