Joe Bradley and Maddi Reese took their hunka, hunka burning love to the next level with a full-blown Vegas wedding on Southern Hospitality — but was it the real deal?
After a long and somewhat dramatic weekend in Las Vegas, Joe surprised his friends — and girlfriend Maddi — with a trip to a wedding chapel on the Thursday, February 13, episode of the Bravo series.
“This is our love language doing something so spontaneous and out of the box,” Joe told the cameras after keeping the impromptu wedding to himself.
Maddi revealed she loved “all this” upon arrival at the venue and was excited to chat with the Elvis Presley impersonator. However, when she learned the ceremony was for her and Joe, she didn’t believe it.
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“What the f—? I don’t know what’s going on. I have no idea,” Maddi confessed before tracking down her groom and asking him, “Did you plan this behind my back? Is this jinxing it?”
Joe admitted organizing the nuptials in secret but claimed it wouldn’t jinx their eventual real wedding. “It’s manifesting it. It’s for funsies,” Joe insisted.
After taking a beat, Maddi gave in. “OK, fine f— it. I’m down,” she responded before going into the bridal suite to get all dolled up with the girls.
“This is basically a little commitment ceremony,” Joe told the guys as he pulled them in to be his groomsmen.
TJ Dinch later joked, “It’s giving romantic with borderline stalker.” Michols Peña, meanwhile, trolled Joe for his impulsiveness, saying, “He’s obsessive. That’s what it’s giving.”
Despite the group’s reservations about Joe’s bold move, Maddi put on a pink wig and veil and grabbed a plastic bouquet and proceeded to walk down the aisle.
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“Are you really crying right now?” she asked Joe, who was in fact shedding a few tears at the sight of his fake bride.
After Fake Elvis said a few words, mainly quotes pulled from Presley’s iconic love songs, he asked the bride and groom to exchange their own vows.
“Through sickness and in health, I will always love you. And I can’t wait until our actual wedding one day. You make me so happy,” Joe told Maddi. “You’re the love of my life and hopefully this is the second-best night of my life.” (He teased that their real wedding would be the best day of his life.)
Unlike her pretend husband, Maddi didn’t have a speech prepared. However, she spoke from the heart saying, “I love you to pieces. You’re going to make me cry. I love you.”
Maddi later told the cameras that after her past rocky relationships she hadn’t really thought about marriage until now. “I’m looking into a glimpse of my future right now and it doesn’t look all that scary,” she revealed.
Joe, meanwhile, confirmed that he and Maddi are not legally married but said he plans to make it official someday.
“Even though me and Maddi started dating, like, four months ago, I think our love story goes way before that. Especially mine,” he said, noting that had feelings for Maddi for three years. “This is not a real wedding, but it will be a real wedding one day soon. I just want to lock her down.”
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Joe and Maddi exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2024 that they began dating that April after hanging out exclusively for a few months to start the year.
“I always had feelings for Joe, but I just didn’t know if it was past a friendship or not,” Maddi told Us at the time, explaining that it was “very scary” for her to take that leap of faith. “It was definitely worth taking that risk,” she said.
Joe, meanwhile, noted that, to him, their Sin City nuptials were “serious” because it was a way to “show my love for her and prove all the haters wrong.”
Southern Hospitality airs on Bravo Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
