Nearly a year after being rejected on national television by Jason Mesnick, former Bachelor contestant Melissa Rycroft is finally a married woman.
Rycroft swapped vows with fiance of six months, Dallas insurance agent Tye Strickland, Saturday in Mexico, Usmagazine.com has confirmed.
The couple became husband and wife in a 30-minute sunset ceremony attended by family and friends at a home on Isla Mujeres, a small island near Cancun. Rycroft, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and Strickland sealed their tear-filled vows with a kiss as an instrumental version of the Monday Night Football theme song played.
Rycroft wore a strapless corsetted Alfred Angelo gown and was barefoot as her father escorted her down the aisle. Her four bridesmaids donned salmon-colored dresses and carried bouquets of white roses, while Strickland's groomsman wore mint green button-down shirts and khaki trousers.
The 26-year-old Rycroft — who celebrated her impending nuptials with Strickland, 28, and their pals at a joint Nov. 15 bachelor/bachelorette party in Las Vegas — has long said her ceremony would be low-key.
"I'm not stuffy or anything," the Good Morning America correspondent and 2009 Dancing With the Stars finalist, has said. "That's not my personality.
Engaged since June, Rycroft and Strickland rekindled their romance after Rycroft's abrupt dismissal from the ABC series. Dumped by Mesnick for runner-up Molly Malaney, Rycroft calls being jilted "one of the best things that has happened to me in my life."
"We've been really good friends, but the timing was never right," the bride told Us at the time of Strickland. "With all this going on, he's my support system. It's funny how things happen."
The pair, who will make their home in the suburbs of Dallas, say children are in their future.
"I definitely want to have kids, but not any time soon," Rycroft says. "We want to put ourselves first for as long as we can. I want it to be us for as long as possible before we have some little twerp running around."
Adds Strickland, "If we procreate, we are going to have a little terror!"
