For some folks, planning a wedding is a colossal undertaking. It takes months of consistent organization, right down to booking venues ahead of time, sending out invitations, figuring out who sits where, making a playlist or hiring a DJ, etc. It also might cost tens of thousands of dollars when accounting for clothing, reservations, catering, and even flights and hotels for guests if you really want to break the bank. And if you forget your own anniversary date after all this? It’s disappointed sighs and eye-rolling all around.
That is, unless you’re singer Jelly Roll and his wife Bunnie XO, neither of whom really remember their original wedding date. Reason being, they sidestepped that whole intensive-planning phase of their marriage and went straight to the vows. Also, this was in Las Vegas, capital of impromptu weddings.
Jelly Roll recounted the tale on the “King and the Wing and the Sting” podcast: “So it’s like 11 o’clock. They’re closing the joint down by Hard Rock [Cafe] and I’m like, ‘F*** it, let’s just go now.” Bunnie pointed out that the nearby county clerk’s office closed in about 35 to 44 minutes, specifically, to which Jelly replied, “Let’s f****** roll.” And, true to Jelly’s name, roll they did. That was eight years ago in 2016, and despite their first years together being “a rodeo,” as Bunnie said on her “Dumb Blonde” podcast, the two are completely happy together.
A spontaneous decision
We don’t have a lot of details about the specific night in question when Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO got married. But we do know that Jelly’s proposal came on the same night as the marriage. The two got together about a year prior through a mutual friend after Bunnie split up with her partner at the time. Or as Jelly explained it on the “King and the Wing and the Sting” podcast, she said, “‘Yo just plug me in with Jelly.” After a year of dating, Jelly proposed at the end of one of his concerts in Las Vegas. Fast-forward to Jelly suggesting that they get married right away, and voila: Eight years happily hitched.
“Looking back at what felt like the absolute wildest decision I ever made it ended up literally being the best decision I’ve made my entire life,” Bunnie said of the decision on Instagram in 2022. On her “Dumb Blonde” podcast,” she also said that she and Jelly didn’t really know each other when they got married. “You’re going to hang on because you guys don’t really know each other … hop into the frying pan with f****** hot grease, but it’s so worth it in the end,” she said. She also recommended couples therapy. “You know, we went through it, we figured it out, and we’re better than ever now,” the podcast host said. And they did it all without even remembering exactly when they got married.
They chose their anniversary date
In the hands of some couples, a forgotten wedding date would be cause for blowout, to say the least. But in Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO’s relationship, it didn’t really matter. After seven years together, they decided to renew their wedding vows in 2023, but this time with a ceremony. But because they weren’t exactly sure when they got married, they decided on a date. As Jelly told People, “It is officially — I think — September 1. And September 1 felt right, because we thought it was between the 30th and 31st, so I said, ‘Well, now we can just both be wrong and just set it on the first.’ Even money that way.”
In recent years, Jelly and Bunnie have been very vocal about their relationship and love for each other. On the “Taste of Country Nights” radio show, Jelly described how he knew that Bunnie was right from day one “When I hugged her, I could just feel the genuineness of her,” he said. “I could tell it wasn’t an act.” On the day they renewed their vows, he made a touching Instagram post: “I may have never gave my wife the wedding she truly deserved but I plan on giving her the life she deserves for the rest of it. I love you more than, anything mama bear. You are my anchor.” A year later, Bunnie similarly said on Instagram, “Without you, I wouldn’t be the woman I am today,” amongst other sweet missives. She even listed precisely how long they’ve been together, down to the seconds.