Taryn Tipton and Daniel Gertson

[00:02] TARYN TIPTON: My name is Taryn Tipton. I'm 33, and today is March 1, 2023. We're in Marfa, Texas, and I'm here with my husband, Daniel Gertson

[00:13] DANIEL GERTSON: Hello. My name is Daniel Gertson I am 42 currently. I think that's right. It's March 1, 2023, and we're in Marfa, Texas. I'm here with Taryn Tipton, who is my wife now, as of about 12 hours ago, 1218 hours ago.

[00:32] TARYN TIPTON: So weird to hear you say that. Why are we in Marfa Daniel?

[00:37] DANIEL GERTSON: Well, we're here to get married, which we have done successfully now. But, yeah, so we came. We live in San Antonio, and we came out here to Marfa. It's a pretty important place in our story, which I know we're gonna talk about some, but, yeah, when we were thinking about getting married, this is both of our second marriages, and I think that you have a little bit of an advantage if you've done this before. You kind of know what's important to you, what aspects of the whole marriage ceremony, reception thing are important, and I. Of what's the most meaningful to you. And so, yeah, so we were able to. We decided we wanted to get married out here and keep it kind of small, like about 30 people that ended up being mostly family, but a few friends as well. But it was great. We came in town on Monday, and a lot of people had kind of made a weekend out of it, going to Big Bend or Fort Davis or something like that. Just seeing West Texas, a lot of people, I was kind of surprised, pleasantly surprised that this was a lot of people's first time out here in West Texas. And so that's cool to kind of get to introduce everybody to this place, but, yeah, but it was about 30 people got in Monday, and we had a welcome, welcome cocktails at Hotel St. George, and then we had a welcome dinner at Hotel Paisano. The wedding, the ceremony, and reception were all at Bohemio, and we decorated the place and rearranged a lot of furniture to kind of turn it into a wedding venue. But it was beautiful. It worked really well. The weather was great. Maybe ten degrees warmer than I would have liked for February in west Texas, but, yes, perfect for you. And then we had an after party out at the Marvel lights viewing stand and saw some lights that we're chalking up to the spirits or aliens or whatever it is.

[03:02] TARYN TIPTON: Definitely not cars on a highway far away.

[03:05] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. And then kind of wrapped everything up. This morning with a breakfast at the Sentinel. So it was really awesome to see our families. Our two families hadn't met before today, so it was really cool to see them get to interact. And then a lot of our friends hadn't met. All of our extended family, especially mine, live all around the place, all around the US, and even international. So it was fun to get to see them all interact and get to know each other and really cool. It worked well. Sometimes people meeting each other, maybe they don't like each other that much, but they all seem to get along great, and that really helped make the whole thing special. So it was special already for us, but now, hopefully, it's special for everyone that came, too.

[04:01] TARYN TIPTON: So I think we did some things that were important to fostering connection. Like, that was a really important, core value for us was connection as we were planning this wedding. And I feel like we were successful in doing that. We did some things, like wrote people's names on the back of photos. We had all of our favorite photos of them printed out, and then we wrote their names in a short little message about who we wanted them to connect with at the wedding and some points of. Points of similarity or some ideas for conversation starters. And I don't even know if we needed it. The group just had such good chemistry, and I don't think it was just the fact that, like, ranch water and margaritas were flowing. I think that our people just really loved each other and got along, and everyone just was in such a celebratory posture, and I'm thankful for that.

[04:55] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's always little hiccups and stuff, but none of it mattered for the weekend, so it wasn't even a weekend.

[05:05] TARYN TIPTON: We got married on a Tuesday. It's called a weekend, but it feels like it was a weekend. But we got married on the last day of February because everything is way more expensive on March 1 because of spring break and because of wedding season. So we're like, okay, Tuesday, February 28 it is.

[05:21] DANIEL GERTSON: So even if that means a shorter engagement period, shorter time to plan, it was like, nope, that's what we're doing. So it worked great. It worked great. You want to talk a little bit about kind of why Marfa was a destination for us?

[05:38] TARYN TIPTON: Yeah. So we went to Marfa on our first date, which was five days long. And I feel like I always have to say that Daniel and I did not meet on a dating app or a dating website. We did not, like, run off to the desert for five days with strangers. But we'd been friends for a long time before, and so I was planning a solo camping trip in the middle of the pandemic to big Bend, and then a short trip to Marfa. And Daniel and I had been close friends, and it was starting to feel like, okay, there's something more here. And so I invited him to go with me on our camping trip, or my camping trip crashed it.

[06:18] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah.

[06:18] TARYN TIPTON: Yeah. But on that trip, we started dating, and so our camping trip as friends turned into a really long first date. Yeah.

[06:28] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah.

[06:28] TARYN TIPTON: You wanna talk about what we did?

[06:30] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah, sure. Yeah. So, yeah, it was a camping trip, so we camped, obviously, the first night we spent at Lake Amistad. We had to hike about a mile to find the lake, which was supposed.

[06:46] TARYN TIPTON: To be the clearest water in Texas, but it was such a drought that it was just a mud puddle, essentially.

[06:52] DANIEL GERTSON: It was. It was, like, really deep mud, but, yeah, so that was our 1st. 1st experience. Like, that was our first time camping together and. First time, like, staying a night together.

[07:06] TARYN TIPTON: You look so cute in your glasses when you took your contacts out.

[07:09] DANIEL GERTSON: I was actually nervous about that, like, looking like you thinking that I looked like a dork.

[07:14] TARYN TIPTON: No, I liked it.

[07:15] DANIEL GERTSON: You didn't. So we did that, and then we woke up the next morning and drove to Big Bend, and it was my first. So, this was June 2020, and everything in the park was closed because of the pandemic. But admission was free, so you could just drive in. And so we did. We got to the trailhead. I had looked up some. Some trails, and specifically, Taryn loves waterfalls, so I found this one trail that was like, oh, there's this. It's a year round waterfall in Big Bend. We got to the trailhead about. It was about 11:00 a.m. and this is June, and so it was in Texas summer, so it was already hot. But we started hiking, and it was the cattail falls trailhead. We start hiking, and it was only a couple miles. It wasn't that strenuous. And we get to the falls, and, I mean, it's barely a trickle coming down this rock, and, like, really shallow little pool. It was quite underwhelming, but kind of looked down the valley or the canyon that it was in, and there was this nice, deep, really clear pool, lots of trees covering it.

[08:28] TARYN TIPTON: I forgot about this part of the park.

[08:29] DANIEL GERTSON: Oh, Mandy, it's a great. Yeah. Anyway, so we were like, you know, we're hot, and had been hiking. We're like, okay, let's get in. So we get in, and it's nice and cool and refreshing. The water feels great.

[08:45] TARYN TIPTON: Really an oasis in the middle of the desert.

[08:47] DANIEL GERTSON: It really was. And so we're in the water maybe about a minute or so, and I'm just kind of, like, looking at Taryn, and I see something black kind of moving near her shoulder. And I look a little closer, and I see it kind of wriggling in the water, and I think, huh, that kind of looks like a leech. And so I kind of, like, shoo it away. But then I look to the other side, and I see another one. And so I look at Taryn, and I'm like, okay, let's not panic. But I think there are some leeches here. We should get out. So we quickly exit the pool, and we look back in, and the thing is just teeming with these leeches that are all, like, two inches long and thick. And, like, there's just so many. We realized, like, we. When we got in, we kind of disturbed them and woke them all up, and they were coming out. Fortunately, like, we didn't get any on us. We got out quickly enough. But, well, there was.

[09:51] TARYN TIPTON: There was nothing, like, romantic or sexy about it, but we were, like, checking each other's entire body. Body fairly, just in a panic.

[09:58] DANIEL GERTSON: Oh, man, that was creepy. But. So that cut our time in the oasis in the Texas desert a little.

[10:06] TARYN TIPTON: Bit short, but we pressed on.

[10:07] DANIEL GERTSON: We did. We did.

[10:08] TARYN TIPTON: And perhaps unwisely.

[10:09] DANIEL GERTSON: So we went back down to the trailhead and took another trail. That was the window trail, but it's the one that goes via Oak Springs, I think it's called. And that one is approaching the window from the west. So you're climbing a lot. And this is the West Texas desert. There's no shade whatsoever, so. And again, now it's probably about two in the afternoon or three in the afternoon. It's hot. Sun is out, no shade. We make it up to the top, and we both had, like, camelback kind of water packs or. I did.

[10:47] TARYN TIPTON: I did not. I just drank yours.

[10:49] DANIEL GERTSON: Okay, well, that's why we ran out.

[10:51] TARYN TIPTON: At the top, and I almost fast out. I thought I was gonna throw up or pass out her boat. And I was like, oh, gosh, this is not going well at all.

[11:00] DANIEL GERTSON: Great first date.

[11:02] TARYN TIPTON: I was so embarrassed.

[11:03] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. But it didn't. It didn't bother me at all. But so we did. We made it back and then drove to Terlingua, and we had a sunset horseback ride planned.

[11:16] TARYN TIPTON: Oh, no, no. Before we went on the horseback ride, we were so hot that I. I googled swimming pool. It's like swimming pool near me. And basically, the only swimming pool in a two hour radius was at the Longhorn Ranch motel in Terlingua And so we go up to the motel, and you just have to knock on a random door. It was like, please knock on room.

[11:39] DANIEL GERTSON: 101 or something, because their office was closed again because of the pandemic.

[11:44] TARYN TIPTON: So we go knock on this motel door, and an elderly man who is morbidly obese and clearly, like, struggling to walk answers. You remember his name?

[11:57] DANIEL GERTSON: Mike.

[11:57] TARYN TIPTON: Mike. And we tell Mike that we want to camp, and we asked if we could use the swimming pool. And so Mike is like, sure, but I need to go clean it and turn on the filter or the skimmer or something. But it's very clear he is in no shape to walk to the swimming pool and do all of this labor. And so we're like, no, no, no, no, it's okay. It's like, we'll skim the pool, and, like, no need to do that. And we asked, like, okay, so how much is it gonna be just for the, like, the campsite for one night? And he's like, well, if you're cleaning the pool, for me, it's free. And so we got a free camping spot, and we did have to skim the pool and swim, but it felt so good after that really hot hike.

[12:41] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. Yeah, it did. Yeah, the water was worth it. No leeches in the pool, so. Was a lot better.

[12:49] TARYN TIPTON: Then after we swam, we went on a sunset horseback ride around Trelingwa.

[12:54] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. And that was fun. Taryn grew up in the country, so she's very comfortable on horses. I grew up in the city, and so I am less comfortable on horses. I've ridden horses before, but, you know, it's just not something that I'm used to, but so we do this ride, and it's a couple miles and just kind of around, it's with a guide and all that stuff. Really pretty. All the quarries and outcrops and stuff near Terlingua are really, really pretty. And so we're getting close to the end, and we're kind of going down this hill. And my horse, I guess, had just had enough of me at that point, and so she started getting a little antsy and then started bucking, and I was holding on to the saddle horn as tightly as I could, but I knew I was not going to be able to stay on this horse. So I just did, like a really slow kind of roll off the side of this horse and ended up falling maybe like a foot. But fortunately, the dirt was pretty soft. And so I got up and the guy just, like, jumped off his horse and was like, oh, my gosh, are you okay? And I get up and I, like, kind of, like, pat myself, like, my hips and my legs, and I'm like, okay, I think I'm fine. I think I'm fine.

[14:15] TARYN TIPTON: You got back on the horse.

[14:16] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah, got back on the horse to finish the ride. I'm not a quitter. And so, yeah, so I was okay, except for this massive bruise on my inner thigh from my slow roll off the saddle that I had. I mean, I swear, that thing was, like, a couple months before that went away. But I. But, yeah, so that was time. Terlingua And then.

[14:42] TARYN TIPTON: So that's all in, like.

[14:43] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah, this is. Yeah, two days. Yeah. One night, one evening and a second day. And so then, yeah, so we. We spent the night, we camped there, swim in the pool for a while, decided to start dating while we were swimming in the pool.

[15:01] TARYN TIPTON: The one that we cleaned.

[15:02] DANIEL GERTSON: Yes. But then the next day, drove up to Marfa.

[15:06] TARYN TIPTON: Well, we hiked Santa Elena.

[15:08] DANIEL GERTSON: Oh, that's right. We went back down to Santa Elena Canyon and hiked there and mostly hiked in the river, but.

[15:14] TARYN TIPTON: Oh, we did. We hiked. We hiked in the river. And we didn't know this until we got to Marfa and checked into our hotel and was, like, getting ready to take a shower, but, like, my clothes were just completely full of, like, Rio grande silt. Yeah, yeah, it was muddy in the bathroom.

[15:35] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah, it was. So, yeah, so we came up to Marfa and checked in the hotel, swam in the pool there, but, yes, had lots of mud in our clothes from the Rio Grande, but then we're able to clean up. So we're two days in and hadn't showered yet, so this was our chance to.

[16:00] TARYN TIPTON: And officially dating at that point.

[16:01] DANIEL GERTSON: Yes, and officially dating, but, yeah, just walked around again, like, pandemic. Weird times. So a lot of stuff was closed or closing early or, you know, capacity limits and all that stuff. But we're able to have a drink in the patio at Hotel Paisano, get some food.

[16:20] TARYN TIPTON: We had cocktails at the Sentinel.

[16:22] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah.

[16:22] TARYN TIPTON: Both places that we took our families back to this week.

[16:25] DANIEL GERTSON: Right, right.

[16:27] TARYN TIPTON: Oh, but I think my favorite part of our time in Marfa on our first date was when we sat in the back of my truck in lawn chairs and drank beer and looked for the Marfa lights, which I did not see that night.

[16:39] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah, I saw some. I saw some. I'm claiming it for sure. But, yeah, so, you know, we had a good time doing that and thought that would be a great way to wrap up our wedding day. So that was fun to get to do that.

[16:56] TARYN TIPTON: But that night, after. After we got back from the Marfa lights viewing area, we were back at our hotel. You told me that you loved me for the first time.

[17:05] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. Day two of our dating.

[17:08] TARYN TIPTON: Yep.

[17:09] DANIEL GERTSON: I already knew. So it wasn't a. It didn't feel like a stretch at that point, but what a wild ride. Yeah, it was. But. So the next morning, after Marfa we were driving back to San Antonio and kind of decided we didn't want it to end. And so we found a hotel in town and.

[17:33] TARYN TIPTON: In town, like, in San Antonio, our hometown.

[17:35] DANIEL GERTSON: Right, right. But decided to stay at a hotel. And then the next day, I think we went tubing up on the Comal River. Frio river or something.

[17:43] TARYN TIPTON: New Braunfels.

[17:44] DANIEL GERTSON: In New Braunfels. And, yeah. Just ended up spending five days together as our first date. A big part of it, how we spent the time. We had lots of time in the car, but we had seen that article. I think it was, like, New York Times or magazine or something like that. But it was 36 questions to fall in love. And it's this researcher who had done these experiments on human intimacy and relationship development.

[18:14] TARYN TIPTON: And it's not actually about falling in love. It's just like, to create a connection between two people.

[18:20] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah.

[18:20] TARYN TIPTON: I mean, that's quite presumptuous to be like, we're on our first date, let's ask these questions and fall in love.

[18:24] DANIEL GERTSON: Right.

[18:24] TARYN TIPTON: Although that is what happens, essentially.

[18:26] DANIEL GERTSON: It did. It did. That wasn't the point necessarily. But we spent our time throughout big Bend and in Marfa and driving back, just talking through these questions, and they kind of, like, grow in their level of depth and, like, how personal they are. And I. All that. And so, yeah, by the time we finished our date, we had finished all 36 questions. And it ends with, like, you're supposed to, like, look into your partner's eyes for three minutes. Four minutes.

[18:59] TARYN TIPTON: Four minutes.

[19:00] DANIEL GERTSON: Four minutes.

[19:00] TARYN TIPTON: It feels like an eternity.

[19:01] DANIEL GERTSON: It feels like an eternity. And especially when you forget to start the timer, it especially feels like an eternity.

[19:08] TARYN TIPTON: I don't know how long we were looking at each other. It might have been twelve minutes.

[19:12] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. I don't know.

[19:13] TARYN TIPTON: It really felt like forever. It got awkward.

[19:17] DANIEL GERTSON: But, yeah. So that kind of capped off our time together on our first date and really, really set in stone, I suppose, how much this part of the world means to us and how tight it is into our story. And so when we thought about getting married, it just seemed perfect to do that here and invite our family and our friends, these people that we love, to kind of see a little bit of what we saw and experienced that on that first date. So that's what we did, and I think it was perfect.

[20:01] TARYN TIPTON: Yeah. You think we accomplished that task, like, inviting them into the story?

[20:05] DANIEL GERTSON: I think so. A lot of the commentary and talking with our guests has been about how cool this place is, how they want to come back. They wish they could stay longer. There's so much stuff they want to see. They want to get down to big bend or go to the observatory or whatever. And, yeah, even for me, when we came on our first date, it was my first time out here, and I grew up in Texas, and my family, we did all kinds of driving trips and went to all, all kinds of national parks, but we never came to big bend. And so I remember when we had passed through marathon and turned south to go into the park, and I was just blown away by the scenery. I kept saying, I didn't know Texas could look like this. It's just so beautiful, and it's really different from Houston. Very different from Houston, very different from San Antonio. And San Antonio had some beautiful scenery, too. But, yeah, it's just an incredibly unique place. And so getting to come back out here, getting to share it with people that we love, really, that was the point of the whole thing. Other than us being married, that was really the point of this whole thing. And I think it went really well.

[21:30] TARYN TIPTON: When you look back on yesterday, what are some moments that you're going to remember.

[21:37] DANIEL GERTSON: Yesterday? So I think we've kind of talked about this a little bit, but just the way everybody got along and got to know each other, and it seems like really, genuinely enjoyed spending time together. These people that had never met, you know, meth the day before from various times and seasons and places in our life, but really just all coming together and, you know, to celebrate us feels really. Feels really special. And, yeah, it's definitely something that I appreciate and, you know, has a lot of meaning for me. So how about you? What's a favorite moment for you?

[22:26] TARYN TIPTON: My favorite moment was when you surprised me with the confetti cannons. More like confetti poppers, I guess. But it was still so much fun. I love all of the magical party moments that happen, like when there's a big display of fireworks or like a balloon drop or confetti cannons, but we had a small wedding at an intimate venue. Of course we weren't going to do anything like that. We're trying to keep things really simple and just make sure that the focus is on and what's most important, which is you and me and our love for each other and our families meeting. So I didn't expect to do anything over the top like that. But when we were doing our first dance and everybody had, like, confetti poppers that just, like, filled the entire room with white confetti, it felt really magical. It was such a big surprise. It just made me feel, like, seen and known because it's something that's small. Like, I'm a grown woman in my thirties. I shouldn't get so excited about confetti, but I do and you don't. You didn't make it feel silly. Like, it felt really special and sweet. I like, I like surprises.

[23:34] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah.

[23:35] TARYN TIPTON: Whether it's small or big. And that it might have been a small thing, but it felt big to me. I, I think that was the, the only time I, like, really cried during the day. I'm not much of a crier, but that was special.

[23:49] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. I had told you, going into this whole thing like that, my whole goal or my hope for it was so Taryn smiles a lot, but there's this way that she smiles where she kind of is trying to hold it back almost, but then it just explodes. And her beautiful smile is impossible to ignore. And so, like, my goal was for that to happen in this wedding, whether that's the ceremony, in the reception, in the dance party, whatever. And so we had gone to a wedding about a month ago, and they had, it was a huge wedding with hundreds of people and just absolutely gorgeous. But there was a moment where they had these confetti cannons and Taryn just, like, lost her mind. And it was so cute. And so I immediately texted my best friend. I was like, hey, find some confetti cannons. Like, we're going to keep this a secret and we'll make this a surprise. But we did. We pulled it off and it was so worth it. It was so worth it. Just getting to see you smile as we, I kind of spun you, and the confetti is falling all around us. Yeah. That made the whole thing. Yeah.

[25:22] TARYN TIPTON: I know that we're not very far removed from it yet, but is there anything that you would do differently?

[25:31] DANIEL GERTSON: Let's see. I mean, I don't think there's anything big that I would do differently. Like, there's, you know, like, we're both planners and we love planning things and getting into the details.

[25:47] TARYN TIPTON: Yeah. Definitely have an eye for the things that could be improved.

[25:51] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. Yeah.

[25:52] TARYN TIPTON: But I didn't want to get too caught up in that yesterday.

[25:54] DANIEL GERTSON: Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, like, there's some smaller things that I. We didn't think of maybe, or just didn't go exactly the way we had planned for them to go, but nothing that was of any consequence. Like these confetti canons, they were, I don't know, about half of. Half a verse early, and so, you know, I was a little bit concerned about that. About half a verse early in the song, but they had the desired effect. No, no, it worked. It still worked great. And, yeah, it was. It was fine. It was fine.

[26:39] TARYN TIPTON: I think, for me, the biggest thing that I would change, I would need a little bit more 2010 rap and hip hop music.

[26:48] DANIEL GERTSON: Oh, in the dance party, for sure.

[26:50] TARYN TIPTON: During the dance party, like, some. Some of those college jams, like, really get me and my friends and my sisters excited to be on the dance floor.

[26:58] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We didn't need as much booze as we brought. We knew we were bringing a lot, but we just wanted to make sure the whiskey drink, definitely. Yeah, that one. We're out of the. Of the whiskey, so. Yeah. So, I mean, that one was very popular, so that's good to know for not next wedding, but next party. It's not a wedding, but the next.

[27:25] TARYN TIPTON: Party we throw this morning at brunch, was it your mom? She was like, we'll have to do this again in five years. So, five year anniversary party. That's just round two of this.

[27:37] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah.

[27:37] TARYN TIPTON: I guess we'll bring more whiskey.

[27:38] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. We'll know that the whiskey drink is. Is a popular one. Yeah. Was there anything that surprised you?

[27:47] TARYN TIPTON: That's a good question. I mean, other than the confetti.

[27:49] DANIEL GERTSON: Well, sure.

[27:50] TARYN TIPTON: Yeah, sure. I think it just felt. I just felt so calm all day, and I haven't felt nervous. I haven't had cold feet or anything about this wedding, but I expected maybe that on the wedding day that there would just be more jitters or anxious energy, and there was none of that all day. I felt completely calm and present, just, like, moving from one thing to the next, like, getting the venue set up and then going to hair and makeup, and it was just an easy, stress free day. The only time I started to feel a little bit nervous was when I was waiting at the back of the venue to kind of walk the aisle, and I was walking the aisle by myself. That was important to me, that I just went by myself. I didn't want my dad to walk me down the aisle a second time. And so it was then when I was just had a moment alone, I started to feel a little bit nervous and almost embarrassed, like all eyes were gonna be on me. But then my best friend came back and gave me a hug, and that moment was just really special to share with her. That was a surprise, how she just, like, came back to check on me, and I was so glad that she was there.

[29:05] DANIEL GERTSON: I think. Yeah. I also was. I don't know. I mean, like, through this whole engagement, I haven't felt nervous. You know, like, as you've been slowly moving in to my apartment, there are moments where it's like, oh, this is a big change. This is a lot different. I wouldn't necessarily call those nerves. That's just, like, you know, things I'm processing or having to know that I'm gonna have to get used to, but, yeah, like, I wasn't nervous. Like, as I was getting ready, it didn't feel. I didn't feel anxious. You know, most of my nerves had been about, like, okay, we've got a lot of things to pull off here. How's it all going to go? But I haven't ever been nervous about marrying you. Yeah, that's just felt like we've talked about this, but it's just felt like it's going to be more of what we already have. Yeah. Living together will be very different, but as far as our relationship goes, didn't really change. We wear rings now, and we get to file our taxes together, but, yeah, it's just. I just know it's going to be comfortable and safe and peaceful and so, yeah, I didn't feel anxious about at any point yesterday anything that surprised me. Are you. So our officiant is a good friend of ours, and he was. He's all. He's a really, like, reserved guy, but he can be very tender and emotional, and he basically cried through his entire ceremony to the point where he was.

[31:09] TARYN TIPTON: Struggling to get through pieces of it.

[31:11] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. Yeah. And sweet, though. Yeah. Oh, it didn't bother me at all.

[31:15] TARYN TIPTON: No, me neither.

[31:16] DANIEL GERTSON: Like, take. Take as much time as you need. But having him there was really special. Yeah. I mean, again, he's kind of reserved, so to see that emotion and to see him feeling those feelings and then. And then sharing them with us both, like, in his struggle to control his tears, but also in the message that he delivered, was just really sweet. Really. Yeah. Just made me feel, like, really valued and appreciated and, yeah, just reinforce how great a friend he is.

[32:01] TARYN TIPTON: Right. That really resonated with the guests, too. When he started crying 30 seconds in, pretty much everybody else started crying.

[32:11] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. And we have, we had some seasoned wedding professionals in him and then photographer, and she's like, I don't know how many weddings I've done. I have never cried at one. And she cried when we were doing our first look photos, so.

[32:24] TARYN TIPTON: And she also gave a toast. Our photographer gave a toast at the wedding.

[32:28] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah.

[32:29] TARYN TIPTON: So there was such a thing as competitive weddings. I think we would win.

[32:33] DANIEL GERTSON: I think so. Yeah. We definitely got gold stars. Yeah, that's for sure. But as we kind of wrap up, like what, I guess kind of a two part question, like, what do you hope you hold onto from this weekend and then that our guests kind of take away and remember, and maybe it's the same thing. I don't know. But, yeah, I'm curious.

[33:03] TARYN TIPTON: So we've said the whole time that we've been together that really all that we're looking for is something that is good and fun and meaningful. And I think that's what I want to remember. And that's what I hope our guests remember, too, that this week was good, that we had fun together, but that it was also meaningful. It wasn't just about having a party and dancing or having drinks. It was truly about in some ways, like joining two families or starting a new family, that there was something sacred about it, but it was still, it was still fun. And, yeah, I think I'm just going to remember that. It felt simple and unfussy, which is very much us, but it was permeated with joy throughout. And that's what I hope the rest of our life is, like, simple and unfussy and together and permeated with joy.

[34:02] DANIEL GERTSON: Well, thanks so much for being here, marrying me, and then doing this interview.

[34:08] TARYN TIPTON: You are welcome for marrying you. Thanks for marrying me. It was fun.

[34:11] DANIEL GERTSON: Yeah. That was an easy decision. I love you.

[34:14] TARYN TIPTON: I love you, too.