Michelle Young is a Bachelorette no more after marrying Jack Leius on Saturday, June 7.
Young, 32, and Leius hosted an intimate ceremony in their native Minneapolis at Woodland Glasshaus at Bavaria Downs, according to People. The former Bachelorette star wowed in a custom Anne Barge bridal gown as approximately 200 guests looked on.
“It’s been a whirlwind of emotions and our cheeks may get stuck from smiling so big!” Young told the outlet prior to tying the knot. “We knew regardless of how things turned out it would feel like an incredibly special day. So many fun moments and funny stories.”
The couple’s big day was full of special touches, including Leius’ boss and former University of Minnesota football coach, Mike Sherels, officiating the ceremony. Sherels’ twin daughters, Lyla and Cecilia, were also the flower girls, per People.
Once the bride and groom said, “I do,” they walked down the aisle together as Drake‘s “Best I Ever Had” played. Their first dance followed with the newlyweds moving across the floor to Rihanna‘s “Hate That I Love You” featuring Ne-Yo. (The song was a nod to the first night Young and Leius met, as it was playing in the car.)
Earlier this week, Young revealed that she couldn’t wait to walk down the aisle.
“Funny how a year and a half ago, I constantly wondered if I would ever find my person,” she wrote via Instagram on June 2. “Now, I’m practicing my first dance with him for our wedding that’s in five days.”
The reality TV alum added, “I guess they really mean it when they say it’ll all work out.”
Young and Leius have been together since fall 2023, meeting through a mutual friend.
“She has a good friend and her friend has a little brother, who I know, and her friend’s little brother posted Michelle in his [Instagram] Story and so I kinda just hit him up a couple times,” Leius said during a joint appearance on the “Almost Famous” podcast in January 2024, revealing that he kept pestering his pal to introduce him to Young.
Unbeknownst to Leius, Young also asked for a meeting. “I had no idea any of this was going on [and] I was with said little brother and my friend, and we were just talking,” Young recalled at the time. “I said, ‘I have no idea how I’m supposed to meet my person in Minnesota. Like, [he] is definitely not in Minnesota at this point. I gotta start traveling more because they’re not on the apps!’”
Young and Leius met a few hours later, and the rest is history. “I think we spent the next four days together,” Leius added on the podcast. “And we were dating by Sunday.”
After a year of dating, Leius proposed to the former elementary school teacher in December 2024 by organizing a fake photo shoot.
“I completely froze when I saw Jack standing in the middle of this beautiful flower arch of white roses,” she told People later that month. “I was fooled so badly that for a moment I thought the joke was that Jack was one of the male models that I would be working with at the shoot.”
Young, the runner-up on Matt James’ season of The Bachelor in 2021, went on to lead the franchise later that year. During the season 18 finale of The Bachelorette, Young accepted a proposal from Nayte Olukoya. They split six months later.
