After meeting during filming of the inaugural season of The Bachelorette in 2002, the Sutters have become one of the franchise’s most beloved couples ever and the ultimate sign of proof that the process can work.
The season ended with Ryan, a quiet but romantic firefighter, proposing to Trista, telling her, “I see a white dress, and I see it with you. You stepped out of my dreams and into my world.”
ABC then chronicled their journey to the altar in a three-episode special series called Trista & Ryan’s Wedding in 2003, and the move paid off: 26 million people tuned in.
The couple officially exchanged vows on December 6, 2003, and have welcomed two children, Maxwell Alston Sutter, born in 2007, and Blakesley Grace Sutte, born in 2009.
The family of four lives in Vail, Colorado, and Trista and Ryan recently celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary. So what’s the secret? “I think forgiveness is a big one because no one’s perfect,” she told Good Morning America in 2017. “Neither of us are perfect.” And yes, Ryan still has the final rose Trista offered him way back in 2002, with Trista telling GMA they keep it “in the closet upstairs.”
In 2017, Trista suffered a terrifying seizure while on a family vacation, with the scary experience bringing the couple even closer together. “My knight in shining armor,” the “godmother” of the franchise captioned a selfie of the couple she posted just one week after her seizure.