Keeping the spark alive! Chip and Joanna Gaines celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary in Mexico.
Joanna, 43, revealed their getaway with a slideshow via Instagram. Photos and videos, set to James Taylor’s song “Mexico,” showed the cookbook author and Chip, 46, on a tropical getaway. They explored the beautiful beach, chilled by the pool and enjoyed romantic sunset dinners.
“18 years,” the interior designer wrote. “Thankful to be on this adventure with you — happy anniversary.”
While they both attended Baylor University, the Texans didn’t meet until Chip brought his car into a shop where Joanna worked at the front desk in 2001 They got engaged in 2002 and married the next year in Waco, Texas.
The wedding was held at the Earle Harrison House, which Joanna described in their 2016 book, Magnolia Story, as “a historic mansion that looks an awful lot like the place we had our first date.”
With a 20-year relationship comes several challenges, which the pair have been open about through the years, especially when it came to building their business empire — which includes Silos Baking Co., Magnolia Table, the Hearth and Hand line at Target, Magnolia Network and Magnolia Construction.
“I remember moments where Chip and I would look at each other and just think, ‘How are we going to make it?’ Not seeing the end — not understanding you could actually get through it,” Joanna said during a Salesforce virtual chat in July 2020. “We would look at each other and say do we just bail and get out, that seemed so much easier than having to figure out how do we make it through this.”
However, she says her husband’s optimistic outlook makes everything easier. “We leaned on each other’s strengths in those moments of weakness where I would typically only see the glass half-empty and Chip would see the glass half-full,” the Kansas native explained. “Just that kind of thinking really helped me go, ‘OK, I can do this.’”
In addition to being business partners, Chip and Joanna are also the proud parents of five kids, Drake, 16, Ella, 14, Duke, 13, Emmie, 11, and Crew, 2.
Scroll through to see more photos from their child-free anniversary getaway.