Clare Crawley Reveals Her First Wedding Wasn’t Actually Legal

Clare Crawley is ready to shed light on why it took her and husband Ryan Dawkins over a year to officially tie the knot.

The former “Bachelor”star tied the knot with Mascot Sports CEO Ryan Dawkins in an intimate ceremony in Sacramento, California, on February 1, 2023. Crawley, who famously cut her season of “The Bachelorette” short after developing feelings for one of her contestants (Dale Moss), celebrated her marriage to Dawkins in a dreamy California setting.

In addition to her whirlwind romance and breakup with Dale Moss, Clare Crawley has been open with her followers on social media about her and Ryan Dawkins’ path to the altar.

Last year, Crawley shared insights about the couple’s wedding plans during an appearance on the “Ben and Ashley I. Almost Famous Podcast.” She emphasized the importance of family in their nuptials, discussing her mother’s role in the ceremony and revealing that Dawkins’ daughters would also be part of the wedding festivities.

“We want two weddings,” Crawley explained. “I want one because my mom is not able to travel… and to be around a lot of people is overwhelming for her.”

More than a year later, Crawley is sharing additional details about the wedding, including the surprising revelation that the first ceremony wasn’t legal!

Just a few months after the Mascot Sports CEO proposed under a stunning sky of lanterns at Las Vegas’ RiSE Festival in October 2022, the Bachelor Nation star recalled in an interview with E! News, “We’re like, ‘Okay, let’s start planning our wedding.’ We wanted to do it soon. We don’t want anything big or wild.”

However, things took a serious turn when her mother, Lilia, who has been battling dementia, “got really, really sick,” which prompted the former “Bachelorette” to explain, “It really got bumped up fast.”

Thankfully, Ryan was on board with her idea to put together their vows within the week. “I said, ‘I don’t care about the tablecloths, the flowers, I don’t care about all the extra stuff that makes weddings beautiful,'” she told the outlet.

And since her dad, James, passed away before he could witness her find her partner, “It was a big deal to me to have my mom there.”

While their February 2023 wedding at the state capitol in Sacramento—where they shared their first kiss—was the intimate affair Crawley had always dreamed of, one important detail was missing–their marriage license.

“We were happy to get it done, to be husband and wife,” she remarked, seemingly unfazed by the fact that they never obtained their marriage license. “So with the marriage license, in the flow of life, it kind of got forgotten, and to us, even to this day, if we didn’t have a piece of paper, we’re still husband and wife. We’re still so committed to each other, so madly in love with each other.”

However, when they started preparing their taxes this year, the “Bachelor” alum realized, “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, we didn’t get our marriage license!'” which prompted them to have a second wedding–in Vegas!

“We thought if we were going to get the paperwork, we’ve got to do a fun ceremony,” she told E!. “So we’re like, we have to do Elvis in Vegas.”

Shortly after their wedding, the couple began the surrogacy process and soon learned they were expecting their daughter, Rowen, who is now nine months old.

“I’ve always been super proactive on my health,” she explained on social media when discussing her surrogacy journey. “That being said, it doesn’t mean I have perfect health. It means I’m proactive on taking care of my health. I know you guys know I had breast implant illness. Because of that, I was just super aware of my fertility as well because that does and can affect fertility.”

Clare Crawley first made her mark on Bachelor Nation as a contestant on Juan Pablo’s season of “The Bachelor,” eventually going on to pursue love on-screen three more times.

Her relationship with former fiancé Dale Moss ended just six months after their engagement.