It is wedding bells after all for Marissa George.
The “Love Is Blind” star nearly walked down the aisle during season 7 of the hit Netflix reality dating show but her then partner Ramses Prashad ended things in a shocking twist. But, like most fairy tales, this one has a happy ending for George, who married D. Johnson, a man she first met and dated in 2013, earlier this year.
The 34-year-old George and the 39-year-old Johnson tied the knot in Savannah, Georgia, in a small ceremony attended by their friends and family. For viewers of Netflix’s “Perfect Match,” news of George being married might be a shock, considering that the Season 4 finale of the show features George coupled with DeMari Davis. Despite the show airing its season finale on Wednesday, George revealed that after filming wrapped last November, the two decided to remain friends.
This opened the door for a moment of reconnection.
“We were young and lived states away from each other, so the distance just didn’t work at the time,” George told PEOPLE, who have exclusive photos of the couple’s wedding. “Over the last 13 years, we somehow always found our way back to each other,” George says. “Anytime we were both single, we’d reconnect and it was always clear the feelings never really left. Even our mutual friends would always say, ‘If the timing ever works out, they’re going to end up together.'”
After the couple reconnected shortly after “Perfect Match” wrapped filming, they were engaged on February 21 after only three months of dating. Not wasting any time, they headed to the courthouse and had their elopement ceremony just one month later.
“The day I said ‘I do,’ I felt this immense responsibility in the most beautiful way. Not pressure, but clarity. Like, this is serious. This is real partnership. I can’t play games and I don’t want to,” George shares. “It’s not that I didn’t take past relationships seriously, but I honestly don’t think I fully understood what a healthy love was supposed to feel like until now. And once you experience a love that feels peaceful, grounding, safe, and freeing all at once, it completely changes you.”
Still, George, who plans to move to Japan with Johnson and have a big wedding next year, says she’s grateful for her experience in reality TV because she found something that feels “so real” and “private.”
“I cherish what [my husband and I] have so deeply. Which is honestly why I can now watch myself on Netflix, see all the growth and mistakes and lessons, and still feel proud of the woman I’ve become,” George said. “Because this relationship didn’t just give me love, it helped me understand myself more too.”
