Serena Pitt Says She and Joe Amabile Spent the Night Before Their Wedding Together: ‘We’re Already Married!’

Bachelor in Paradise’Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt said “I do” at a town hall last year and celebrated with friends and family over Labor Day weekend this summer.

But since they were technically already married, the reality stars didn’t feel the need to follow standard wedding customs, including spending the night apart before the wedding in Charleston, South Carolina.

“Joe and I spent the night together,” Pitt, 25, said Wednesday Bachelor Happy Hour podcast episode. “I know there’s a tradition of sleeping in separate rooms on the first wedding night, but one thing: we’re already married.”

Serena Pitt and Joe Amabile Celebrate Homecoming Party and Wedding Rehearsal (Exclusive Photos)

Amabile, 37, added: “We broke that tradition a year ago!”

Pitt also thought she would sleep better with Amabile next to her.

“Second: I don’t sleep well, and you don’t sleep very well either,” said Amabile. “And I was like, why would I sleep alone in another room the night before our wedding? I’m like, I’m guaranteed to have a bad night’s sleep if I do that. So I’m glad we slept in the same bedroom the night before.”

Serena Pitt and Joe Amabile at their wedding ceremony on September 2 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Photo by Olivia Leigh

Pitt said that she and Amabile went their separate ways around 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. the next morning and then did not see each other again until the first look. Amabile called the first look “the most nervous I’ve ever been” on his wedding day.

“It was such a build-up,” Amabile explained. “And I know it’s just you and me doing the first look, but it was such an upgrade. And then I thought, it got hot – I was in my head. Like, I don’t want my shirt to get wrinkled. And yeah, I just… I was like, I know it’s going to be the first time I’m going to see you in your wedding dress and it’s going to be intimate and kind of emotional so I was like, I was nervous about it.”

Pitt agreed that the first look was a “more nerve-racking” experience for Amabile “because you don’t know what you’re going to see when you turn around.”

“When I turned around, I was so surprised because I was expecting you to walk towards me,” Pitt Amabile said. “And you just stood there.”

Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt at their wedding reception on September 2 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Photo by Olivia Leigh

Pitt wore a gown designed by Robert Bullock, which Amabile described as “really beautiful.”

“I thought it would just have a little more texture, a little more design or something,” Pittu said. “When I saw how simple it was, I said, oh, that’s really elegant.”

When it came to exchanging their vows, Amabile admitted that he “wanted to interrupt” Pitt because “I wanted to go first.”

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Pitt said she also wanted to go first, but when she did, she skipped part of what she had prepared. “I thought I had to do these vows first because I’m really nervous,” she said. “I was literally so nervous guys, I accidentally started my vows on page 2. And I was only reading page 2.”

The couple, who got engaged after meeting on Bachelor in Paradise season 7, revealed that they also made a last-minute decision about their wedding song when they arrived in South Carolina. While they were in an Uber from the airport, they heard one of the songs they had been thinking about: “Joy of My Life” by Chris Stapleton.

Serena Pitt and Joe Amabile on their September 2nd in Charleston, South Carolina.

Photo by Olivia Leigh

“The hardest thing for us was — just to be clear — choosing our first dance song,” Pitt said. “We went back and forth for months. We finally decided on this. We looked at each other like, what a crazy sign! This must be a good sign that the song is playing.”

But Amabile disagreed.

“Joe texts me, we’re sitting next to each other in an Uber, and he says, ‘It just didn’t hit like I thought it would,'” Pitt continued. “But it kind of worked because we were between two songs and I loved one of them. I held out hope for a while and we ended up choosing the one, which was ‘Take My Heart’ by The Teskey Brothers. And it was perfect.”

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Finally, Amabile said, “I’m glad we switched.”

Then the newlyweds will celebrate their honeymoon in Italy – everything is planned by Amabile.

“Joe booked our entire honeymoon, right down to our dinner reservations!” Pitt told PEOPLE. “It will be incredibly romantic. And it suits us perfectly as big pasta lovers.”

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Source: HIS Education