'Dancing With the Stars' Judge Derek Hough Marries Hayley Erbert in Romantic Redwoods Ceremony
Derek Hough is officially a married man after tying the knot with his longtime girlfriend.
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Derek Hough has officially mamboed into marriage. The ballroom pro and Dancing With the Stars judge married his longtime dancer girlfriend, Hayley Erbert, on Saturday in Monterey County, California.
The couple tied the knot in front of 106 guests in a redwood forest in northern California, People reports.
"We're in a redwood forest, but we got married right in front of is this mother tree that's surrounded by all these smaller trees," Erbert told People. "They drop all the seeds, and it plants kind of like an army of children to protect the mother. The symbolism of it was beautiful. We're here, planting our seeds to grow our family."
The wedding weekend began on Thursday in Carmel, California, at a cliffside estate. On Friday there was a garden rehearsal dinner with family and the wedding party. They made things official on Saturday with traditional and personal vows. Erbert wore a custom duchess satin gown, designed by Georgina Chapman for Marchesa. She added a lengthy veil and jewelry by Ring Concierge.
"It's all very just classic, timeless," Erbert said of her look. Hough wore a suit by Tom Ford for the ceremony and one by Brooks Brothers for the reception. Erbert's engagement ring and the couple's wedding bands were both designed by Paris Jewellers.
The guests enjoyed a reception in a 100-year-old barn. The couple's first dance as newlyweds was to "Fall Into Me" by Forrest Blakk. But the moment likely wasn't a big choreographed number.
"I think everybody's expecting us to do a performance and a dance whole thing," Hough told People ahead of the wedding. "But that's the thing, if we perform, we go on stage, we dance, we do things. So for us, it feels more special for us to not perform. To be on the floor with each other, to listen to music, and just be in the moment."
Hough's Dancing With the Stars co-star Mark Ballas served as his best man.
The groom's sister, Julianne Hough, was also on hand for the special day. Following her May 2020 split from Brooks Laich, the female Hough, who hasn't been dating anyone seriously, attended the nuptials solo.
Other famous attendees included Jenna Johnson, Frieda Pinto, Amy Purdy, Maria Menounos, Shawn Johnson, Nina Dobrev, Shaun White, Robert and Kym Herjavec and Alfonso Ribeiro.
The nuptials came more than a year after the couple announced their engagement back in June 2022. "Almost 7 years down, forever to go," Erbert wrote on Instagram after announcing her news.
After nearly a decade of dating, Hough realized it was time to get down on one knee -- with some added inspiration from his former World of Dance co-judge, Jennifer Lopez.
"I remember seeing her and I was like, 'Yo, if she can get two [engagements] within the time that I've been with [Erbert], I better step up my game,'" Hough told ET, referencing Lopez's engagements to Alex Rodriguez and Ben Affleck.
Plus, Hough realized "girlfriend" was no longer the best way to introduce his other half. "I kinda stopped myself and was like, 'This feels wrong. That word does not live up to what this relationship is,'" he recalled. "That was a good indication of like, 'OK, I think it’s time to go to the next step.'"
When ET spoke to the groom in March, he revealed the tradition he wanted to forego on his wedding day.
"I kind of wish we didn't need to do a first dance. Because I just want to, like, be in the moment," he said. "We will have a first dance. But I want to try to make it feel not like a performance. I want it to be a [real] first dance, you know what I mean?"
Now that they're married, Hough and Erbert likely have babies on the brain, as they told ET in February that meeting Val Chmerkovskiy and Jenna Johnson's newborn upped their baby fever.
"There wasn't a rush on [having kids] until we just met Val and Jenna Chmerkovskiy's baby, and that was when it was kind of like, 'So should we get on this now?'" Hough said with a laugh. "It did kind of make us think, 'Why wait?'"
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