Michelle Young and Nayte Olugoya Jen Lowery/MEGA
Looking for wedding inspiration? Nearly four months later Michelle Young Nayte Olukoya‘s engagement aired, the duo have already begun thinking about their dream nuptials.
“Nayte and I, we know so many different people and we have such big families and that’s a huge part of [our planning process],” the Minnesota native, 28, exclusively told Us Weekly While attending the Sherri Hill NYFW Bridal & Evening Fashion Show on Friday April 8. “And so coming out of a pandemic … one thing that we both can’t imagine is having a small wedding and so we want to make sure that we’re completely clear of that so that’s not even a stresser for us, and then, [we want to have]Warm weather [on our wedding day].”
Young and the Canada native, 27-year-old, got engaged during the December 2021 final of The Bachelorette Season 18. As the pair have balanced their new normal as an engaged couple, they’ve also dealt with a long-distance relationship. (Young resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota while her beau resides in Austin, Texas.
“When we are together, we just spend time together like non-stop so it’s nice,” Olukoya gushed to Use On Friday, he and Young attended the fashion event in support of Hannah Godwin, who walked in this show.
The fifth grade teacher, for her part, added: “If we’re not hanging out, we’re texting [or] FaceTiming. We do a lot movie nights over FaceTime and Zoom. We’ve been making it work. But, he’s been in Minnesota for a little bit now so it’s been nice.”
Young, who was previously seen on season 25 The Bachelor before becoming the franchise lead, noted that the pair mostly spends time together traveling — whether to New York for a fashion show or to Mexico for a romantic retreat.
“It was amazing. It was really weird at first because we kind of jumped back into those feelings that we had when we were on the show, you know, show anxiety,” the Bradley University grad told Use They were on vacation at the same hotel that they had their engagement ceremony. “But once we got over that, we really just had so much fun. I feel like we’re going to make it our annual vacation spot.”
While the pair are still learning each other’s quirks — such as Olukoya’s “therapeutic” love of doing laundry — and pet peeves, their loved ones are also getting to know one another.
“Our dogs are getting used to each other. It took them a little while to get used. [each other],” Young added. “[My dog] Chief wasn’t a fan of [his pup] Percy. Percy may have a little too much energy, I would say. But now they’re getting used [to each other] — now they actually bond and they cuddle and they play with each other so it’s been fun to see.”
Young and the sales executive were attracted to each other from the beginning of the ABC series. He was awarded the coveted first impression rose.
“Nayte was always nearly, like, one of the strongest connections, if not the strongest connection,” she previously told Use In December 2021, after the finale aired. “And what I wanted to do is I really wanted to challenge myself to make sure that I was open to everybody because in a situation like The Bachelorette or The Bachelor, conversations can change a lot of different things because, you know, you have this short snippet and it seems like a short conversation, but [you’re] not talking small talk — you’re not talking about favorite colors and favorite foods, like, you really do dive deep. You see those conversations throughout the whole season change very quickly.”
Diana Cooper reporting
