Jana Duggar 16: Living in a Tiny House in Daddy's Backyard, Married, and Moving to Nebraska

[viii]

She’s the first Duggar daughter to not spew the same spiel about soulmates. She has basically come out and said they got married because they’re good friends. It’s not passionate but I do agree that it will serve her better in the long run. 

I’m just happy that people can finally stop saying she remained single all these years to protect her siblings. She’s not that self sacrificing. She would have been married at 20 if she had found someone. 

The dress is rather basic but flattering. She looks really pretty. I hope that with some distance from her parents, she will start to break through the waves and realize how much has been stolen from her. 

[Audrey2]

I love Jana's dress and had I got married it would have been what I wanted had I gotten married.

Fundies have come such a long way from the super modest frankendresses.

I'm really excited that she and Steven have been friends for such a long time. I don't have a huge amount of room to talk because I never married but I would have wanted someone who was a friend first and then someone that I dated instead of someone that I just met and started dating. I think I'm a little bit weird like that.

 

[Mama Mia]

Love the dress, and the bridesmaid dresses. That is definitely not a great photo of Jessa, but could also just be an unflattering shot and pose, hard to tell in those action-y group photos.  It took me awhile to place Jordyn - she’s so grown-up! And it’s amazing to see the style progression from Anna’s wedding to this one.
 

Jana and Jessa have spent a lot of time doing renovation/design projects together the past several years, they’ve probably become very close through that.  

[FluffySnowball]

Well… who would have thought? After years of speculation, I almost didn’t think the day would come for Jana Duggar to actually get married. I hope she has a good life away from the family compound and entanglement with her parents. 

[Scrabblemaster]

This wedding makes me really happy. I can't explain why, but I am so happy about it. She seems to have had more voice in her wedding and the groom to be honest than her sisters. The fact that not much got public until they were already married is honestly impressing for me. She did something really clever. I hope JB got some headaches because it seems he did not get money out of Janas wedding as he did with the marriages from her sisters. I have some small hope that she somewhere in the last years must have put her foot down and told him no. 

[MotherOfDragons]

This is it. This is what it took to bring me out of hibernation. Happy now, Jana? 

It's really refreshing to not hear her spewing a bunch of fundie-speak about him and their engagement. They've been friends a while, they're in their 30s, and they enjoy each other's company. She's moving away from Arkansas. Her wedding was beautiful. I think this is all her absolute best case scenario in Duggarland. I'm intrigued to see how this all continues to develop.

[SweetLaurel]

I'm wondering where they will honeymoon and for how long, and how it has to just kill her to leave her gardens at harvest time if she is moving right away. Which, of course, I assume she is, if she hasn't already got her stuff there.  

Weirdly, my son just got a job offer from Nebraska. Must be the happening place right now! 

Edited August 16 by SweetLaurel
clarifying

[libgirl2]

Abbie looked gorgeous. 

[CarrotCake]

This might now be my favorite Duggar wedding dress, who would have thought?

 

[Smee]

She looks beautiful (and he looks good too). Hopefully Jill chose not to be a bridesmaid for whatever reason - this whole thing was pulled together in 2 months and she's got kids to wrangle interstate and is grieving the loss of Isla. 

She goes on about how hard it was to watch all her younger siblings get married first and feeling like an old maid, but my first thought was that if she had married 10 years ago before Jill and Jinger took the paths they took, she would not have been married in such a flattering dress, or able to keep it quiet in the leadup and get engaged without a whole camera crew around. I also think it's interesting that she uses the royal we "we've been working, he has a house we bought and we've been fixing it up". They've been engaged 2 months and lived in different states, how much work has she been able to do on his house?!

It seems pretty clear he knows her well and they have a good friendship, hopefully that will grow into a lasting partnership. I still find it sad though that she wished and prayed and hoped for marriage thinking "what's wrong with me" rather than seeing her life as full and worthwhile without a man's approval.

Edited August 16 by Smee

[JermajestyDuggar]

I think Jana and Stephen will have a stronger marriage because they are friends. I often look at some of these young fundie marriages and think they just got married because teen hormones were raging and they wanted to have sex. That’s definitely not the case here. They probably work well together. 

[Cupcake79]

I was friends with my husband for five years before we got together. We got engaged after being a couple for ten months and married about six months later. So once we became a couple we progressed fairly fast. We were 26 and 27, so not that young. We felt old.

My perception leans more towards Stephen being the one waiting for Jana to come around, not the other way around like it was with Michaela and Brandon.

Btw, 500 guests is a big wedding in my opinion. But how many guests have attended the other Duggar weddings? Are kids included in that number? What is the total number of Duggars, in-laws and grandchildren? Anyone keeping track of all these numbers?

[JermajestyDuggar]

Laura posted a pic. It’s surprising she wasn’t a bridesmaid. 

6 minutes ago, Cupcake79 said:

I was friends with my husband for five years before we got together. We got engaged after being a couple for ten months and married about six months later. So once we became a couple we progressed fairly fast. We were 26 and 27, so not that young. We felt old.

My perception leans more towards Stephen being the one waiting for Jana to come around, not the other way around like it was with Michaela and Brandon.

Btw, 500 guests is a big wedding in my opinion. But how many guests have attended the other Duggar weddings? Are kids included in that number? What is the total number of Duggars, in-laws and grandchildren? Anyone keeping track of all these numbers?

I assume that include kids too. Because both of them have huge families with tons of kids in them. 

[HereticHick]

Since they bought a house perhaps the June engagement was just a formality (ie they’ve been planning to get married for a while) but June was the official “talk to her father & present a ring” event.  
 

[justpassingthru]

She married fundie Pedro Pascal

[JermajestyDuggar]

Look at all the times Jana was a bridesmaid. Ugh that would drive me nuts. I hate being a BM and I’ve only done it 4 times. I have a friend who has been a BM more than a dozen times. But she’s super friendly and easy to get along with. 
 

Missing in this list is Anna’s wedding. She was a bridesmaid for Anna and Josh’s wedding. 

18 minutes ago, justpassingthru said:

She married fundie Pedro Pascal

Don’t besmirch my Pedro that way! He’s one of my favorite actors in Hollywood. 

22 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

Since they bought a house perhaps the June engagement was just a formality (ie they’ve been planning to get married for a while) but June was the official “talk to her father & present a ring” event.  
 

I always assume this is how it goes with fundies. They’ve been planning the wedding and marriage long before the official engagement, 

Edited August 16 by JermajestyDuggar

[Adrienne83]

Does anyone know why they broke up before? And when were they dating the first time? Roughly. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

2 minutes ago, Adrienne83 said:

Does anyone know why they broke up before? And when were they dating the first time? Roughly. 

They were dating the first time when Hannah and Jer were first dating too. Based on the People article, it sounds like Jana broke things off. I think Jana likely has issues due to the way she grew up. She says she’s not very trusting and is guarded. Which I totally understand. I’m betting Stephen was pining over her for a long time after they broke up just hoping they would get back together. 

[Adrienne83]

Just now, JermajestyDuggar said:

They were dating the first time when Hannah and Jer were first dating too. Based on the People article, it sounds like Jana broke things off. I think Jana likely has issues due to the way she grew up. She says she’s not very trusting and is guarded. Which I totally understand. I’m betting Stephen was pining over her for a long time after they broke up just hoping they would get back together. 

When was that around?

 The people article was so sad to me. It sounded like she just settled. Which is sad for him too. I know we will never know if they actually love each other, but that article sure sounds like she doesn’t. 🥲

[HereticHick]

15 hours ago, AussieKrissy said:

I wonder if Jana “pined” for Stephen like Micheal bates did for Brandon. If it wasn’t him it wasn’t anyone…. Kind of attitude.  I am always wary of people who break up and get back together then marry. (If that was the case) as the old adage says, it’s like reading the same book expecting by a different ending. But hey what does this jaded 45 year old single mother know about “gods perfect timing” lol 

Why do we always assume that its the woman doing the pining? Perhaps Stephen was pining for her. Or they were both pining.  I think its wonderful that they are grown folks who have known each other for years.

Is it possible that Laura DeMaisie had another role in the wedding--decorating, music, keeping the guest book, etc?

I also wonder if Jana and Stephen were already de facto engaged when she went on that trip to Italy in Feb.

[JermajestyDuggar]

4 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

Why do we always assume that its the woman doing the pining? Perhaps Stephen was pining for her. Or they were both pining.  I think its wonderful that they are grown folks who have known each other for years.

Is it possible that Laura DeMaisie had another role in the wedding--decorating, music, keeping the guest book, etc?

I also wonder if Jana and Stephen were already de facto engaged when she went on that trip to Italy in Feb.

Jana is a catch and everyone knows it. I’m sure Stephen knew what he lost when they broke up. I think he kept hoping they would get back together. Just my speculation. 

[justpassingthru]

Do we know if Stephen is as handy as Jana is?

[JermajestyDuggar]

Just now, justpassingthru said:

Do we know if Stephen is as handy as Jana is?

Yes, he is handy too. He also plays music. So they have a lot in common. 

[lexiloumarie]

10 hours ago, CanadianMamam said:

There is one groomsman who’s face us fully obstructed, maybe JD? 

The gentleman behind Abbies arm is Loren Wiseman, Stephens dad. I don't see anyone else hidden? 

[llucie]

5 minutes ago, justpassingthru said:

Do we know if Stephen is as handy as Jana is?

Lots of tools and outdorsy stuff in their wedding registry. So i guess they both have similar interests.