Credit: Jen Lowery/MEGA
Teresa Giudice opened up about her wedding day during Wednesday’s episode of her podcast.
Nearly three weeks after tying the knot with Luis Ruelas, the Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member looked back on her walk down the aisle while also dishing on her custom wedding dress, gloves, and headpiece, and sharing why she’s no longer taking Luis’ last name.
“Before they opened the doors, I was really nervous inside. My heart started beating. I was getting anxiety. Just because… It was a lot,” Teresa admitted to co-host Melissa Pfiester on the August 24 episode of Namaste B$tches, titled “Sempre Insieme, Always Together,” noting that fans will watch it all play out “on national TV.”
“I was having a hard time breathing. I was praying to my parents, and to God, like, ‘Please, make me make it down that aisle.’ Because once I saw Luis’ face, then calmness came over me. And I was like, ‘I got this.’ I wasn’t nervous about getting married. It was just a lot,” she continued.
Luckily, she felt the spirits of both her late mom and her late dad.
“I felt both my parents, one on each side of me walking me down the aisle,” she recalled, explaining, “I’ve been standing strong on my own so I wanted to walk, standing strong, to Luis.”
As she walked down the aisle, Teresa wore a gown made by Mark Zanino, which she found in a boutique in New York and had the designer alter.
“My first gown was from Mark Zanino, and it was off white, and then underneath, it was a blush tone,” she revealed. “They always say, ‘When you put the gown on…’ I tried on many dresses, and then it’s like when I put that one on, even my kids… They were like, ‘That dress is made for you.’ It hugged me in all the right places… When I put it on, I’m like, ‘This is the one.'”
“So that dress was made for me and then I just changed things on it. He custom made it for me,” Teresa stated, adding that Mark took off the shoulder pieces and added pearls and the diamond stones in the back.
Teresa also enlisted Mark to custom make her a pair of pearl and diamond-studded gloves.
“I told him I wanted to wear gloves, and then I said, ‘Can you make them the same fabric as the dress?’ And then I said, ‘Can you add the beadwork that [you] added in the back [of the dress]?'” she recalled.
Regarding her headpiece, Teresa, who said she loves fashion and “putting things together and making something unique, noted that she also found the item at a boutique but clarified that while there are similar ones available, she “changed things” on it before her big day.
“I tried on so many headpieces until I found the right one. I have a lot of hair so I wanted one that was a statement piece. I guess I wanted to look like the queen that I am,” she proclaimed.
As for what she intends to do with the gown, Teresa said she’s not open to selling it. Instead, she’s “gonna save it” in case one of her daughters “wants to wear it.”
Also, during the podcast, Teresa revealed that while she initially planned to take her new husband’s last name, he has since talked her out of doing so.
“I wanted to change my name. [But] he said, ‘Babe, everyone knows you as Teresa Giudice.’ He’s like, ‘You’re in the public eye so I think you should keep your name,'” she explained. “So I was like, ‘Okay.’ I was like, you know, I guess he’s right.”
The Real Housewives of New Jersey season 13 is expected to premiere on Bravo later this year or early next year.