Golden Bachelorette Joan Vassos and her fiancé, Chock Chapple, are ready to begin the next chapter of their life as a newly engaged couple.
As part of their Us Weekly cover story, the pair sat down to answer a series of rapid-fire questions about what their future holds.
When asked whether they want to have a long engagement or get to the wedding, Joan and Chock, both 61, replied, “Long engagement, -ish.” As for their wedding? Joan wants “both” an intimate affair and televised wedding, while Chock is “good with that.”
“He’s easy, he’s like, ‘You just take care of it,’” Joan said with a laugh, while Chock added, “You take care of it, absolutely. Just tell me when I need to show up and what I need to wear. It’s all good.”
While they plan their upcoming nuptials, the twosome are looking forward to spending time in several destinations. When asked to choose between Chock and Joan’s respective homes in Kansas and Maryland, the former Golden Bachelorette replied, “Probably none of the above.” Chock, for his part, responded, “Both. Three.”
Joan laughed at their differing answers before Chock clarified that they are planning on spending time in both Kansas and Maryland as well as New York. “All of the above,” Joan said.
Joan and Chock continued to be on the same page on other topics, agreeing on writing vows vs. reciting traditional ones and favoring spending quality time out and about rather than on the couch. “We’ve done a lot of date nights on the couch,” Joan explained.
When it comes to why he and Joan are a perfect match, Chock gushed that he and the mom of four “get along so well.” (Joan shared Nick, 34, Erica, 33, Allison, 30, and Luke, 28, with her late husband, John Vassos.)
“I call it the 5 percent. There’s 5 percent you usually don’t bend on. We’ve [said], ‘If it’s important to you, make sure the other one knows it,’” Chock told Us. “The other 95 percent at our age is flexible. We’ve been able to spend a good amount of time together, and we’ve had to deal with some stuff, from family matters to business matters. We work so well together. And a lot of it is, I just let Joan take charge! She’s very good at it too. I call her the matriarch. She goes, ‘Don’t call me the matriarch.’” Joan quipped, “It makes me sound really old!”
As they continue to navigate their new life together, Joan gushed that she “never in a million years” thought she would feel “love like this again.”
“Living life in your golden years is special. You’re not responsible for raising a family anymore or for a business. You get to really enjoy life. Travel is important to us. One day buying a home together,” she told Us. “After John passed away, I felt like my future was this black hole. And now it just looks so bright. The possibilities are endless for us. Which is a weird thing to say at this age, but I do feel that way.”