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- “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Cynthia Bailey lets viewers in on her pandemic wedding to Fox Sports host Mike Hill on the upcoming season of the hit Bravo series, returning Sunday.
- Her wedding, which invited 250 guests to a venue outside of Atlanta last October, has been criticized for potentially being a super-spreader event amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- “Real Housewives of Potomac” star Gizelle Bryant, who attended the nuptials, was one of those critics, saying that intially guests wore masks, but they eventually came off during the reception, resulting in “chaos.”
- “I didn’t really appreciate that,” Bailey told Insider of Bryant’s critique. “We did everything on our end to enforce the rules and regulations and she had her shield on the whole time.”
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
“Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Cynthia Bailey and Fox Sports host Mike Hill chose their wedding date, October 10, long before the COVID-19 pandemic caused our world to turn upside down.
But despite having to come up with an entire game plan to ensure their guests remained safe, Bailey told Insider that her nuptials were “amazing.”
The reality star and her now-husband faced brutal criticism for keeping their original wedding date while the pandemic raged on, hosting 250 guests inside the Governors Towne Club in Acworth, Georgia.
Still, Bailey maintained that they took every precaution, including handing our masks and face sheilds to every guest in attendance. And thankfully, she claimed, no on was infected at the wedding ceremony.
“It was a success,” she told Insider. “We had all of our friends and family there, and praise God there were no positive results of COVID-19 as a result of our wedding.”
While photographs circulating on social media implied that the rules were not being followed, Bailey insisted that her guests were following safety protocols the majority of the time.
"One of the things that we didn't think about was a lot of our guests, whenever they took photos, they wanted to take the mask off for the picture and then put it back on," she admitted. "So a lot of the photos that ended up being out on the internet don't show them with masks. We got a lot of pushback because of that."
The reality star 'didn't really appreciate' 'Real Housewives of Potomac' star Gizelle Bryant, claiming that her wedding was 'chaos'
Along with their family and friends, many Bravolebrities attended the nuptials, including Bailey's costars Porsha Williams, Kandi Burruss, Kenya Moore and Eva Marcille along with "Housewives" from other franchises, including "The Real Housewives of Potomac" stars Karen Huger and Gizelle Bryant.
Still, Bryant revealed during an October appearance on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live that she left the wedding early because she "was very nervous" that guests were beginning to remove the masks provided to them.
"In the beginning when the wedding first started, absolutely, everybody had either a shield or a mask on," she told host Andy Cohen, "but then people started eating and drinking and that's when it was chaos."
When asked, Bailey said she wasn't fond of how Bryant charaterized her wedding and "reached out to her" because of it.
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"I didn't really appreciate that," Bailey said plainly. "Another thing that we did for our guests was we gave them transparency. We told them how many people were coming. We told them all the safety precautions that we had in place. So, you know, she was not walking into a situation blindly."
"She was supplied a mask. I don't know if she ever really put it on, but she was supplied one," the newlywed continued. "And we did everything on our end to enforce the rules and regulations, and she had her shield on the whole time."
Bailey added that Bryant was free to leave at any moment.
"We weren't holding people to stay at the wedding if they didn't feel comfortable," she said. "So at any point where anyone felt uncomfortable they could leave. Why stay and be uncomfortable?"
Bailey said in order for her to pull off a 250-person wedding she handed out masks and shields; encouraged guests to get tested; and checked everyone's temperature
Bailey said she worked with the venue and her wedding planners to ensure strict precautions were in place. Along with spraying down the venue and encouraging guests to get tested, the couple ordered custom masks from Masks by Jill & Ally, a company by former "The Real Housewives of New York" cast member Jill Zarin, and her daughter, Ally Shapiro.
"COVID-19 really took over the wedding to be honest," she continued. "We had masks. We had shields. We did temperature checks. We had sanitizing stations. We did everything right to ensure our guests' health and safety and it all paid off in the end."
The former supermodel admitted that they did consider canceling the affair, but now she's glad that they didn't push it back.
"We did think about postponing it many, many times, but now it looks like we're about to have a second wave," Bailey said. "And even if we had postponed to 2021, it looks like we would've still had to adhere to the same rules and regulations."
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"This is our new normal for a while, until they come up with a vaccine that people feel comfortable taking," she added. "And we don't really honestly know when we're going to be on the other side of this. This is life."
Although "Bravo was unable to film the wedding due to COVID," Bailey said fans can expect to see every step of her wedding planning on season 13 of the hit Bravo franchise, returning Sunday, and "some of the wedding."
[You'll] see a 53-year-old woman find love who didn't really ever think that she would ever get married again," she continued. "One of the things that COVID-19 taught me, and probably many other people, is you can't take life for granted. You can't take anything for granted."
"The Real Housewives of Atlanta" returns for season 13 on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. Central on Bravo.