Briana Culberson is taking fans back to one of the most shocking “Real Housewives of Orange County” moments — the night she married Ryan Culberson in Las Vegas for just $132. In a rare October 24 Instagram post, Briana shared one of only two photos from the spontaneous elopement, giving followers a behind-the-scenes look at the night that left her mom, Vicki Gunvalson, stunned.
Briana Culberson Shares Details of Her $132 Las Vegas Wedding
Briana reflected on her 2011 drive-thru wedding with a heartfelt caption. “Our $132 Las Vegas midnight drive-thru window marriage is 14 years strong!!!” she wrote. “Love you [Ryan]. Thanks for our 4 amazing children and all the adventures so far! And thanks for being my best best friend… This is 1 of only 2 pics we have from our wedding night.”
The RHOC daughter went on to explain how spontaneous the decision was. Briana said she and Ryan were watching Sunday football at Dave & Buster’s when they decided to drive six hours to Las Vegas to get married. Along the way, they stopped at Chipotle for dinner and even got a speeding ticket before making it to the courthouse just before midnight.
“Drove right back to Orange County and Ryan was on base at Camp Pendleton at 5 a.m. Monday morning for work,” Briana recalled. “Me: 8 days out from total thyroidectomy [and] Ryan: exactly 1 week home from Afghanistan deployment.”
The surprise wedding was later featured on “The Real Housewives of Orange County” season 7, when Briana broke the news to her mom during dinner. “We’ve just kind of realized that life is short and we just wanted to be spontaneous and we know what we want,” she said. “A couple of days ago, Ryan and I drove out to Vegas, it was just the two of us, and we decided to go to the courthouse and get a marriage license, then we found a chapel with a drive-thru window and we got married.”
Vicki Gunvalson’s Emotional Reaction to Briana’s Elopement
Gunvalson was blindsided by her daughter’s announcement and admitted she didn’t know how to process it at the time. In a 2012 BravoTV.com blog, she wrote, “I didn’t tell any of my family members or my friends because I didn’t even know how to begin to discuss it. All of my dreams for my only daughter’s BIG DAY were taken away from me in an instant (and for that matter taken away from HER).”
She added that she knew “very little about Ryan” and was shocked to suddenly have “an instant son-in-law.” Despite her initial disappointment, Gunvalson later came to appreciate her daughter’s decision.
Just seven months after their Vegas elopement, Briana and Ryan held a formal wedding ceremony in Santa Barbara with their families present. “Briana was glowing and the most beautiful bride I had ever seen,” Vicki wrote. “I went ‘all out’ for her… There wasn’t a dry eye at the reception.”
Now, more than a decade later, Briana and Ryan are still going strong. They’ve built a life together in Oklahoma, where they raise their four children — Troy, Owen, Hank, and Cora — on their family farm.
I thought Brianna was leaving her husband due to abuse 🤷♀️