In a mere three months, Ree Drummond — aka The Pioneer Woman — will become a mother-in-law, when her oldest daughter Alex ties the knot. In a new blog post, the celebrity chef reports on some of the most noteworthy details from the planning process — including the decision to hold the union outdoors at her Oklahoma ranch.
"It's where Alex grew up, and it just feels like the right place," Drummond explained of the ranch, which encompasses both the family home and the filming site of her popular Food Network show.
Ahead of the occasion, Alex Drummond, 23, posted a sweet photo of herself and her fiancé, Mauricio Scott, who she met during her freshman year at Texas A&M University.
"MOOD BECAUSE I GET TO WALK DOWN THE AISLE TO THIS MAN 3 MONTHS FROM TODAY," she captioned the engagement picture. "What is life!!!!!!"
Ree Drummond blogged that when Scott popped the question this past August, the college sweethearts' families secretly watched the affair from a distance — a moment that she called "special and surreal," despite her motherly advice to not get married until 28.
"(Our family) and I couldn't love Mauricio more, and the timing is so perfect for them," she wrote back in August.
Now, as the date approaches, Drummond says she is still very excited about their impending nuptials.
"I'm so excited for these two," Drummond said. "I have loved watching (Alex and Mauricio's) relationship grow, and it makes me happy that through all of it, the thing they do most consistently is laugh together."
For Drummond, a particularly emotional part of the planning process was dress shopping.
"I have seen all those scenes in movies where the mom cries the moment her daughter finds 'the' wedding dress and I never thought that would be me," Drummond explained in the blog post. "But someone must have been chopping onions in that bridal shop, because I'll be darned if I didn't tear up!"
After a challenging 2020, Drummond said that the family is approaching the wedding with a willingness to face whatever comes their way and, above all, a renewed sense of hope.
"I sense from speaking to friends and family — and just hearing from people through my blog and social media — a collective exhaustion from all the pain, change, chaos, upheaval, and loss," wrote Drummond. "But I'm also starting to see a collective HOPE that things will get better sooner rather than later...and I'm embracing that feeling."
