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Updated Mar 06, 2025Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard's Courthouse Wedding Details
The Good Place actress told The Knot that they spent a total of $147.
Not all Hollywood weddings are created equal. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard bucked celebrity tradition when they got hitched in the fall of 2013, opting to exchange vows in a small ceremony at the Beverly Hills Courthouse rather than throw an extravagant, star-studded fete. And in fact, it wasn't until several years later, during an interview on CBS, that The Good Place actress shared wedding photos from their special day. "We got married in a tiny room in the Beverly Hills courthouse, and it was still one of the best days of my life," she said in the 2016 interview. And indeed, the pair have often referred back to that day as one of the best decisions they've ever made.
"We did not want a wedding," Shepard told The Knot exclusively in 2019. "We spent a hundred bucks at the courthouse. The last thing we wanted to do was take something and add stress—Who's invited? What's for dinner?—since we'd rather buy a family member a house." Read on to learn more about the couple's nontraditional wedding and how they've built a life—and business—together in the years since.
In this article:
- All About Kristen Bell's Wedding to Dax Shepard
- The Couple's Relationship Timeline
- After the Wedding
All About Kristen Bell's Wedding to Dax Shepard
Whereas many of their celeb peers have opted to pull out all the stops for their nuptials, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard decided to go the opposite route for their wedding day. For the couple, the wedding just wasn't the biggest deal, though both have said that they do respect their friends' decisions to host lavish celebrations.
"I enjoy watching the vows," Bell told The Knot. "I'm still taken with public promises. We've been to a few weddings of friends who've wanted a big ceremony, and their vows have been breathtaking to witness—the public promise of marriage to one another. Even when I don't know a couple that well, it's still somehow moving."
FEATURED VIDEO FROM THE KNOT
They spent a total of $147 on their wedding day.
Bell and Shepard famously spent a total of $147 on their wedding day—though, to be fair, that amount likely didn't include either Bell or Shepard's wedding rings. "The total was $147 and I believe that included the gas in the car and the playlist," Bell told The Knot. "He bought all of my favorite songs from high school on to play in the car on the way there and those $1.99 single tracks, the total for the day was $147."
The Frozen actress opted to wear black.
In keeping with their aims to do things their own way, Bell wore a simple black dress for the courthouse ceremony, and her husband Dax Shepard wore a black suit and bowtie. Among the trio of sweet photos that Bell shared during the CBS interview was one of the pair exchanging vows during the ceremony, another was of them signing their marriage license, and the third was of the pair sharing a romantic kiss at the registrar's office.
Dax Shepard didn't get a traditional wedding ring.
Rather than a traditional wedding ring, Shepard went with something a little more personal and a little more permanent: a wedding tattoo of a small bell on his ring finger, meant to symbolize his love and devotion to Bell. The actress, however, did get a wedding ring, which she excitedly showed off in a tweet a few days after their courthouse wedding. "Wife coffee tastes better than regular coffee in the morning," she tweeted after photos of her walking around holding a coffee cup with a wedding band on her finger began to circulate.
The couple waited to get married until same-sex marriage was legalized in California.
The couple got engaged in 2009 after dating for about two years, but they both decided to hold off on getting married until same-sex marriage was legalized in California. When it finally was legalized, in June 2013, Bell commemorated the moment with the sweetest tweet. "@daxshepard1 will you marry me? Xo #marriageequality #loveislove," she wrote. Fast-forward to Oct. 17, 2013, and the pair were happily wed.
They are open about not having a prenup.
Shepard revealed during a 2018 interview with Conan O'Brien that the couple do not have a prenup, which further makes them an anomaly in Hollywood. "When we first started dating, I had more money than her and I owned the house that I lived in," the Armchair Expert podcast host explained. "She said to me at one point, 'Would you like a prenup?' because we were getting married. And I said, 'No, I don't want a prenup.'"
Then, however, the tables turned, and Bell was suddenly more successful than Shepard. "The joke is now on her because she's become much more successful than me and has much more money than me," he joked.
The Couple's Relationship Timeline
Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have one of the longest-lasting relationships in Hollywood, but to hear them tell it, it hasn't been all rainbows and sunshine. In fact, the couple, who are also parents to daughters Lincoln Bell Shepard and Delta Bell Shepard, are very vocal about the amount of work it takes to continue to grow within their marriage, both individually and together. "If I had to sum it up in one word, it's work," Shepard said of his marriage in a 2017 interview with The Today Show. "Not unlike your body, which won't just stay in shape on its own volition, you really have to be maintaining the relationship, and it is work. And it's often uncomfortable work, but it needs doing or we won't stay together."
When did they meet?
Shepard and Bell met in 2007 at a mutual friend's dinner party, and to hear both of them tell it, it definitely wasn't love at first sight. "When I met her and her friends, I was suspicious of their unbridled happiness," Shepard once joked to Good Housekeeping. "I thought, 'Something stinks here; they're in a cult.'" But two weeks later, the pair met again at a hockey game and, according to Bell, Shepard "asked for the gum in my mouth." The actor's first text to his future wife? "Hi. My name is Dax. I violated your privacy and got your number from Shauna. How do you feel about that?" Bell recounted. "And I thought ... what the h---? This kid is sassy."
How long did they date?
The pair dated on and off for about two years. During that time, Bell admitted, she felt energized by the drama of their relationship. "When we first met, we fell madly in love and I love the dramatic exit," Bell once told Harry Connick Jr. "There is nothing I crave more." In fact, it appears that Shepard felt similarly. Just three months into dating, he abruptly ended the relationship—only to reignite their romance a few days later.
When did they get engaged?
Shepard proposed to Bell over the holidays in 2009, after about two years of dating. The podcast host told People that he had been hesitant to do the deed because he didn't necessarily believe in marriage, but his friend (and Bell's Couples Retreat co-star) Jason Bateman finally told him to "stop f---ing around and marry Kristen."
Ultimately, he decided to propose because he recognized that it was important to Bell. "Forget the tradition or history of marriage as a concept, you knowing I was doing something that I didn't want to do because I loved you was a big sign for you," he said during a 2019 interview with People. Bell's engagement ring, which she rarely flashed in public, was a 3-carat champagne-colored, emerald cut diamond surrounded with tiny stones on either side.
When did they get married?
Bell and Shepard waited a while to get married, as they wanted to stand in solidarity with same-sex couples who were not afforded the right to get married in the state of California until 2013. When they did finally exchange vows on Oct. 17, 2013, it was in a small room at the Beverly Hills Courthouse, with just the officiant and the photographer as their witness (or so it seemed!). The When in Rome costars already had their first child together at that point (daughter Lincoln Bell Shepard), and would welcome a second child together a little over one year later.
After the Wedding
After their 2013 nuptials, the couple has been steadfast, due in large part to their openness about how much work—and therapy—it takes to build a strong marriage. "I think that we've all consumed a lot of fairytales and romantic comedies and sitcoms," Shepard said on a 2017 interview with The Today Show. "In that architecture, it seems that your main job is just to select the right person, and I don't really think that's the main job. I think that's maybe the least important aspect of it, truly. I think it's far more about the work that goes into it to make it good."
Bell has similarly praised Shepard for how he has shown up for not just her, but for their daughters Lincoln and Delta. "He's a wonderful father," Bell said in the 2016 interview with CBS News. "He knows the value of things. He was an addict for many, many years and he pulled himself out of it, and he's been sober for 11, 12 years now… And he knows how many times he's messed up and how many times he's been really close to losing everything."
In addition to co-parenting, the couple are also business partners, co-stars, and best friends: in March 2017, Shepard and Bell co-starred in CHiPs, and in February 2019, they launched Hello Bello, a company that sells plant-based baby products.
