Ever since Kelly Clarkson won the first-ever season of American Idol, her life has been in the spotlight. And when she began dating Reba McEntire's stepson Brandon Blackstock, whom she met at the 2012 Super Bowl, the scrutiny didn't let up at all. That's why the couple, who got engaged in 2012 (with a giant canary yellow diamond to seal the deal), decided on an intimate elopement.

They had a big wedding in the works, but the minute details of a huge ceremony, plus Clarkson and Blackstock's jam-packed careers, made for a stressful time. Instead of pushing through to an all-out wedding, they did what felt right in their hearts and eloped.

The two had a perfectly simple, intimate and gorgeous wedding at Tennessee's Blackberry Farms, with only a small group of friends and family present.

"I've never been truly loved like I am right now," says Clarkson, adding that when they said their vows, “I bawled like a baby. We both wrote our own vows, and it was hard to get through them, but I did it ... Brandon was like, 'The Notebook ain’t got nothin’ on me -- come on!’ And he took me out [on the lake] in a rowboat. It was very sweet. The whole thing was perfect.”

Shortly after their wedding, Clarkson announced her first pregnancy and gave birth to their first child together, River Rose. The couple welcomed a son, Remington Alexander, in 2016. Blackstock also has a daughter named Savannah and a son named Seth from a previous relationship.

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