Viewers, breathe easy. Following the dramatic series finale of Love Is Blind, Netflix’s very binge-able, literal blind dating show, fans were left with a few burning questions—namely, surrounding Giannina Gibelli’s stained wedding dress, which seemed to magically clean itself throughout the course of her would-be wedding day to Damian Powers. Turns out, there was no magic involved, just a helpful mom.
“What you see, and what we’re able to show on the show, is a condensed version of what happened,” producer Chris Coelen told Metro. “The run out of the venue, down that driveway, out into the parking lot next door … no one expected that. She was out there for half an hour with her mom in that parking lot. Forty-five minutes, maybe even an hour, that’s a long time. She then came back to the venue, [and] they went up to Gigi’s bridal quarters.”
(Credit: LAJOY COX for Netflix, Kinetic Content)
(Credit: LAJOY COX for Netflix, Kinetic Content)
On the series, Gibelli is visibly distraught after Powers refuses to marry her at the altar even after she pledges herself to him. The bride-to-be (in a gown by Calla Blanche) then dashes out the doors of the venue into the streets of Atlanta, at one point running into a muddy patch of the woods and losing her footing, staining the back of her wedding gown with mud. A few minutes later on the series, Gibelli is shown storming back into the venue to confront Powers, sans stain; in real life, however, a lot of time passed between Gibelli’s sprint away from the venue and her eventual return.
“She went back into the house with her mom,” Coelen continued. “She was stewing, steaming, and destroyed emotionally. Her mom, as you can tell, is this caretaker-type person. She and her mom were upstairs in the bridal suite, [and] her mom is cleaning her up. She’s cleaning, cleaning, cleaning her dress, like, ‘You can’t have this!’ Her mom cleaned her up, and then ultimately [Gibelli] decided she wanted to confront Damian, so she did.”
Further proof that the dramatic events weren’t staged? The entire venue had been packed up by the time Gibelli returned. According to Coelen, the wedding guests, unsure of what to do after the bride exited the building, all quickly left, and the chairs were put away, so that when Gibelli finally did come back to talk to Powers, she had to wrest a chair off a high stack.
If they wanted to, Coelen said, the producers could probably put together a “three-hour special just on the Gigi and Damian wedding, truly,” given how much great footage there was from that day.
Gigi / Ginanina’s dress is magically clean again after she falls in the mud. Wtf Love is Blind 😤 I need answers @LoveisBlindShow pic.twitter.com/bDFhow62az
— Nans (@_nancy_sam) February 28, 2020
“We only have so much time to tell a story,” he said. “I love that people have been curious about all the little details.”
Four other couples from the series were engaged to get married—Lauren Speed and Cameron Hamilton; Kenny Barnes and Kelly Chase; Amber Pike and Matt Barnett; and Mark Cuevas and Jessica Batten. Ultimately, though, only Speed and Hamilton and Pike and Barnett followed through on the “I do’s.” At the reunion show earlier this month, the show alums got to talk about where they’ve been since the series’ end, and settle any beef they might have had between them.
(Credit: LAJOY COX for Netflix, Kinetic Content)
So even though Gibelli and Powers are no longer engaged, the pair are very much dating, and taking their relationship a day at a time. “We are so together,” Gibelli said on the reunion show. Like every single day, waking up next to each other, going to the gym together, I don’t wanna lose this and I didn’t.”
Added Powers, “It was definitely a strong love since the beginning. We pushed through a lot of challenges as did everyone here. I’m sorry I put her through that but I would stick by it again for where we are now.”