'RHOC' star Braunwyn Windham-Burke got engaged to Jennifer Spinner
Jul 16, 2023
New York [UK], July 16 : Braunwyn Windham-Burke and Jennifer Spinner of RHOC got engaged on Saturday to commemorate their one-year anniversary.
Windham-Burke proposed to Spinner at 14th Street Park in New York City, after exchanging promise rings in January, committing to one another in a Las Vegas wedding chapel on Valentine's Day, moving together to Tennessee in the spring, and getting a pair of matching tattoos to mark their bond earlier this month.
The Real Housewives of Orange County alum tells PEOPLE, "I've never been happier. Jen is my person. She said to me once, 'How much do you love me?' And I looked at her and said, 'It's not how much I love you. It's how small I love you. I love you on a molecular level.' And that's really it. My DNA was made for her. I'm thrilled to be able to say now, 'This is my fiancée' — just like I know, I'm going to one day be able to say, 'This is my wife.' "
She added, "We had been talking over direct message and over the phone for a few weeks at that point, but we hadn't met in person yet. And we both went into the day thinking we would just be friends. In fact, she'll tell you, she came more for a story! She was like, 'Won't this be a funny story to tell my friends one day? The time I hung out with a Housewife?' "
She recreated her first date for Spinner, wearing the same outfit and going through the events of that day step by step.
As they spent the day together — walking the High Line, getting popsicles, and talking — they both realised there was much more to their bond, with Spinner telling Windham-Burke that her preconceived notion of her from RHOC wasn't at all who she was.
"There wasn't a topic we didn't discuss that first day," says Windham-Burke. "We got deep, fast. It was, 'What's important to you? What do you want out of life? What's your relationship with your family? Do you want children? Are you spiritual?' We talked about it all. Through that, we found we had all these things in common. And we quickly started to realize, 'Oh, this is something else.'
While on Little Island, Windham-Burke and Spinner shared their first kiss. "And then we just kept kissing for the next two hours, all the way back to Penn station," recalls Windham-Burke. "She was staying with her brother on Long Island and I remember thinking, 'I don't want her to go.' "
"By the end of the day, I was like, 'There's something about this woman, I know I'm going to be with her forever,' " Windham-Burke says. "So it felt fitting to recreate that day, but now with me showing her, "Yes, I do want to be with you forever — and I have a ring to prove it!' "
That ring, by the way, was purchased by Windham-Burke while visiting a local antique store in Tennessee. "She wanted it to be more of a masculine style ring, and she wanted it to be antique because she loves things with stories," Windham-Burke tells PEOPLE. "So I found this beautiful gold deco ring with her birthstone, which is a ruby, and four diamonds on the side."
Windham-Burke took Spinner to 14th Street Park after walking the High Line and visiting Little Island, where Under the Tree — a female-founded, minority-owned luxury picnic company — helped set up a spread for the two, complete with macaroons, pictures of the pair from their year together and a 'Marry Me' sign. "It was so beautiful, and Jen was shocked when she saw it," Windham-Burke says. "Without them, I couldn't have done it." They added to the joy of the occasion."
Windham-Burke and Spinner, who identifies as non-binary and uses she/her pronouns, have previously discussed holding the wedding in Nashville, at an old home, next October. "It'll be something intimate and very country," Windham-Burke laughs. "Think about cowboy boots."
