If you watched last night’s episode of Counting On, you know that it was a big season premiere for the Duggar clan, with two major events taking place over the course of one 24-hour period.
The festivities started with Joy-Anna Duggar marrying Austin Forsyth in one of the massively-attended ceremonies for which the family is known.
But we knew we’d be seeing Joy-Anna get hitched in the premiere. What happened at the reception came as something of a surprise:
The family announced several weeks ago that Joseph Duggar had gotten engaged to Kendra Caldwell, but we didn’t know that it happened at Joy-Anna’s reception.
Not only that, the bride herself participated in the surprise proposal, making for one of the more memorable moments in the many episodes of reality television the Duggars have produced.
The scene went something like this:
The crowd was assembled for what it thought would be the traditional tossing of the bouquet.
(And let’s face it, we were all holding our breath hoping the flowers would magically land directly in Jana’s hands.)
Then, Joy hit us with a twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan.
Rather than throwing the bouquet in the air, Joy simply turned and handed the flowers to Kendra.
Joe then dropped to one knee and proposed to Kendra on the spot.
It was a high-risk maneuver, what with the whole thing taking place right in front of a massive crowd of friends and family.
Fortunately, the whole thing worked out in Joseph’s favor, and Kendra said yes.
It made for momentarily tense television, but in all honesty, Joe wasn’t really taking that big of a gamble.
After all, the Duggar courting process doesn’t leave much to chance.
Once a couple has been courting longer than a few weeks, it’s a very safe bet that they’re headed for the altar.
Sure, there are occasional breakups (see: The Strange Case of Josiah Duggar and Marjorie Jackson), but they’re few and far between.
So Joseph knew what he was doing and it worked out for everyone involved.
Of course, no one benefited as much as Jim Bob Duggar, who know gets to keep his family on TV for at least one more season with the promise of another wedding.
What’s the point in having so damn many kids if you’re not gonna cash in on them, right?
Watch Counting On online for more proposals and pregnancies.
