Cole Tucker and Vanessa Hudgens. Monica Schipper/Getty Images
Vanessa Hudgens wasn’t sure she and husband Cole Tucker would be able to work out the logistics of getting married in the middle of the Mayan jungle.
“A lot of it was down an unpaved dirt road, and I proceeded to think, ‘There’s no way in hell we’ll be able to have our wedding here — how are we going to get our entire party out here down this bumpy dirt road?’” Hudgens, 34, recalled thinking of the exotic location in an interview with Vogue published on Wednesday, December 6.
Luckily, the couple overcame the obstacles, leading to what Hudgens described as “genuinely the most magical weekend of my life.”
The High School Musical star and the professional baseball player, 27, walked down the aisle in Tulum, Mexico in front of 100 guests on December 2, nearly ten months after getting engaged in February.
“Finding a venue was the hardest part,” Hudgens said. “I knew I didn’t want to do it at a beach, at a ballroom, or at a barn — these were all things I didn’t want. Instead, I wanted to be surrounded by nature, greenery, and foliage.”
Vanessa Hudgens found The One in Cole Tucker. The pair first sparked romance rumors when they were spotted holding hands in November 2020, less than one year after Hudgens split from longtime love Austin Butler. Hudgens and Tucker went Instagram official in honor of Valentine’s Day the following year. “Me and Cole met on a […]
She discovered the Azulik Hotel in Tulum while scrolling through Instagram, and told Tucker, “‘Maybe we could go here on our honeymoon, we would get such great pictures. Wait — maybe we could get married here?!’”
Once she arrived for an advance tour, she was told the ceremony would be held at the Azulik City of Arts museum, a 45-minute ride into the jungle.
Hudgens was sure it would be impossible to transport the wedding party and guests to the museum, but once she saw the venue, she knew it was the place. “I felt like I was transported to some kind of utopia, unlike anything I had ever been to before. It was whimsical and magical, and I just fell in love,” she said.
For her wedding dress — a light ivory chartreuse bias-cut cowl neck slip dress with a plunging back — she turned to her friend Vera Wang. Hudgens ended up wearing the first dress she tried on at Wang’s studio in New York City.
“Vera’s been an amazing friend and supporter of mine,” the former Disney star explained to Vogue. “I’ve always felt so confident and sexy and feminine whenever I’m in her clothes. And so, I was like ‘You know, that’s the vibe…that’s what I want to be feeling like for my wedding day. She also has such an amazing resume of women that she’s dressed for the most important day of their lives, and I was like, ‘Who better to do it than a friend?’”
Following the ceremony, where the bride and groom read their own vows, it was time to party, with a live band performing at the reception.
“One of my really good friends did a song for us called ‘Cole and V.’ And, of course, me and my husband, being the music-obsessed people that we are, we actually had to join in and participate,” Hudgens recalled. “Cole played the drums and I sang. I couldn’t even tell you what we did. I only knew the chorus of the song, we were just riffing and playing and having fun. It was a safe space with all of the people who love us so you couldn’t do anything wrong.”
Hudgens and Tucker first started dating in 2020 after a virtual meeting.
She’s gotta go her own way! Vanessa Hudgens has been linked to a number of Hollywood hunks over the years, from Zac Efron to Austin Butler. Fans have shown interest in the actress’ love life since her first public relationship with her High School Musical costar Efron. After meeting in 2005 on the set of […]
“It is literally the ultimate modern-day love story,” Hudgens said on The View in April 2021. “We met over Zoom — over a Zoom meditation group.”
The couple quietly deepened their connection for more than a year until they made it Instagram official in February 2021.
“It’s you, it’s me, it’s us. @cotuck,” she captioned the photo of herself kissing the former Pittsburgh Pirates player on Valentine’s Day. She added a series of sweet emojis, including a red heart, lips and the hand sign for “I love you.”
Now nearly three years later, as Hudgens looks back at her wedding, she told Vogue, “I knew it was going to be magical, but it exceeded my expectations.”