After spending under $600 on her Las Vegas wedding to sports commentator Daren Dukes 24 years ago, actress Shanola Hampton only has one regret.
The “Found” actress, 47, recalled her 2000 Sin City nuptials with “The Dallas Cowboy Show” commentator, 51, which reportedly only cost her $532 in an interview in People magazine.
“Honey, we got married at the Circus Circus Hotel in Las Vegas,” Hampton told the publication, adding that the pair eloped at The Chapel of the Fountain in the storied hotel.
“And nobody even knew we were there,” she continued. “It was this perfect little thing we did that was just the two of us.”
Hampton and Dukes were able to keep the costs of their big day down by having no guests, finding vintage duds for the ceremony, and not spending money on extras like hair and makeup. Instead, Hampton stayed on trend with many Black women of the late ‘90s and early 2000s, wrapping her hair like Erykah Badu.
After their intimate ceremony, the newlyweds hit up a buffet followed by a visit to the strip club. Once everything was said and done, she said her only regret was that “At the time we were too broke to actually purchase the package that included the videotape, because I remember he said the most beautiful vows to me, and it would be so fun to watch those back.”
She continued, “Gosh, if we could only have seen what it was going to be.”
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They did manage to get pictures.
“Oh, there’s pictures, but you can see he’s saying these vows to me, and I’m just looking there like a dumb-dumb,” Hampton said jokingly, adding, “I just go, ‘I love you.’”
The two have since returned to the location. They recently took their two children, daughter Cai MyAnna, 10, and son Daren O.C, 8, to The Chapel of the Fountain on a trip to the famous Nevada city.
Hampton noted that she also remembers what the minister told them before they tied the knot.
He said, ‘This doesn’t change the person that’s opposite you. If you think that suddenly now you’re looking at somebody and this marriage is going to make them into someone else, that’s not what marriage is and that’s not what it does. So take a look at the person you’re marrying, ’cause that’s who they are.’ And that was such an important thing for us to hear,” Hampton says.
“Still to this day, I think that’s such a good lesson,” she continues. “Yes, you learn and grow and evolve. But you don’t change each other by marrying each other.”
In the caption of a recent anniversary tribute post on Instagram that included a photo of two embracing, Hampton wrote, “I love seeing the world with you and sharing this incredible life together! We know all of those on the other side who have had a hand in this union! Thank you!”
