If Sunny Sweeney seems to be glowing a little more than normal in the recent weeks, it’s because she’s still beaming from becoming a happily married woman. Sweeney and her new husband, Jeff Hellmer, tied the knot on 11/11/11 in Las Vegas in a very intimate ceremony.

“We had it planned for a while, but we just didn’t say anything to anybody except for the people who were going, which was our family and a couple of our friends,” Sweeney tells Taste of Country of the private nuptials. “We’d both been married before, so we didn’t want to have a big, 400-person wedding. We just went to the Little White Wedding Chapel. It was awesome.”

How awesome? Awesome enough that the couple has already watched the wedding video on multiple occasions! “We’ve watched a couple of times,” Sweeney admits with a grin. “It was as awesome looking back as it was when it happened. He’s absolutely the best thing that has ever happened to me. It’s cool … and I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to him, and he better not forget it [laughs]!”

For the walk down the aisle, Sweeney steered away from wearing a traditional white gown and veil and opted for a royal blue dress that hit at her knees. “I like blue and he likes blue,” Sweeney says, explaining why she chose that color for her big day. “It wasn’t like a ‘wedding’ … it was a wedding, because it was a wedding, but it wasn’t wedding-y, you know? Plus, I really don’t look good in white. I wore white in my first wedding, but that didn’t work out for me [laughs]!”

Following the exchanging of vows, the newlyweds and their party of friends and family reunited in a hotel suite on the strip to celebrate with beer and Las Vegas-themed cupcakes. “Everything was unconventional,” notes Sweeney. “Then we went and gambled, and Jeff hit the jackpot. I think he won $800 on a quarter slot machine. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?! Seriously?!’ I told him, ‘See what happens when you roll with the Sweeners? You start winning money on slot machines!’ [laughs]”

Sweeney hit her own musical jackpot in recent weeks, as she has been added to the 2012 Country Throwdown Tour, featuring headliner Gary Allan, as well as Josh Thompson, Justin Moore, Rodney Atkins and Eric Paslay. Tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it, right Sunny?

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