Joan and Chock are ready to party — and then take NYC!
After getting engaged on the Wednesday, November 13, episode of The Golden Bachelorette, Joan Vassos and Chock Chapple are set to celebrate their relationship with a big engagement party in Los Angeles before heading to the East Coast.
“It’s gonna be bigger than most weddings,” Chock, 61, told Us Weekly of the party in the couple’s first exclusive interview. “We’ve got friends coming in from around the country, and it’s kind of our coming-out party as a couple. We’re extremely excited about that.”
By the end of the week, the twosome will be apartment hunting in New York City.
“This first year, obviously, we have to kind of figure out life. Chock has a business in Kansas. I have kids and grandkids and Maryland. I’m not leaving Maryland, but he does have obligations in Kansas,” Joan tells Us. “We know that we’re gonna spend time in Maryland and in Kansas, but then we have this really fun plan because both of us have always dreamed — and we’re finally at this weird stage in life for making this dream come true — that we live in a big city, and, specifically, we’ve always wanted to live in New York. So Chock surprised me and said, ‘I want us to go find a place.’”
The twosome both agree that this is the perfect adventure for their first year as a couple.
“We both love the energy in the city and love that there’s always something to do,” Joan continued. “We just wanna go out and walk and experience life — go to fun restaurants and [experience the] culture. We both have friends there. We’re gonna be there during the holidays, which is the best time ever in New York City. I think it’s just a really different life than either one of us have ever lived.”
Joan added that Chock’s two kids — Taylor, 25, and Tyler, 23, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Heather — also live on the East Coast.
“That makes the decision maybe a little bit easier. And I don’t think I’d ever thought I would say this, but I’m excited to go and spend time in Kansas [too]!” she explained. “He has a great life there and he has great friends, and I am dying to go and just hang out with them. He’s out, like, every night of the week, and I can hear the hubbub in the background of all his friends, you know, having a good time. So I’m excited to go to Kansas.”
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Chock noted that he would “never” ask Joan to be too far from her family in Maryland. She has four kids — Nick, 34, Erica, 33, Allison, 30, and Luke, 28 — whom she shared with late husband John as well as three grandchildren.
“We’re gonna navigate it. We’re willing to spend time at each person’s hometown. We’re gonna spend a lot of time in New York City,” he said. “We’re gonna get on with our lives.”
Stay tuned to Us Weekly for much more from Joan and Chock.