Inside The Profit Star Marcus Lemonis' Sweet Love Story & 'Intimate' Southern California Wedding
Marcus Lemonis is a married man!
This past weekend, The Profit star tied the knot with Bobbi Raffel at their “intimate” wedding in Los Angeles.
“The wedding was originally scheduled for early January in Montecito, California, where a second home is. It was going to be at the San Ysidro Ranch. As luck would have it both the fires in Santa Barbara then the mudslides delayed it. Unreal how bad it got there,” he tells PEOPLE. “We ended up moving it to the Hotel Bel-Air last Saturday with a very small and intimate group of family and friends.”
Ahead of their Saturday wedding, the couple kicked things off with “a fun Friday night party at the air museum in Santa Monica where we brought in all small business to put on the party from food trucks to flowers to ice cream manufacturers from the local community. We had a bigger party that included friends in L.A.”
At the Friday night celebration, the pair selected lemon-themed colors and decor — “all lemon and yellow all the time,” he says — as a tribute to Lemonis’ name.
For their big day, the newlyweds switched things up and went with an ivory, gold and silver color-scheme and both wrote their own vows for the ceremony. “Mine was longer since I already talk too much,” Lemonis, 44, jokes.
To recognize both of their individual faiths and traditions, Lemonis says the duo had both a priest and a cantor at the ceremony.
“We both had outfit changes for wedding,” says the reality star, who wore custom-made Gucci suits. For the ceremony and first dance, Lemonis and Raffel were more traditional and “then changed to more fun” for the reception, where guests were served a white cake with strawberries and whipped cream.
“Our first dance was ‘Looking for You’ from the show Empire,” says Lemonis. “Our favorite song.”
Though the couple has a honeymoon on the books, they won’t be vacationing until later this year due to his filming schedule.
“Bobbi is with me all week as we make all new episodes of The Profit,” he says. “Summer romantic!”
The couple met two years ago at the COTERIE trade show — a contemporary trade show for women’s fashion — where both Lemonis — the CEO of Camping World, America’s largest RV and outdoor retailer — and Raffel were buying for their individual businesses.
“She tapped me on the shoulder and told me to get off my phone: ‘Hey, buy my business,’ ” he recalls her saying. “Today we now have ML Fashion group with retail stores, designer brands we own and it’s run by a young lady who was on The Profit, Stephanie Menkin. Small world, isn’t it?”
About a year ago, Lemonis asked Raffel to be a part of his forever when he popped the question on Christmas.
“I proposed on Christmas in a secret Santa gift,” he shares. “Thank goodness it went to the right person.”
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