When Lainey Wilson walked down the aisle Sunday on her father’s arm, with a waterfall trickling behind her and birds singing overhead, she wasn’t just marrying former NFL quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges. She was closing a chapter that began when she was, in her own words, “so broke” she needed her sister to Venmo her grocery money — and opening a new one as a Grammy winner, Yellowstone actress and reigning queen of country music. Later this week, Wilson is set to light up the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards stage in Las Vegas, where she is nominated for seven awards.
For anyone who has ever quietly chased a dream while life refused to cooperate, Lainey’s love story is the kind that hits different. It’s a reminder that the right person tends to show up not when you’ve already made it, but when you’re still figuring it out — and that staying true to who you are has a way of leading you exactly where you’re meant to be.
A Tennessee cave, a horse-drawn carriage and a backroad sign
Lainey, 33, and Duck, 30, tied the knot on Sunday, May 10, at the Ruskin Cave in Dickson, Tennessee, after five years of dating, according to Us Weekly. The venue itself came together the way the best things in Lainey’s life seem to — by accident, on a back road, with Duck along for the ride.
“Duck and I were driving backroads in Tennessee and saw a billboard for The Ruskin Cave,” Wilson told Vogue. She recalled Hodges asking, “‘You wanna get married there?’ I said, ‘Done deal.’ We dropped by, saw the venue, and fell in love with the natural beauty of the cave and the simplicity of the property.”
The ceremony was held outdoors with a waterfall as the natural backdrop, vintage glass windows placed at the altar, and wildflowers that matched Wilson’s bouquet. “You could hear the water trickling down and birds singing, and we had a nice spring breeze,” Wilson recalled. “I arrived in a white horse-drawn carriage and walked down the aisle with my Deddy to join Duck at the altar.”
The Grammy winner traded her signature bell-bottoms for a custom Oscar de la Renta gown with tiny Japanese cherry blossoms scattered across it. “The cherry blossom represents living in the moment, and that’s exactly what we did,” she explained. Her Louisiana roots showed up in custom Golden West boots with Swarovski crystals — and in the second line march that led guests from the ceremony to the cocktail hour. “It was so lovely to have that touch of my home in Louisiana up here in Tennessee,” she said.
The groom wore a green bespoke suit, a custom bolo and a hat pin. “I have never seen Duck smile as big as he did then,” Wilson revealed. “It made me feel giddy about turning the page into this next chapter of marriage.”
The blind date that started it all
Lainey and Duck met in 2021 through mutual friends on a blind date, back when she was still scraping by and he was a former Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams quarterback who had also spent time with the Canadian Football League’s Ottawa Redblacks. He now works in real estate and coaching.
What makes their story land for anyone who has ever been broke and dreaming is that Duck didn’t fall for the Grammy winner. He fell for the woman before the spotlight.
In her Netflix documentary Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool, which premiered on April 22, Wilson got refreshingly honest about where she was financially when they met. “I was broke. I was so broke when we met. And he thought I was doing a little bit better than I was, but a few weeks after we met, my sister had to Venmo me a couple hundred bucks,” she shared, as Woman’s World reported.
“This was such a special project to make,” Wilson said of the documentary, “and I hope that folks who watch it see that no dream is too big and that staying true to who you are will always lead you exactly where you’re meant to be.”
A partner who shows up as your biggest cheerleader
Lainey and Duck kept things quiet at first, not going public until 2023. But every time she has spoken about him since, the same word surfaces: cheerleader.
“He is one of the purest hearts and people that I have ever met,” Wilson told People. “He is my biggest cheerleader. We don’t really play by the rules.” Two demanding careers and constant travel mean they have to be intentional. “You have to definitely carve out the time… ‘I’ve got a day off here in 10 days. I’ve got to dedicate that day to spend time with my person.’”
