Bringing Up Bates "Home is Where the Heart is"
- The Keilens are back in Tennessee! Lawson and Nathan stop by their house in Norris to deliver furniture and mow the grass. Brandon is still in Chicago tying up lose ends at work, but he will join Michael the following day.
- “I mean, it’s almost like a dream come true,” says Gil of the Smiths and Keilens moving back to East Tennessee.
- “I know you’re going to be crazy busy with school, but if you ever decide that you want a side job, I’m always hiring tutors,” says Kelly. Michael responds that she could stop by the big house every afternoon from 3:30-5:30, before Brandon finishes work.
- “I think family is one of God’s most precious gifts,” says Michael.
- The week of the wedding, Evan comes into town to help Carlin set up the house, which is also in Norris. While they are putting gifts away in their kitchen, with Warden as a chaperone, they have a disagreement about the definition of a pot versus a pan.
- Carlin and Evan also practice the duet that they will sing at their wedding ceremony. Evan still hasn’t finished writing it. “I definitely had a lot of things that I imagined that we’d do at our wedding, and now that it’s getting closer, I’m like, ‘I don’t know if we got time to do that, let’s ex that off,’” says Carlin. “But I think our song’s the one thing…I just can’t make myself mark that one off, even though it’s a lot of work.”
- Later, Kelly and some of the sisters get together with photographer friend Taryn Yager for a dress boutique photo shoot. “I don’t know why we decided to start the boutique right before my wedding, but whatever, we did!” exclaims Carlin, smiling.
- Erin, Whitney, and Carlin take photos for the boutique every week, and they always offer to pay the other girls to model for them. “We attempt to model,” says Carlin. “We do not call ourselves models.”
- Carlin and Evan are planning to get their marriage license later that day, but Carlin is concerned because Evan’s clothes don’t match hers. “We don’t have to match to get our marriage license,” Evan tells his bride. “Yes we have to match getting our marriage license,” insists Carlin.
- At the courthouse, when the clerk asks for Carlin’s social security number, she has to pull out her phone. Gil says he knows it. “I don’t know how people remember that many numbers,” says Carlin. Gil laughs.
- The couple receives a 60% discount for completing marriage counseling. “I’m glad to know that even the state recognizes there’s benefits to getting marriage counseling before you’re married,” says Gil, who paid for Carlin and Evan’s marriage counseling because he believes in it so much.
- “I’m happy for them, but it’s hard to let go of her, and this really makes me realize, this is the real thing, and it’s fixin’ to happen in just a few days,” says Gil. Kelly is so busy with prep that she doesn’t expect to go through her “crying spell” until after Carlin leaves.