I can't believe it’s been nearly ten years since my two younger sisters decided to sign me up for the popular reality show, The Bachelor. I was 23 years old. I had never watched the show but I would hear so much about it. I ended up getting a phone call one day from a producer of the show asking if I was interested in coming to the Sacramento area for an in-person interview for the new casting of season 15 of The Bachelor. My first thought was...THE SHOW WITH THE ROSES??? I decided I’d try it out and see. Why not!
Sure enough, they called me after being interviewed and said they wanted to bring me to LA for the final interview process. After a long weekend with producers they told me they wanted me on the show. They also thought it was interesting that I was a funeral director and embalmer. They never had someone in that profession come on the show.
I didn’t have a lot of time to get things figured out with packing, and making arrangements. I pretty much was told I’d possibly be gone for a few days or maybe even a few months, depending how far along I got. Thankfully my parents were very supportive and took care of everything while I was gone.
I am sure most of you are wondering how on earth do you pack for a few months!! Well, I really didn’t want to spend too much money because I wasn't sure how long I’d stay. Thankfully I had friends who let me shop in their closets! Phew. However, I did want a nice dress for the first night that I was willing to spend some money on. I was told to have a nice evening dress for night one and try to get a color that stood out. So I went online and bought a few dresses and they came a few days before I had to leave. I spent a good amount of money too! However, they did NOT fit. None of them! What’s a girl to do?? In comes mom to the rescue, and she tells me let’s go to Sears. Really? Sears? As in the appliance store!!!! Well I decided to amuse her and went to Sears. Now, in my mind I was looking for a yellow dress, I thought that was a memorable color and sure enough at Sears there was a beautiful yellow dress. It was $15 dollars. You read that right…$15 bucks! What can I say...mom’s are always right! Ha. Thanks mom!
Anyway, I flew out to Los Angeles and that’s where they took my cell phone and I felt pretty vulnerable but also excited for this adventure. They put me in a hotel room where some of the producers prepared me for what my night was going to look like. Basically I was told this was going to be a all-nighter and to try and rest during the day. Sleep? Ya right, I was too excited and nervous.
That night they escorted me to a limo where I met 5 other women who clearly were just as nervous. If you remember I said I had never watched the show, so I had no clue who the Bachelor was or what to expect. I was just hoping the guy was at least cute. Once our limo pulled up to the mansion the girls started screaming with excitement. “Brad Womack” they kept shouting. I on the other hand was completely clueless as to who Brad was! Apparently he has been the Bachelor years prior and ended up not proposing to anyone. He was back for a second chance.
Well, here I went. Out of the limo, introduced myself to Brad and walked into the infamous mansion. There, I met 29 other beautiful women. Talk about out of your comfort zone! Eekkk. What a long night it was. Basically we sat throughout the mansion wondering when it would be our turn to talk to Brad. The rose ceremony went well into the following morning. I remember being so exhausted and started to realize why the girls would cry so easily the first night... they were TIRED! I didn’t get a lot of time with Brad that night, but I was hoping what little time we had he’d want to keep me around. But at that point I was so tired I really just wanted to go to sleep! Thankfully I received a rose and ended up moving into the mansion that day.
I quickly learned how things worked and the day we moved into the mansion we received our first “date card.” I ended up going on a few group dates in the beginning and was having a great time getting to know Brad and even the other ladies.
After a few weeks we moved out of the mansion and headed to Las Vegas for a fun couple of days. That’s where I got my first one-on-one date. I got to go on a shopping spree, followed by dinner on top of a hotel where we got to watch our own fireworks show. It was all pretty amazing and set up for romance. I took that opportunity to tell Brad about my profession in the funeral industry. It was quite the conversation! Thankfully I didn’t scare him off just yet. I ended up with another rose.
Weeks went by and we had the opportunity to travel around the world. We went to Costa Rica, Anguilla then New York City. I had a few more dates and made it all the way to the top four. That means you get to bring the bachelor home. I brought Brad to Chico where he saw where I worked (yes, he toured the funeral home). And then met my family. I was falling in love around that time and to be honest it’s hard not to! It’s set up to fall in love! Everything is so romantic. Plus I have now invested months of my time with this person.
After that date I ended up being sent home. To be honest, I was pretty shocked. I really thought I’d stay. However, once I got home, back with my family, I realized I experienced an amazing adventure that most won’t.
I was gone for 2 months and then watched the show back along with thousands of fans. It truly was an experience of a lifetime.
Little did I know my love story was truly about to begin...
Fast forward 10 years and here I am married with two beautiful boys. The funny thing, looking back on all this I realize how God perfectly planned all this. Through the show is how I met my husband. Weird, right? Well here’s the story...I was working at the funeral home and I was serving a family whose dad had recently passed away. The son, Jason, was helping with arrangements and he had told me he watched me on the show and wanted to know if I was single. Jason was excited to tell me that he had a friend in the Sacramento area who was also single and a “good Christian man.” I decided to take that leap of faith and told Jason he could give his friend my email address (I didn’t want to do the phone number just yet, ha).
Few weeks later I received an email from a, Paolo Poidmore. I loved how open Paolo was about being a Christian man. I thought this was a man that would spiritually lead his family one day. We emailed each other a few times and then spoke on the phone for hours. Who does that anymore, right? It was so nice to be able to connect with someone so easily, and not just through texting or social media.
Since I was living in Chico and he was in Sacramento it wasn’t easy to meet up. We decided to meet up on a day Paolo wasn’t working and he would make the drive to Chico. He was such a gentleman and I was smitten. We shared a nice dinner together, then went for ice cream and came back to my apartment and took my puppy for a walk. He stayed till almost midnight and still had to drive home. I made him a big to-go coffee and he gladly took it with him. Also, little did I know he didn’t care for coffee but didn’t want to tell me. Honestly, after that one date I knew this guy was beyond special.
During the next few months we would both take turns visiting one another and officially became boyfriend and girlfriend soon after. He had a nice guest room for me to stay in when I would visit him, and he would always get a hotel room when he came to see me. Then after six months of dating and falling in love, Paolo proposed on a beautiful fall day. He had bought us a beautiful Thomas Kinkade Bible with, “Poidmore Family” engraved on it. He had highlighted a few verses and read them to me right before he proposed. It was perfect, no fireworks necessary. The poor guy though was sweating so bad and couldn’t control his hands from shaking. It was pretty cute despite the sweat!
In May of 2013 we got married and I moved from Chico to the Sacramento area. We have been here ever since. Who knew I would go on a reality television show to find love but then ended up finding it through the funeral home! Talk about full-circle.
Enjoy a little clip of my time on The Bachelor...10 YEARS ago!
Hi Shawntel! I’ve recently started watching your season of The Bachelor and I fell in love with the Fendi baguette you got! Is there any chance you have a name for the bag you got?
Glad to hear you’re doing well and have found your happily ever after :)
Morgan, thank you for following along ❤️❤️
Hi Shawntel, I really enjoy your Instagram posts & am glad you started a blog. It's amazing how the Lord blessed you with Paolo, he sounds like a wonderful Christian man! and your boys are precious :) Keep up the writing ! God Bless,
Morgan (single Christian mom of 2 teenage girls, form Ottawa, Canada)
Melissa thank you for your sweet comment ❤️ and you’re right...we are blessed to be their mommies!
You are adorable! I just finished watching the entire clip & left smiling because God knew his plan for you. You were my fav on that season but of course had no clue what you were up to until a coworker mentioned years ago “Aaron Rodgers girlfriend is the sister of a bachelor contestant.” I looked it up & wow! There was my fav bachelor contestant Shawntel! FYI- I live in Wisconsin. In the world of social media I began following you & was thrilled to learn you found the man God had waiting for you all this time. My son Charlie also suffers from a vascular anomaly. It takes special people to raise a child like Leo or Charli…