Fort Worth newlyweds share their ups and downs with TV audience

You are cordially invited to attend the wedding ceremony of Taylor Grubb and David Roller.

No need to RSVP, to bring them a gift or to wear your Sunday best, because you’ll be watching from your living-room sofa.

The Fort Worth couple agreed to let a camera crew shadow their every move last year for Arranged, a TV reality show that documents the ups and downs of three new marriages.

The Season 2 premiere, airing at 8 p.m. Tuesday on FYI, covers the week leading up to Taylor and David’s “I do’s.”

Episode highlights include Taylor’s bachelorette party (with the requisite male stripper), the rehearsal dinner (in which the groom expresses his concerns about that stripper) and the bride’s feud with her future mother-in-law (the one who spills the beans about said stripper).

The wedding ceremony is next week in Episode 2, to be followed by nine more weeks of life with the Rollers.

Can these two kids live together in David’s itty-bitty camper without driving each other crazy?

Will Taylor and her mother come to blows with David’s mom, whom they often accuse of trying to sabotage the relationship?

And why were the newlyweds amenable to opening their lives up to a film crew and a TV audience in this way?

To that final question, Taylor says it’s not so much a matter of “why” as “why not.”

“My mother was on Facebook one day and saw a post that simply asked, ‘Are you or someone you know getting married before the end of 2015?’ ” says the 25-year-old Arlington Heights High School grad. “My mom sent them info about us and it just took off from there.

“We thought it was a great opportunity to share love, real issues and a bit of our wedding with long-distance family members who weren’t able to attend.”

As the title suggests, the series is supposed to examine old-world arranged marriages in 21st-century America — although one could argue that David, 27, also an Arlington Heights grad, and Taylor weren’t really “arranged” like the other couples on the show.

“Fixed up” is a more accurate way to put it.

David’s brother Jordan, who was best friends with Taylor in high school, was the one who played Cupid.

Taylor was living in Hawaii in 2014 and hurting after a bad breakup when Jordan got involved, suggesting that his brother, who also had come out of a failed engagement, and Taylor could talk to one another and console one another.

“After talking on the phone and texting and emailing extensively, a long-distance romance blossomed,” she says.

“Eventually, David emailed me and said he was coming out to Hawaii so he could take me out on a proper date. We did not become exclusive until late summer of 2014.

“We got engaged on Dec. 1, 24 hours after I had returned to the mainland. He proposed in Sundance Square,” she says. “We had discussed marriage a few times in the months we dated, but the proposal was a complete surprise.”

They exchanged vows Nov. 28, 2015.

The first two episodes of Arranged are practically a love letter to the city of Fort Worth.

“We planned our entire wedding around Fort Worth and its venues and activities,” Taylor says. “The wedding was held at the Bell Tower Chapel and the reception was at the amazing T&P Station.”

Other area locations where they filmed include Sundance Square, the Stockyards, the Ol’ South Pancake House, Joe T. Garcia’s, Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que and Blue Mesa Grill.

“We really hope that viewers will fall in love with Fort Worth and see why we love it,” she says.

The Rollers share air time every episode with a Jewish modern Orthodox couple living in New York City and an Orange County, Calif., couple whose parents immigrated from India. Their marriages are the ones that are truly “arranged.”

“We haven’t met the other couples,” Taylor says. “We would love to meet them eventually. We heard some stories about them from the production crew and are very excited to watch their stories unfold.”

It wasn’t always easy, Taylor says, to navigate the highs and lows of a new marriage with a camera crew present to capture everything.

“There were times where we had completely honest and open conversations and arguments,” she says. “I am very open and passionate about my feelings and I put it all out on the table. David is a little more reserved and I’m sure everyone will notice that.

“Sometimes it was hard to film certain things because of the effect it might have on the success of our marriage,” Taylor says. “Also, filming after working all day or having to take the cameras everywhere with you made it hard to get a moment alone sometimes.

“We even filmed a sit-down interview right after our wedding reception!”

Taylor says she hopes viewers enjoy the show, but she’s not stressing out about what anyone thinks.

“I’m not concerned about things like snarky, negative remarks about how we live our lives,” she says. “Some people will hate everything, and that’s their right.

“I hope, above all, that they see we are normal people.”

This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Fort Worth newlyweds share their ups and downs with TV audience."