Jennifer Love Hewitt Was ‘Living It Up’ Filming ‘9-1-1’ Wedding (Exclusive)

While Jennifer Love Hewitt and her husband Brian Hallisay got married in a charming backyard ceremony, she ended up getting the extravagant wedding treatment on 9-1-1!

At the season 7 premiere 9-1-1 in March, the TV star, 45, opened up to PEOPLE about what it was like filming the wedding between her character Maddie Buckley and Kenneth Choi’s character Howard “Chimney” Han.

While the entire scene was “really fun” to film, she says it was especially exciting because she was treated to the full bridal experience. 

“I didn’t get to wear a wedding dress in real life because my husband and I got married in our backyard and it just wasn’t that kind of thing,” says Love Hewitt. “So it was fun.” 

The Golden Globe-nominated actress explains that she nearly felt like a real bride because of the amount of dresses that she had to try on.

She shares, “Alayna [Bell-Price], our costume designer, made me a bridal suite to come in and try everything on, and it was really sweet.” 

“I was really living it up,” Love Hewitt adds. “I was running around the lot like a crazy person in my wedding dress.” 

Maddie and Chimney have been a fan-favorite couple on the drama series since their relationship first turned romantic towards the end of season 2 and they became a couple in season 3. 

Last season, the pair thrilled fans by becoming engaged, making their upcoming wedding a large focus of season 7. 

“My very first day of work, Tim [Minear, an executive producer] was like, ‘What do you want to do on 9-1-1 as Maddie?'” Hewitt recalled in PEOPLE’s exclusive behind-the-scenes video from April 30. “I said, ‘I want Maddie to fall in love with Chimney.’ And he was like, ‘Why? You guys just met.’ I was like, ‘There is just something about him that feels right for her and I think it would be really good. And we got to do it!”

She added in the clip, “It’s just been amazing. [Choi is] like truly one of my favorite people on the earth and we just love Maddie and Chimney so much together. And the audience really responded to it and when that happens, it’s just like magical.”

As for the wedding itself, Hewitt admitted in the clip, “it has been a long time coming. I think it feels more like that for the audience than for us. I think they’ve been waiting a long time, but I’m excited. It’s really good.”

Love Hewitt’s actual wedding to her husband, 45, was an intimate affair, held nearly 11 years ago in November 2013.

The couple, who first met while filming the Lifetime series The Client List in 2012, kept their nuptials a secret for some time. It wasn’t until the Party of Five alum revealed on an April 2014 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she was married the year prior. 

“It was just the two of us, and then we went to Bed Bath & Beyond because that’s what married people do,” she said at the time. 

Just days after the two performers tied the knot, they welcomed their first child together, daughter Autumn, 10. In the years since, the couple has expanded their family and welcomed two sons — Atticus, 8, and Aidan, 2. 

When the pair celebrated their milestone 10th anniversary in fall 2023, Love Hewitt shared a moving tribute to Hallisay on Instagram.

Alongside then and now photos, she wrote, “10 years! I knew the moment we met that my life would be better with you in it. And the last ten years have been more than I could’ve ever dreamed.”

“Our beautiful kids and family that is truly my everything,” the former Ghost Whisperer star shared. 

“Our adventures, tears, hard times, great times and simple days where not much happens at all. It’s my perfect dream because it’s with you,” she added. “It’s has always been you my love. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years bring us. Happy Anniversary! 🥂❤️”

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9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.