The wedding day is arguably the most important day in a Duggar girl’s life, but unfortunately for Joy Anna Duggar, she had to share the spotlight at her wedding to Austin Forsyth on Friday night with her brother, Joseph Duggar.
The Duggar Family announced on Friday that Joseph, 22, decided to propose to his girlfriend, Kendra Caldwell, during Joy and Austin’s wedding reception…as you do. Kendra, who has been courting Joseph since March, accepted the proposal.
In a video message taped for fans at Joy’s wedding, Joseph explained that he got permission from his sister and Austin to pop the question at their reception.
“A few weeks ago I asked Joy and Austin if they would mind if I proposed to her at the wedding and they said, ‘Oh yeah, we’d love it!'” Joseph says in the clip.
Now that they are officially engaged, Kendra and Joseph can now do a few more things than they could when they were just courting. Of course, though, kissing is still off-limits until the wedding day.
“This is different from courtship because we can now hold hands and say ‘I love you,'” Kendra says.
Joseph is the second Duggar son to get engaged. His brother, Josh, has been married since 2008, and four of Joseph’s sisters are also hitched. Although Joseph and Kendra haven’t indicated when they plan to tie the knot, the Duggars are known for having short engagements, so the wedding will likely take place in the next few months.
Some ‘Counting On’ fans called Joseph out for continuing to take Joy and Austin’s thunder, particularly because Joseph and Kendra announced their courtship just days after Joy and Austin announced their engagement.
“Joseph and Kendra keep stealing the spotlight from Joy and Austin,” one person commented on the Duggar Family Blog. “I think that’s horrible to announce your engagement at a sibling’s wedding. Joseph should’ve waited a month to propose.”
Others felt the proposal added to the joy (no pun intended) of the wedding day.
“I think it is wonderful…I don’t think it takes away I think it adds to the celebration…best wishes to all of you,” one fan wrote on the Duggar Family Blog’s Facebook page of the proposal.
Counting On fans will likely get to watch Joseph’s proposal when the new season of the show premieres on June 12, with Joy and Austin’s wedding episode starting the season off.
Watch the Joseph and Kendra discuss the proposal in the clip below:
(Photo: TLC)
56 Responses
Wow!!! I had no idea any of the boys were even dating??? Or courting?? It’s a domino affect, they can’t wait to break free and actually experience life!!!
They’re not allowed to say “I love you” until they’re engaged? I get, if you’re in a conservative religious cult, that you would limit touching and such, but to limit the expression of an emotion such as love? That seems so weird and wrong. How do you even know that you should propose and get married if you don’t yet know that the person you’re dating loves you because you’ve never said it or heard them say it?
adult that knows the person you are with is the one you should marry. That’s who. I think it’s ridiculous to date/live with someone for years. What’s the point, exactly what are you waiting for? Nothing is going to change. Are you doing it to “see if it works out?” To me that just screams that you are looking for a quick easy out, or you are trying to “fix” the other person.
Not quite sure how making an adult decision after having plenty of life experience makes me worse than the Duggars and considering we’ve been married happily and through difficult times for 12+ years CLEARLY we did/are doing something right.
If you are honest and forthright with each you can tell right away if it’s going to work. That is part of the problem with you g people in relationships, they are too busy trying to have sex with each and not telling each other up front what exactly it is they are wanting in a relationship
I think a lot of people move in with each other first and wait years to get married because they’re saving up for a huge fancy expensive wedding. Weddings seem to have become MASSIVE in the past couple decades or so, to the point where people are financing their weddings and starting the marriage with huge wedding debt to pay off. Everyone wants the fairy tale and everything is photographed and posted on social media, and the “visual” of the wedding means more than the actual feelings behind it sometimes.
something is very wrong with this family…..it’s very cultish
He’s only 22 and his hairline is worse than my 92 year old grandfather’s……
Anyone else feel like the reason he keeps ‘promoting’ Joy and Joseph at the same time is so that he doesn’t appear like he’s only marrying off Josh’s victims/girls only. And that the reason he only marries off the youngest is because the oldest have come to terms with the lives they live and don’t want to be ‘owned’ by someone else. I’m sure by this point in their lives, the oldest, have a lot more freedom than they would have if they got married. Especially the women.
What freedom does Jana have?
Not defending the Duggars because they have No life experience, job, or education before they get married. It does not take YEARS to decide if the person you are with is the person you want to marry. If it takes that long to decide clearly there are some issues. Ive been on both sides of the spectrum. I was engaged for two years to man I thought I loved. When we finally realized that marriage just wasn’t going to happen we broke up. It wasn’t a horrible break up we both just finally agreed it just wasn’t going to happen. Two weeks later I met husband. We went on two dates. On the second date I knew I was going to marry him. He proposed to me two weeks after meeting, we married a month after meeting. That was two kids, 4 moves, 5+ deployments and 14 years ago.
I promise you when it’s the right person you know, and there is no point in wasting time.
That may be true, but all of the married/engaged Duggar kids married the first person that they ever side hugged. I get it that sometimes you just know, but how can you know when you’ve never even spoken to another person before? The fact that Josiah’s courtship failed was a huge deal in Duggar world because that never happens. They don’t date around until they find the one. It’s decided upon meeting.
I agree with what you’re saying when you know you know but do you honestly think these children/young adults have the ability and or feel comfortable enough to say they don’t feel like this is the right person for them? They are never not given an opportunity to see the world and have different life experiences outside their family they have opinions I just wonder if they’re able to exercise them
Maybe, maybe not. I don’t, part of me agrees. Most of them don’t know their butt from their elbow. They have experience in some areas of life but their social skills are so incredibly lacking and I HATE that they do that have any other option but marriage.
I prefer the Bates family, boys and girls go to college, boyfriends/girlfriends are allowed and tbeir kids just don’t seem like socially awkward robots.
Geez, that was full of typos. Hopefully you can get the gist of what I was saying.
I promise this is my last reply however I just had to say Totally got the just of what you were trying to say and I’ve got to tell you I like the bates as well I don’t agree with them 100% on their Philosophy but I really think they genuinely love and care about each other and it’s great to see and each of them seem to be able to be there own unique individual person
I feel ya. Dated my husband for 4 weeks, asked me to marry him, i said yes, we went to the courthouse that weekend. 22 years later and 5 kids, he is my best friend and i love him more now than ever.
Time means nothing if its meant to be.
Lmao girl what the fuck….who proposes to someone 2 fucking weeks after meeting them? Y’all sound even worse than the Duggars lol
An adult, that has lived life and was ready to settle down. One who was adult enough to be honest, and upfront with their relationship expectations. Deciding they no longer wanted to waste their time or someone else’s. When you do that, the person you want to marry comes along quickly and you realize there is no point in wasting time.
Don’t see how that makes me worse than the Duggars. It just means I was done playing games and knew exactly what I wanted and once I got to that point it didn’t take long for the type of relationship I wanted and deserved to come along.
She already looks like a Duggar
Why do none of these women cut their hair.
They think God prefers it that way.
I do think it was corny to propose to Kendra at a wedding, but at least he did ask permission of Joy and Austin.
Sorry, wedding reception…!
The Duggar last name now has such negative connotations to it, that I have no idea why these girls are still interested in marrying any of the sons. At least the daughters have a way out by marrying and changing their last names. Lol
The tragedy in all this, is that the soon to be Mrs. Duggar isn’t ever gonna get f#%*ed proper. That kid looks scared just being that close to a woman. Good luck, Kendra. You’re going to need it.
They have a handbook on that in their religion (Gothardism). Nobody gettin’ their freak on, except Josh.
That still frame picture you used is so sad. Joe looks terrified and she’s looking up at him like he’s supposed to have all the answers. Another woman condemned to a life of working her way onto her back and doing everything for her ~man, since the Duggar boys are too incompetent to do anything themselves.
They did it for more publicity and ratings.
Ehhh, people do this all the time. Personally I do not like it at all and think you should let the wedding couple have all the spotlight on their day. Plus why wouldn’t you want your own special day for the proposal instead of piggybacking on someone else’s? Make it your own and a day to remember without sharing it with the other couple. But regardless, it’s certainly not just a Duggar thing. I’ve seen 4- 5 proposals at weddings. Everyone always acts happy and like it’s totally fine, but I always wonder if the wedding couple was truly ok with it. At least he asked his sister/brother-in-law, I’ve seen people do it without even asking and I think that’s even worse.
Kendra already looks like a frumpy middle-aged woman to me. Maybe she’ll bloom once she’s married and away from her immediate family, like Anna did.
Legit question does TLC pay for all these weddings? Aside from the show where does all their money come from?
TLC actually does not pay for the Duggar weddings, unlike MTV paying for all the Teen Mom’s weddings!
thanks for the info… it explains why so many of the teen moms wanted to put their wedding on TV
MTV needs a carrot to lure their Teen Moms into marriage, make them look better. TLC knows Jim Bob will take care of it.
Good to know someone in the family has class….oh, wait…never mind.
So what does he do for a living? And where are they planning on living!?
I’m sure Joe will work for Jim Bob, probably mowing and weed eating around the house. That way, he can control their lives.
Not trying to be rude, but does anyone else think that Kendra’s head/ face is so much smaller than normal? I can’t figure it out.
In all the pics they show of them together she’s always staring at him like she’s waiting for him to tell her what to do and he’s always got such a derp look on his face like he has no clue what’s going on.
In their religion/culture, the women all do that when the man is speaking. They are taught to do that to show that they respect the husband/boyfriend and to show that they are listening to whatever he might have to say. Watch anyone in that religion, they all do it.
Culture lol. Yes I suppose that’s the word for this “cultural” experiment gone wrong.
Thanks for the explanation, I wondered about that.
OK putting aside for one second the fact that this family seems to rush into marriage like other people rush to Starbucks for caffeine fix why can’t it ever be about a single person in this family for more than 30 seconds it just seems like such a party foul to take away from his sisters moment… Quick sidenote how do they find all these spouses that just go along with their believes and how they run things like it’s no big deal I find the whole thing strange and confusing
All the males in this family have major creep factor. ?
“Joseph, 22, decided to”
Joe didn’t DECIDE to do shit. This is all part of the Duggar TLC ratings plan.
Period.
Did he do it at the wedding so she would feel pressured to say yes?
These people are THE WORST. I would have kicked my brothers’ asses if they even considered doing that crap. Get your own day and do it then. It’s such bad taste, whether it was previously agreed to or not.
Even if his sister was okay with it, I would completely side eye it. This was so tacky and such a “Duggar moment”. It’s like they have no concept of regular society, so they cannot comprehend the oddity of their actions.
And to think for once they could have used the excuse “Duggar time”….
So incredibly tacky to propose to someone at someone else’s wedding regardless if they’re family or not and whether they have permission or not. Who even thinks of doing something like that. It took away from the special moment for both girls. I’m sure Jim Bob was behind this to get even more attention focused on his nutball family. They seriously place no value on women in that family and consider them second class citizens.
I want to like this comment 100 times!
They can’t say “I love you” until they are engaged? What?
They have to “guard their heart” because every time you fall in love with someone they take a piece of your heart. The focus is on women being “pure” and “whole”- any time you have a crush on someone, it’s “cheating” your future husband, etc.
Come again?!
So young girls should not have any normal, healthy feelings growing up cause that would be cheating on their future husband?
‘Mom, you gotta help me, I found out my wife has been cheating on me for years, I hear that she posted at the window daily to see their paper boy from the age of 13!’.
DUDE, HOW ABOUT WAIT AT LEAST A DAY?! Ofc his sister was okay with that, even her brother has bigger authority in her book just because he’s a man! I really hate this family’s gender roles….
They’ve been courting for literally 2 fucking months…..how the hell are you ready to marry someone after 2 MONTHS?!?!
This family is nuts. Like certifiably crazy.
I have food in my pantry that’s older than this couple. RIP to her life.