Nikki Bella Reveals She Wore A Wedding Dress She Picked Out During John Cena Engagement

Nikki Bella offered her best look yet at her lavish Paris wedding to “Dancing With The Stars” pro Artem Chigvintsev. She also revealed that one of her four stunning looks was initially picked out for her canceled wedding with WWE Superstar John Cena. 

The runup to the “Barmageddon” host’s wedding will be chronicled in the upcoming four-part E! series “Nikki Bella Says I Do” in 2023. However, before that, she posed for the cover of "BRIDES" where she discussed how she selected the various outfits she chose to wear on her big day this past August when she finally tied the knot with Chigvintsev. 

Above all, Bella wanted her look to be a mix of elegance and power.

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“The cool thing about being a bride is the fashion journey you get to go on,” Bella told the outlet. “This is your time to shine and be a star. Sometimes I feel like some people are scared to express themselves in fashion, so they hold back in real life. When it's your wedding, it's time to be fearless.”

Part of being fearless, for her, meant wearing a gown that she knew may draw some scrutiny from others at the wedding. At the last minute, she decided to make one of the four dresses she wore on the day a dress she initially picked out for the wedding she was planning with Cena that ultimately didn’t happen.

“I had two beautiful dresses that I loved, and they were going to be for a different marriage, but they were my dream and I love them. So, I brought them out to see if I could make them work,” she explained. “What brides will realize when they start searching for the dress is that what you wear is about you as a woman. It has nothing to do with the person that you're marrying or the people that are attending. It has everything to do with what you've envisioned for yourself and how you feel.”

Bella first got together with Cena in 2012, according to "Us Weekly." They got engaged at WrestleMania 33 in 2017 but ultimately called off the engagement in 2018. She said there was no ill will between them but that they simply wanted their lives to go in different directions.

Despite buying the dress for that wedding that never came to be, Bella notes that she was able to divorce the dress from that relationship and encouraged other brides-to-be in her position to do the same.

“I bought those dresses for me,” she noted. “People will try to make you think differently and say, ‘Oh, but it was for that person and that wedding.’ But after being on this journey, what I realized was no, I didn’t buy those dresses for that person. Yes, it was going to be for that event, but that event didn't happen. So my advice to anyone who already has their [wedding] dress and is in the same situation is: If that dress is something you love, wear it. If you don't, you're always going to think of it. It's kind of like your first love, right? You have an attachment to it. Do what makes you happy.”

In addition to showing her entire wedding journey on the E! miniseries, fans of the WWE Superstar can see her later this year alongside Blake Shelton and Carson Daly in the new game show “Barmageddon” where she will pit celebrities and viral sensations against each other in a series of heightened bar games at the country singer’s famous Nashville bar, Ole Red. 

You can catch “Barmageddon” on USA Network later this year. In the meantime, you can watch more game show content on Peacock right now.