'Real Housewives of Potomac' Star Candiace Dillard Weds Restaurateur Chris Bassett

Real Housewives of Potomac star Candiace Dillard married her longtime boyfriend, restaurateur [...]

Real Housewives of Potomac star Candiace Dillard married her longtime boyfriend, restaurateur Chris Bassett, in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Saturday.

Dillard and Bassett exchanged vows in front of 260 guests at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, reports PEOPLE. The theme was "cosmopolitan sophistication with a touch of southern class," and some of Dillard's RHOP co-stars were at the ceremony.

"Candiace's wedding reminded me of a Parisian fairy tale overflowing in gold and white. When she walked down the aisle you forgot about the beauty of the room because she was absolutely radiant," a source told PEOPLE.

Dillard, a former Miss United States, wore a custom-made gown by Karen Sabag. This is her first marriage and second for Bassett, who also has three children from two previous relationships.

The couple met at a D.C. restaurant where he was manager and she was a server. He proposed in May 2017, with a surprise proposal seen on RHOP.

"It was crazy," she said of the proposal in an RHOP episode. "To have everyone that I loved there was amazing. It was really special to me that he cared enough to execute my dream."

Dillard joined RHOP for the third season. The other cast members are Gizelle Bryant, Ashley Darby, Robyn Dixon, Karen Huger, Charrisse Jackson-Jordan and Monique Samuels.

Putting the wedding together was no easy task, as RHOP fans saw during season three. But she faced her challenges head-on, and she felt they made her feel better about herself.

"It's helped me find my voice within my family unit and within myself. I've have to take ownership over what I believe and what I feel is mine. It's my right to want what I want and have what I have on my wedding day. And to not have to explain that to anyone," Dillard told PEOPLE before the wedding.

Dillard was born in Mississippi and raised in Atlanta, but she wanted to have the wedding in Washington to celebrate the place where her relationship with Bassett began. She also allowed the wedding to be part of RHOP to help normalize interracial relationships.

"I was hoping I'd be able to normalize interracial dating and interracial love," she told PEOPLE. "To show, that even though Chris is not black, it still can be seen as a form of black love. Because as a black woman, who will have black children, I will be imposing my black girl magic on my family."

Dillard told Bravo's The Daily Dish that the hardest part was putting together the wedding list. At one point, the couple wanted to invite 408 people, but realized that they needed to drop that number to 260.

"It's bullsh–. It's horrible," Dillard said. "It gives me heartburn to think about because we have the Excel sheet, and there's multiple sheets. And you have to color code things and move names around. You have the A list and the B list and the C list. It's like I want the F list, like F all of this! I hate it!"

New episodes of Real Housewives of Potomac air Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.

Photo credit: Instagram/Chris Bassett

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