Jen Schefft News

Former star of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette Jen Schefft finally found love ... but not on either show. Just in Joe Waterman, who married her over the weekend!

A "traditional yet modern" ceremony joined the two Chicago natives.

"We clicked early on, and it happened so fast," said Jen, 32. "We just got along so well, it was so easy. I never worried when I'd see him again or when he'd call."

He proposed in September, and all was right with the world. But a month after she got engaged to Joe Waterman, Schefft was laid off from her sales job.

Hit hard by these economic times, Jen Schefft was thus determined to have a low-cost wedding. The small ceremony included fewer than 100 guests.

"You don't want to exclude anyone, but I just wanted close friends and family," she said. "It's about Joe and me, not entertaining 400 people."

Before she found her soulmate in Joe Waterman, Schefft was the winner of The Bachelor's third season and got engaged to Andrew Firestone.

She moved to San Francisco to be with him, but their relationship fizzled and they broke up, as has every single one in the show's history.

Jen also turned down a marriage proposal on The Bachelorette, which begins its new season tonight with Jillian Harris as the star!

Jen Schefft - who got engaged to Andrew Firestone on the third season of The Bachelor; then went on to star on The Bachelorette in 2005 - is getting married in May.

However, she got fired last fall and, as she tells Us Weekly, doesn't wish to spend a fortune on the ceremony.

"I wanted to be considerate of a price," said Schefft, who is marrying Joe Waterman, a trader. "I'm not going to wear a $20,000, or even a $10,000 dress. I just don't think it's worth it for one day."

During an exclusive shoot for the tabloid, Schefft modeled gowns for under $1,000. For example:

In this economy, Jen Schefft is avoiding an expensive wedding; and, we hope, any risky home mortgage loans.

It's only appropriate, what with Andrew Firestone announcing earlier this week that he and Ivana Bozilovic are expecting their first child, that his one-time would-be bride from The Bachelor, Jen Schefft, got engaged this week!

The lucky guy is stock trader Joe Waterman!

"I'm so excited and so happy," says Jen Schefft. "We really get each other. I guess it's true things move fast when you meet the right person."

Schefft, who starred both The Bachelor in 2003 and The Bachelorette in 2005, finding love on neither, authored the book Better Single Than Sorry.

Joe Waterman didn't know much about Schefft from TV – but he shies away from certain reminders. "He gives me flowers but never roses," she says.

As Brad Womack receives endless flak for dissing both Jenni Croft and Deanna Pappas, someone who can relate to The Bachelor's situation is coming to his defense:

Former Bachelorette, Jen Scheft.

"No one seems to be concerned about Brad's future - except, maybe, the women he didn't choose," Schefft, the 2005 Bachelorette who turned down both of her final suitors, wrote on The Huffington Post. "On the ["After the Final Rose"] show, they were still complaining that he didn't give them a chance, that they could have been happy together, and that his actions were unfair.

What would have been more unfair is if Brad wasn't honest with himself - or them - and continued a relationship [let alone proposed] when he felt it wasn't right."

Moreover, Schefft gives "Brad a lot of credit for not playing into the fantasy the show creates," while saying "it's entirely possible to meet 25 beautiful women (or 25 handsome men) and not fall in love with any of them... in a matter of six weeks... in isolation... with cameras all around."

Wait, she's saying The Bachelor is NOT the ideal way to fall in love? There's a shocker!

Schefft also compared herself to Womack, saying that when she decided to remain single at the end of The Bachelorette, she found herself in the center of a lot of negative press.

"I can bet [Brad Womack] won't be walking around with a stigma of being ‘too hard to please.' That's what people think when a woman chooses not to be with a ‘perfect' guy - as if good looks and money are all she needs," Schefft wrote. "For some reason, it's more acceptable for a man to turn down a woman than it is for a woman to reject a man."

Her former fiance is getting married to another woman, but Jen Schefft isn't bitter.

The ex-Bachelor contestant says she's happy for Andrew Firestone, who announced his engagement this week.

"I am very happy for him and wish them both the best," Schefft said to People magazine.

Firestone proposed to Schefft at the conclusion of the ABC reality show in 2003, but the couple broke up a few months later. Just like all Bachelor couple have done.

On Monday, Firestone's father told the Associated Press that his son is engaged to 30-year-old model-actress Ivana Bozilovic.

"I'm still happily single, but still looking!" Schefft said, adding:"So, if you know any cute, single men in Chicago, let me know."