‘Counting On’ Season 3 Premiere Recap: 5 Surprises At Joy & Austin’s Wedding, Did Josh Duggar Appear?

Counting On made its return to television with Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Forsyth’s wedding special. For fans who didn’t catch the Season 3 premiere, no, Josh Duggar did not make an appearance. Josh was in attendance, but like at Jinger’s wedding special, TLC decided to edit him out of the scenes. However, his wife, Anna, who was part of Joy’s entourage, was briefly seen.

Back to Joy and Austin’s big day. It was a beautiful wedding and a wonderful episode filled with love, family, and kids that the Duggars are known for. There were many endearing moments in the hour-long special, which followed Joy and Austin from the wedding preps leading up to the ceremony and reception. We counted five sweet surprises at the latest Duggar wedding.

Joy-Anna Duggar Was Not A Bridezilla

Fans of 19 Kids and Counting would have felt nostalgic seeing Joy-Anna all grown up and about to commit her life to another man. Surprisingly, Joy was not a bridezilla. She was cool and collected all throughout the wedding preparations, and she only showed signs of nervousness when she was about to walk down the aisle.

One touching moment was when Jim Bob Duggar first saw his Joy in her wedding dress, and the father and daughter shared an emotional embrace.

“You’re the greatest daddy,” Joy told Jim Bob right before she made her walk towards her groom.

Joy And Austin Didn’t Care Much About Traditions

Despite the famous strict Duggar rules about dressing and dating, Joy and Austin proved that they were not sticklers for traditions. The young couple chose to ignore the tradition of not seeing each other before the wedding and actually spent moments together during the wedding preparations.

“Joy and I just do things differently and we needed to talk about some things and pray together. So we threw that tradition out the window.”

One tradition they did keep, however, was the “first kiss” rule. As devout Baptists, the Duggar family believes that a man and a woman should only kiss when the pastor finally says, “You may now kiss the bride.”

“That’s gonna be exciting,” Joy gushed when asked how she thought her first kiss would be like.

There Were Lots Of Flowers, Food, And Confetti

Michelle Duggar’s longtime friend Cindy did the flowers and decorations for both the ceremony and reception. Although it was a simple wedding, Cindy made sure it was thoughtfully done. Her inspiration was to bring the fields inside, so she created a cathedral frame to serve as the couple’s backdrop. She also filled it with hanging flowers.

“I asked Austin to describe Joy, so he said she was a beautiful godly girl running barefoot through an open field of flowers. So that’s when I came up with the idea [to] bring outside inside with the cathedral-type feeling.”

Right after the minister pronounced them as Mr. and Mrs. Austin Forsyth, there was a shower of confetti that no one expected — not even the bride and groom. It was a definitely a sweet surprise that made the affair even more memorable.

With over 1,000 guests, the Duggars needed enough food for everyone. And from the looks of it, they didn’t disappoint. One of the episode’s highlight was the 1,300 cupcakes their local baker prepared. There were lemonade cupcakes, orange creamsicles, and chocolate with chocolate buttercream icing, which took a whopping seven hours to make!

John-David Duggar Tried To Be Religiously Funny

John-David Duggar, Jana’s twin, was super happy that his litter sister was getting married. Both he and Jana are still single at 27-years-old, which is like 40 in Duggar’s marrying years. When teased about his relationship status, John-David tried to crack a joke which sadly, not everyone understood.

“I’m just holding out. Bachelor ’til the rapture, I guess.”

Joseph and Kendra’s Engagement

The Duggar family already revealed that their son Joseph got engaged to his girlfriend Kendra Caldwell during Joy and Austin’s wedding. But it was still nice to see how the proposal actually happened. Some fans bashed Joe for “stealing Joy’s thunder,” but apparently, he had planned the whole thing with Joy and Austin’s consent.

During the reception, when Joy was about to do the customary bridal bouquet toss, she skipped the game and gave the flowers straight to Kendra. Joe came out and dropped to his knee with the ring. Kendra, looking surprised yet very excited, happily said yes. Another Duggar wedding is on its way!

Counting On Season 3 airs Monday nights on TLC.

[Featured Image by Austin Forsyth/Instagram]