When stopping by 'The Kelly Clarkson Show' to promote 'The Mistletoe Secret', the 'American Idol' alum once again opens up about her 2011 nuptials and unconventional honeymoon.

• Dec 4, 2019

AceShowbiz - Country singer and actress Kellie Pickler ditched her "big wedding plans" in favour of eloping after realising she didn't care for many of the people on her guest list.

The former "American Idol" star reveals she and songwriter Kyle Jacobs began having second thoughts about throwing a huge celebration when they started feeling overwhelmed by all of the people they felt they had to invite to their Nashville, Tennessee ceremony.

"We had this whole, big wedding planned in Nashville, and the only thing we had failed to do was send invitations out," Pickler recalled on "The Kelly Clarkson Show".

"So I'm looking at the guest list... and I'm going, 'Hell, I don't even like half of these people, and I don't know the rest!,' because you invite this person and that person and then... it becomes this big ordeal, and it felt like a CMA (Country Music Association Awards) afterparty! It was just like, this big production."

Instead, the couple decided to jet off to the Caribbean and tie the knot in an intimate ceremony on New Year's Day in 2011.

"I said, 'Baby, let's just run away,' and he goes, 'Oh, thought you'd never ask!' So we didn't tell anybody and just ran off," she smiled. "It was so perfect for us. Everybody has to do what's right for them."

The loved-up pair then enjoyed a rather unconventional honeymoon on U.S. military bases in Baghdad, Iraq, so Pickler could honour a commitment to perform for the troops as part of her work with the non-profit United Service Organizations (USO).

"That's the place to go now!" Pickler laughed of the unlikely destination.

"No, I've been working with the USO for many years, and I was booked to go on one (tour) early January, so we said, 'I do,' then hopped on a plane and flew overseas to Iraq," she explained. "We spent our honeymoon there!"

And officials at each stop did their best to make the newlyweds feel as welcome as possible: "All of the soldiers at each base that we would stay at had a 'honeymoon suite' for us, it was the funniest thing," Pickler shared.

"We had a ball though, we wouldn't change it!"