by David McAlpine

After three months of dates in Los Angeles, Canada, Spain and Hawaii, Bachelorette Jillian Harris whittled down the group of 30 suitors to just one on Monday night: 29 year-old Ed Swiderski, a technology consultant from Chicago, Illinois. Despite Ed leaving earlier in the season, he came back and captured Jillian’s heart, earning the final rose at the last rose ceremony (and presenting her with a $60,000, 2.05 carat ring!). Today, the happy couple discussed their relationship and their plans for the future with the media on a conference call.

Q. Why are you guys choosing to move faster than the average couple and move in so soon?
A. Jillian: Why not? I think the reason why a lot of the past relationships from the show haven’t worked because people have tried to do the long distance thing. We’re madly in love and our relationship is easiest when we’re together. I can’t really get back to my regular life in Vancouver knowing I’ll end up in Chicago soon!

Q. How did all the returnees play on your emotions?
A. Jillian: I was a basket case! It was an emotional rollercoaster, but it was definitely worth it in the end.

Q. Ed, were you stunned or upset by the big deal that was made over the fantasy suite?
A. Ed: I was a little stunned, but I wasn’t upset because I knew the result in the end, so I was ok with it.

Q. Have your jobs gotten in the way of your relationship so far?
A. Ed: No, not really.
A. Jillian: We’re both young and I know our careers are important. I don’t want to make him set his career aside and I know once I get working again, I’ll be busy, too. I know we’ll have to find balances in all of it.

Q. It sounds like you guys have spent a couple months together. Have you found any weird common interests you share?
A. Ed: Jillian has a great family and both of us really value that. It was a pleasant surprise to see how close she is with them.
A. Jillian: The more time we spend together, the more we realize we’re alike; we have the same sleeping patterns, we like the same food, we like our coffee the same way—it’s so great! I was worried I would wake up after the proposal and he would start saying thigs that worry me, but everything he says makes me fall in love with him more and more.

Q. What’s the timeline for the next few weeks?
A. Ed: Well, I went back to work a while ago.
A. Jillian: I need to get back to work definitely, I’m done with being lazy and sitting by the pool. I have lots of opportunities waiting for me back in Vancouver, but Ed and I are still excited about what’s coming up. I’m moving to Chicago in the first or second week of September and I’m working on a green card so I can get started on work right away.

Q. What about a wedding? Do you have any plans for that?
A. Jillian: As soon as things slow down and I can get settled and have some time to start the planning process, it’ll happen. We’re looking to get married in the next 12 to 18 months.

Q. How was it dealing with all the criticism from the viewers?
A. Jillian: It’s definitely been stressful and I learned that you can’t please everybody. The goal is for me to find someone and for me to be happy, but along the way, the viewers obviously get wrapped up in it. We’ve been in love for months and months and yeah, there are people that think there are other guys out there for me. I follow the blogs and the media too much for my own good. Some of them are actually funny and I love watching stuff like The Soup, but I don’t personally understand how people can walk away from posting something negative and have a good day.

Q. Would you consider televising your wedding like Trista and Ryan (from The Bachelorette: Season 1)?
A. Jillian: Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I think Ed and I have had a hard time adapting to the limelight. Knowing what his family and mine are like, we want everyone to be comfortable, so a public wedding probably wouldn’t be the best idea. We want something down to earth and probably off television. We were thinking about doing some fun little Bachelor-style interviews for the guests or something, but we really want to keep the wedding true to ourselves and not to the show.

Q. Did either of you slip up about the end result?
A. Jillian: We told our parents and I have a really really good girlfriend who pretty much lives with me and I think she knew, and some of Ed’s friends I think knew, too. Then, there was one day when I was shopping and I tried on some jeans but I decided not to buy them because they were too expensive. I told the sales girl that I was trying to save up my money for when I got to Chicago! But it was the week before the finale aired, so hopefully that wasn’t too bad.
A. Ed: I think Jillian had more times to slip up than I did, I was busy working and I haven’t socialized that much since I got home.

Q. Jillian, how were you feeling on the final day?
A. Jillian: I woke up that morning and I knew I was madly in love with Ed and I wanted to leave with him. The hardest part for me was breaking it to Kiptyn and trying not to hurt his feelings. When Reid came back, his feelings were just so shocking and so surprising. I’m a giving person and I want to make people so happy, so I didn’t know what to say to not hurt Reid. I wanted to say something to him so that he walked away ok, I didn’t know how to deal with the situation, but there was just no way for me to do that.

Q. Ed, how did you know that, after what some people consider such a short period of time, that you wanted to propose?
A. Ed: I was just extremely confident, more confident than I’ve ever been in my life. I knew that’s what I wanted to do, so I just did it.
A. Jillian: I think it was a unique situation, and maybe because of social norms, we would have waited another six months or so. Yeah, we maybe did some things backwards, the bottom line is that the result is still the same. I was talking to my dad about it and the ring is more of a “thank you for going through that journey with me.” We’ll plan the wedding soon enough.

Q. Ed, how was it watching Jillian be with other guys as you rewatched the season?
A. Ed: I got to know the other guys really well and from day one I had my eyes on the guys who I knew would be compatible with Jill, and those were the guys who I was worried about. It wasn’t comfortable, but I knew a lot of the guys didn’t have a lot of chemistry with her.

Q. Who do you guys think should be the next Bachelor?
A. Ed: Tanner P.!
A. Jillian: I loved [Michael] Stagliano and Reid.
A. Ed: A lot of people don’t know it, but Reid and Tanner P. are two guys that I really bonded with. Yeah, Tanner can be a bit shallow, but he’s a great guy and really family-oriented.

Q. Ed, what do you like on your hot dog?
A. Ed: I’m a mustard guy, 100%
A. Jillian: Now that I’m engaged to him, I’ll accept any answer, but my dad is a huge mustard fan, so I think it was a good sign.

Q. Jillian, have you been offered anything in Chicago?
A. Jillian: Back home, I’ve gotten a few offers, which I don’t want to turn down until there are some finite plans. There’s been some talk of other TV things and I’m working on my hot dog book, but my main goal is to set my life back up and to get back to work as soon as possible.

Q. What’s the deal with the hot dog book?
A. Jillian: I’m trying to write something cute and funny about the hot dog theory and my dating life and just a girls guide to dating a guy. Maybe some short stories about guys I’ve dated, just something fun on how to get a read on a guy just by what he puts on his hot dog.

Q. What advice do you have for others who are looking for love?
A. Jillian: Don’t beat yourself up too much over making mistakes and being vulnerable. At the end of the day, you’re going to find someone who accepts you for you. I couldn’t have done this show if I wasn’t 100% happy with who I was and what I’ve done to this point, but it was great to know that I could finally say that I was ready to not be alone anymore.
A. Ed: Before I went on, I was a lot like Jill: career-oriented and ambitious. Don’t let your career take over your life, find a balance.

(Image courtesy of ABC)

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