NFL

Commanders’ Austin Ekeler marries dancer Melanie Wilking in glamorous Las Vegas wedding

Published

5 months ago

May 28, 2024

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Commanders’ Austin Ekeler marries dancer Melanie Wilking in glamorous Las Vegas wedding

Sports Entertainment

By Jenna Lemoncelli

Published
May 28, 2024, 5:17 p.m. ET

Congratulations are in order for new Washington Commanders running back Austin Ekeler and Melanie Wilking.

Eckeler married Wilking, a professional dancer and TikTok star, on Saturday at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa, as seen in photos they shared on Instagram.

The wedding featured 138 guests, including a number of Ekeler’s NFL peers, according to People, with the couple choosing not to have babies or toddlers in attendance.

“Mr. & Mrs. Ekeler,” they captioned a joint Instagram post, along with their wedding date of May 25, 2024.

Ekeler and Wilking said “I do” in an outdoor garden ceremony with a gorgeous view of the lake.

The couple, who got engaged on Aug. 24, 2023, said they chose Las Vegas because it’s their “home base,” and that it would be easier for friends and family to travel to if visiting from out of town.

“It was everything we have ever wanted and more,” Wilking told People. “To have all of our family members travel to Las Vegas to celebrate our love is something I could have only dreamed about. We are so thankful.”

Ekeler and Wilking maintained a long-distance romance between California and Las Vegas for years. They added Virginia into the mix when he signed a two-year, $11.43 million deal with the Commanders in March.

“This will finally be the chapter where we are doing it all together,” Wilking said. “Of course we will both have to travel in the future, but we will now call the same place home — Virginia during the season and Vegas during the off-season.”

Ekeler and the Chargers amicably parted ways earlier this year after seven successful seasons together.

The 29-year-old NFL star explained that he and Wilking discussed his move to Washington prior to signing the deal — and that he pondered retirement.

“I kinda set some parameters with her,” Ekeler said on “God Bless Football” podcast in March. “I said to her, ‘If I can’t get above this number, which I’ll keep hidden, that’s probably it.’

“If there is no value for Austin there, I’m willing to walk away because I can create more value for myself outside of the field.”

When asked if he seriously thought about retiring, Ekeler explained, “I didn’t necessarily almost retire, but I had a number, where if ‘hey, if there is not enough interest to get me to this type of contract, then I would walk away from the game.

“Because regardless you still get paid you get money but your body still has to go through it… It’s like ok, how much is this actually worth and can I create more value for myself outside of the field. And luckily, I wasn’t even close to that number, so it wasn’t really a question. But we had that conversation.

The Western Colorado product signed with Los Angeles after he went undrafted in 2017.