DWTS Pro Britt Stewart Talks Wedding Planning with CODA Star Daniel Durant: 'So Much Fun' (Exclusive)

• Britt Stewart and Daniel Durant plan to have an outdoor Central Coast California wedding in summer 2025
• Stewart says the most challenging part of wedding planning has been narrowing down the guest list
• The couple, who fell in love shortly after competing together on season 31 of DWTS, is especially looking forward to exchanging vows

Dancing with the Stars pro Britt Stewart can't wait to get married! 

Stewart's fiancé, CODA star Daniel Durant, popped the question on Christmas Day last year. At the time, the couple told PEOPLE they hadn't thought about wedding planning yet and were simply enjoying their engagement. Now, the bride-to-be says the two are deep into the process — and having "so much fun" along the way.

"Every time we really dive into wedding planning and meetings with our wedding planner, we just giggle. We are so excited," Stewart, 35, exclusively tells PEOPLE. "And, of course, there's stressful moments like the guest list and the budget and all these things, but we are just having so much fun with the process."

She continues, "Honestly, the theme for us is just love. It's just love and it's just gathering … We just want to feel like one with each other, one with our family and friends, and one with nature."

Since the couple wants their Central Coast California wedding to be "small and intimate," figuring out the guest list has been the hardest part. Of course, many people from DWTS will be invited, including Stewart's close friends Hayley Erbert Hough and Derek Hough, her first DWTS partner Johnny Weir, and Deena Katz, the executive producer who was responsible for partnering Stewart and Durant, 34, together in season 31 of the reality dance competition show. 

"It's been a little bit of a struggle of, who is getting an invite and who do we really see as our family, as our inner circle?" Stewart explains. "And Dancing with the Stars, everybody says it, but we really are a family."

She and Durant are still deciding who from American Idiot — Deaf West Theatre and Central Theatre Group's ASL-infused revival of the Green Day musical in which Durant stars — will be invited to the wedding because "they're all new friends."

But Stewart did seem to suggest that "amazing human" and Disney heartthrob Milo Manheim — who voices Durant's character Johnny in the musical and was the youngest competitor on season 27 of DWTS — would be getting an invite.

"[Daniel] has absolutely loved working on American Idiot. Milo and him get along so well, and Milo has just been the most beautiful voice in the show for Daniel in American Idiot," Stewart says. "The way that their relationship is onstage is just really beautiful."

Stewart and Durant fell in love not long after they competed together and placed fifth on DWTS in 2022. They revealed their romance to the world on Valentine's Day the following year. 

"We really were teammates who became good friends that after the season finished at the finale, we were like, 'I don't know if we can not see each other every single day,' " Stewart says. "And then that's how we fell into dating. So I think it was that foundation of friendship that really set the stage for our relationship, and my hope is that will continue through our marriage."

Durant admitted to PEOPLE that he started "welling up" during his surprise proposal, which took place on a hike in Lake Arrowhead, Calif. He explained, "I started talking about the year, about us meeting and everything that happens in life. I just feel like there's balance. She sees me. She knows my culture, my language, and understands everything about me."

Stewart says Durant "cannot wait to celebrate everything that we've created, that we're going to create, and just party and have an amazing time with our family and friends."

Now that logistics are all in order, "it's about dreaming about that day," she notes.

The couple is planning an accessible wedding. "Daniel comes from an all-hearing family, but the majority of his friends are deaf. So we really want to make sure that our wedding is not only accessible for Daniel, of course, but that it's accessible for the deaf community that's invited to our wedding," Stewart explains to PEOPLE.

"So we've talked a lot about this, especially when deciding on entertainment. Is it worth it to have a band or is it better to have a DJ with just an amazing bass so you can feel the vibration of the party?" she adds.

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Stewart is most excited for the pair's vow exchange.

"I just feel like that is such a moment," she says. "I feel like every wedding that I've been to that moment is just so emotional, yes, but it's also so connected. You really just see a glimpse of their relationship for everybody in their vow exchange."

Although Stewart plans to have interpreters at the wedding so there's "never a lack of communication" and "anyone can communicate with each other no matter the language barrier," she doesn't want one during Durant's vows to her. "I just want it to be completely him without a voice in the air."

She adds of her wedding day: "We really feel like we're each other's soulmates and we are using this time as an engaged couple to build the tools that we need to enter into a marriage that's really strong and long-lasting. It is a union, and we're just so excited to enter into it."