Joanna Gaines Plans to Honor Chip With a Special Tattoo After He Dies

From House Beautiful

Chip and Joanna Gaines are all about meaningful moments, and it's no wonder that a fateful encounter at an auto shop is all it took to create the ultimate design power couple. Fans of their HGTV show, Fixer Upper, know that the Gaines live and breathe Baylor University, but the two Baylor bears didn't meet at their alma mater. Chip had heard of her before they even met, but it'd be much longer before they became an item. Here's everything you might have missed on their journey from Waco to taking over the DIY Network:

Chip and Joanna first met inside an auto shop.

Joanna's father, a Vietnam War vet and Firestone Tire salesman, employed his post-grad daughter in his auto shop, helping run the marketing side of the business. She even got her first TV gig, starring in commercials for the family store, while working there! Chip walked in to get his car fixed and stumbled on a photo of the 23-year-old Joanna hanging on the wall. "I knew I'd marry her one day just by the picture on the wall," Chip told Popsugar.

Chip kept returning to the shop with new excuses and fresh repairs, hoping to bump into his future wife. He finally ran into Joanna in 2001, landing a first date by complimenting her on her car commercials.

Chip almost lost Joanna her for $50.

A bet with his best friend John nearly cost him a lifetime of love when he failed to call Joanna back after their first date. After showing up an hour late and climbing up a Magnolia tree (yes, that's how Magnolia got its name!), Chip didn't call her back for months.

"I'd made a bet with John to see who could hold out the longest before calling our dates back. I really wanted that $50 from John! That's the only reason I didn't call," Chip wrote in The Magnolia Story.

When Joanna finally gave him a second chance, she took her time getting to know him. Chip even joked that dating Joanna was like dating a "cyborg" at the beginning. When he first told her he loved her (and yes, he said it first), she said, "thank you." "That's the way cyborgs respond to 'I love you,'" Chip told Us.

Chip and Joanna's first home together was the original "fixer upper."

A year into dating, one of Chip's rental properties, an 800-square-foot white cottage opened up, and the couple ditched their traditional Christian values to move in together and renovate. In an interview with Jefferson Bethke, Chip admitted it wasn't appropriate, but that they were engaged and "the next thing you know, we have four kids."

Fans got to see the couple reminisce about their early fixer-upper fails in a house tour episode of the original Gaines home.

"I remember crying when Chip said we were moving in—it was dumpy and it smelled bad. We fixed it up and fell in love with it. We were broke and were forced to be creative with our resources, and we were proud as punch about this place. Most of what I learned creatively stemmed from this little fixer upper," she wrote in the Instagram caption.

Chip and Joanna married in 2003.

Once Jo had joined Chip's business full time, she saw the full potential of life as a Gaines. "At first, I couldn't believe how kind Chip was—he had kind eyes, and made me laugh a lot. I knew he was the one because I knew I could trust him," Joanna told Popsugar.

Chip clearly felt the same way. He drove four hours to a strip mall near where he grew up, convincing the unsuspecting Jo that they were attending a concert. When she got out of the car, both families were waiting to celebrate Chip getting down on one knee.

They married in 2003 at the Earle-Harrison House, with a halo set, 1-carat diamond engagement ring Joanna had custom designed. Magnolia Market opened the same year, offering the farmhouse chic decor the Gaineses are known for.

Now celebrating 17 years of marriage, Chip & Jo celebrate their love every May 31st.

Magnolia Market originally started as a single shop.

The original Magnolia Market, AKA the little shop on Bosque, closed in 2006 after Jo gave birth to their first two children, Drake and Ella Rose.

They focused on their construction business, Magnolia Homes, until HGTV came knocking in 2014. As Fixer Upper took off, they bought and renovated the silos, now Magnolia headquarters: office, shop and restaurant.

Chip thought HGTV was a scam.

In 2012, after stumbling across Joanna's blog about family and the home-renovation business, High Noon producer Katie Neff called the Gaines to talk about her style and starting a business with Chip.

"I was just really impressed by the fact that they were so in love with the town and so dedicated to it—and so dedicated to making a more beautiful place to live in. It’s the perfect place to be flipping homes, because there were so many horribly decrepit homes that you couldn’t live in,” Neff told Texas Monthly.

Despite offering to come down and shoot the hilarious pilot, Chip didn't believe HGTV wanted anything to do with them. "He was like, 'it’s a scam, do not call them back,'" Joanna told Today. Luckily, she ignored him and called them back. Their pilot was so charming, HGTV signed them for a five-season deal right off the bat.

Divorce will never be on the Magnolia Table.

After six books, five seasons, and 17 years of marriage, with an estimated net worth of $18 million according to Business Insider, the Gaines are stronger than ever. Chip and Joanna have admitted to their differences in the past, and even fans of the series have seen the serious designer and goofy contractor clash, but the couple relies on their faith and connection to stay close.

"Every now and then, there are times when we notice we're getting off track and have to regroup. But it's like everything we care about, everything that's important to us—we know it's going to require work," Chip told People.

"Won't ever happen...you can take that to the bank! #loveofmylife," he wrote to a fan talking divorce rumors on Twitter. With all the scandals they've weathered, we can't wait to see the bright future of the Gaines crew.

Joanna wants to honor Chip with a special tattoo after he dies.

In Breaking New Ground: Expanding the Silos, a new documentary on discovery+ that follows the couple's expansion of Magnolia Market, Joanna opened up about how she plans to memorialize Chip after he's gone.

In the program, she showed viewers around one of their new stores, No. 16., which was inspired by Chip. "It's his favorite number," she said, adding that the store is filled with all of his favorite things.

Joanna continued to explain how the family recognizes the number: "Anything we get of his now — his undies, his white tee shirts — we put No. 16 in it. It's a thing." She also noted that their kids use it on their sports jerseys.

In light of this, Joanna shared that she plans to get a tattoo of the number to honor her husband should he pass away before her. "I always say, when he dies, I'll go 'one, six' right there," she said while outlining the numbers on her wrist.

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