1. If contestants refer to the show as a "process," producers will make them film the segment over again using the word "journey" instead. (That explains all the constant "journey" talk!)
2. Condoms are allegedly not provided in the fantasy suites, or on Bachelor in Paradise. Courtney Robinson says she was asked point-blank if she was taking birth control pills during her audition interviews.
3. According to Sean Lowe, Emily Maynard pretended not to do overnight dates with her three finalists and had cameras film the men "leaving," but secretly did them anyway.
4. Rachel didn't actually plan the Goodyear blimp date. The Bachelor/ette "doesn’t plan the dates and doesn’t even know where or what the date is until either the day before or the morning of the date."
5. The women have to buy all of their own dresses for the show — ABC provides dresses for only the two finalists to wear during the finale. (Contestant Jillian Harris says she spent $8,000 on clothes for the show.)
6. No one actually eats on the one-on-one dinners because the sounds would get picked up by the microphones. Instead, contestants eat at the hotel beforehand.
7. The leads get paid for their seasons, typically around $100,000. According to Bachelor Ben Higgins, the lead gets compensated in accordance to what they would have made in the real world. (Bachelorette Emily Maynard was rumored to have been paid $250,000.)
8. Contestants are only allowed to bring two suitcases, which must contain "clothing for both cold and warm weather, athletic wear, bathing suits, heels, tennis shoes, sandals, cocktail, long, and casual dresses, and heavy coats."
9. Since contestants don't have access to phones or the internet, they must scramble to figure out how to manage their finances before they leave (since they could be gone for six weeks). “I had to set up auto bill pay and give my parents my deposit slips and access to email passwords," former contestant JJ Lane says.
10. The most common Bachelor/ette contestant occupations are realtor, marketing, pharmaceutical sales rep, and account manager.
11. The Bachelorette basically gets to design her own ring "by dropping hints to producers," according to former Bachelorette Andi Dorfman.
12. Casting begins over a year in advance for each season.
13. Yeah, it is pretty crazy to get engaged to someone you've "known" for six weeks. According to former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky, “You spend so little time with the person you choose before the final rose ceremony. I would say you probably spend about 72 hours tops with the person you wind up choosing, and 12 of that is spent ‘sleeping’ in the fantasy suite. You can't really get to know a person in that time frame.”
14. They also have to do their own cooking, cleaning, and laundry in the mansion.
15. Many of the women bring vibrators on the Bachelor with them, according to contesant Lacy Faddoul.
16. Contestants plan their own gimmicky limo exits, but they definitely get input from the producers.
17. They also have to take a comprehensive psychological exam before appearing on the show.
18. And they usually only find out that they've been selected to appear on the show about two to three weeks before filming begins.
19. The Bachelor mansion is called Villa de la Vina, is located outside Los Angeles, and has its own website. The Haraden family, who owns it, moves out twice a year to a nearby hotel while the show films there.
20. A crew also repaints rooms of the 9,000-square-foot house depending on whether the upcoming season is The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. (Owner Marshall Haraden says the walls have seen about 44 coats of paint.)
21. The women also get professional styling done only on the first night and for the finale. On the rest of the nights, they do their own hair and makeup.
22. Some couples use their fantasy suite time to just talk. (Really!) After all, it's the first time they get to spend with each other away from the cameras.
23. Bachelorette Jillian Harris says producers made her go to speech therapy because they didn't like her Canadian accent.
24. The first night of roses at the mansion takes almost 12 hours to shoot. If you rewatch one of the first episodes of a season, you can tell that the sun is coming up when some of the contestants leave the mansion.
25. Bachelorette winner Jesse Csincsak says the final four are picked out on the first night, too. "Producers orchestrate the entire thing, sitting contestants down with the star, then directing others to kick them out. Then they tell the lead, ‘Pick four people you would like to get to know better,'" he told OK!.
26. There's no workout room in the mansion, so contestants have improvised workouts by running around the backyard — there's now a worn-down path in the backyard that contestants use as a track — or lifting random household objects as free weights.
27. Hometown dates aren't always at the contestant's family's house; often they'll use a wealthier relative's pad instead.
28. During rose ceremonies, a producer is on hand with flash cards and photos of each contestant so the Bachelor/ette can remember their names. The Bachelor/ette enters the rose ceremony room, says a few names and then leaves to get the next few names.
29. The fantasy suite dates are stretched out over a few weeks and hotel rooms so the star can relax and decompress in between.
30. The producers wet the mansion's driveway with a hose before the limos arrive.
31. Bachelor Ben Higgins says couples do discuss serious things like religion, finances, and relocation, but those conversations usually aren't shown on TV.
32. Contestants aren't paid to go on The (Wo)men Tell All special, nor do they know who the winner is.
33. Couples have to stay together for two years after the show in order to keep the Neil Lane engagement ring.
34. Only two couples from The Bachelor are still together: Sean Lowe and his now wife Catherine Lowe, and Nick Viall and Vanessa Grimaldi. (Jason and Molly Mesnick are now married, but Jason ended the show engaged to a different contestant, Melissa Rycroft.) Five couples from The Bachelorette are still together: Trista and Ryan Sutter, Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum, Desiree Hartsock and Chris Siegfried, Kaitlyn Bristowe and Shawn Booth, and JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers.