For the first time in a long time, Julianne Hough has the opportunity to take a break — not that she's going to. Ever on the move, the triple-threat performer and two-time Dancing With The Stars champ is staying busy, even during some well-deserved downtime.
"This is the first time I've ever just been kind of free of any contracts. I'm not doing Dancing With The Stars. I'm not on any kind of tour," Hough told Refinery29 over the phone on a rainy day in early April.
"I think in the next phase of my life, I really want to create and develop projects. I think the thing that really fulfills me and inspires me is just creating — coming up with an idea and seeing it through to fruition."
One important project she's working on that is still in the very early stages of progress? Her upcoming nuptials to Canadian hockey player Brooks Laich. The pair has been engaged since August of last year. But as to when they'll actually tie the knot, even the bride-to-be isn't certain — or at least, isn't saying.
"We're not great planners," she explained with a laugh. "We don't even have a date yet." Nor do they feel pressure to set one with any sort of immediacy. "We're really just enjoying our engagement period, because we're never going to be here again."
"Even when we were dating, we were like, 'Let's just be boyfriend and girlfriend.' And now that we're engaged, it's 'let's just be fiancés,'" Hough said. "When we get married, we'll be husband and wife. And then, we'll be mom and dad. We just want to enjoy each stage of our relationship."
Even without a date, the recent Grease: Live! lead does have some details already in mind. "We both want to keep it as intimate as possible — that's just more our style and our vibe," she explained. "But I have a very big family, so intimate to us might be big to some people," adding that she's "pretty sure" that the wedding will take place outside.
So — if not with planning a wedding or practicing for a dance-off daily — how is Hough keeping busy these days? By doubling down on her fitness presence, for one thing: She added Fitbit Ambassador to her list of bona fides last fall and launched an athleisure collaboration with MPG Sports earlier this spring.
"I think that we live in a society today where our minds are super active and our bodies are very still," Hough shared with us, reflecting on the importance of incorporating fitness into an everyday routine. "If we could just switch that, I think everybody'd be a lot happier."
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