Tabitha Brown on Her 'Fairytale' Vow Renewal with Husband Chance: 'I Got the Happy Ending' (Exclusive)

On March 11, the Fridays with Tab and Chance hosts marked 20 years of marriage with a photoshoot in their Los Angeles home

Tabitha Brown and her husband Chance are celebrating a marriage milestone their way.

On March 11, the Fridays with Tab and Chance hosts ditched the pressure of a vow renewal ceremony and instead celebrated 20 years of marriage with an intimate photo shoot in their Los Angeles home, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal.

"My husband said, 'Honey, it started getting a little stressful trying to figure it out,' and we realized, 'Wait, we're doing this for everybody else and not for us,'" Tabitha, 44, tells PEOPLE. "And us, we want simple things, [it] make us happy being together, traveling together, going somewhere we both enjoy, but also celebrating our love in a beautiful photo shoot and having that memory."

Chance adds, "We realize that we have something special. It needs to be celebrated."

For the actress and content creator, her favorite moment from that day was walking out in her wedding gown and seeing the look on her husband's face: "It was almost like we were about to get married. We both kind of got emotional," says Tabitha.

Adds Chance: "It was one of those where I did get emotional because of the couple of things going through my head. It was like, 'Man, we made it this far.'"

Related:Tabitha Brown Reflects on 20-Year Marriage to Husband Chance: 'He Is My Best Friend'

The day of the shoot, the couple — whose anniversary is on April 19 — woke up early to get glammed for their big day, which included three extravagant wedding looks. They also recorded a podcast episode where they reflected on their original wedding day. Despite bad weather, the couple still had a wonderful time doing the shoot.

"It was better than what was planned and what we imagined, in my opinion, to know how far God has brought us. I mean, when we got married, we were not in a house like this. Let me just tell you, it was a very small home in Greensboro, North Carolina," she says. "In our wildest dreams, we could not have imagined 20 years later living the life we lived together. Not just madly in love, but we madly like each other too. And my husband is still my best friend. I texted him the other day, I was like, 'I'm so happy to be doing this life with you.' It's such a blessing."

Before choosing her gowns, Tabitha spoke to her designer J. Bolin and said she knew she wanted a (vegan) feathered look. Before she knew it, what was originally supposed to be one gown turned into three.

"It was like a dream. I could have never afforded any of those dresses 20 years ago. When we got married 20 years ago, I was going to borrow a friend's dress, but then me and my mama, we went shopping and we went to David's Bridal. They had an outlet shop in Burlington, North Carolina, and they had this rack of dresses that were $99. And so, I found a dress," she remembers.

"Now to be able to have not one, but three to choose from and take these beautiful pictures, I was like, 'Oh, wow, what a journey it has been for something like this.' It was almost like a fairytale. I got the happy ending. I got the prince, I got the dress," she says.

Looking back on their marriage and the seasons that led them here, the couple has grown to appreciate new things about one another like never before. For Tabitha, it's watching Chance turn his love for basketball into a non profit to help children. For Chance, it was understanding her need to communicate: "I want to talk about everything now. Now it's me," he says with a laugh.

Related:Tabitha Brown Celebrates Her 43rd Birthday with Love from Fellow Celebrity Foodies: 'Blessed'

The key to their long-lasting marriage, Tabitha says, is "communication."

"Sometimes people hear communication and they think, 'Oh, that just means talking.' But sometimes it means not talking. Sometimes it's knowing when not to bother your spouse, when to allow them their space, when to just listen, when to just be present for them," she says. "Just learning how they need you to show up and communicate with them and how they need you to love them, not how you want to be loved."

For Chance, it's being "selfish with your partner" and treating it marriage like a "Fortune 500."

"Be mindful that we could be here today and go on tomorrow and love them like that, love your partner like that and protect them that," he says. "Also, treat it like a Fortune 500 company and not necessarily a mom and pop. Now, I don't have anything against mom and pop spots, and I used to use the reference of a mom and pop and somebody might switch this around... but where there's a mom and pop, I feel like there's limitations. And I use the reference of a Fortune 500 to say, don't put any limitations on how far you can go inside of your marriage."

He adds, "As long as you treat it like that and you value it as the most valuable asset, it will create generational wealth."

Next, the couple is going to vacation in Dubai for a "peaceful escape" (the couple's first honeymoon was a roadtrip to Florida).

"That's also what I want the next 20 years to be like in our marriage," says Tabitha. "Peaceful, fun, exciting."

She adds, "When we're in Dubai, maybe in the desert, we'll have our own heartfelt renewal with each other because we're the only ones that matter in our marriage."

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