Christina Hendricks Opens Up About Wedding Plans with Fiancé George Bianchini: 'We Love New Orleans' (Exclusive)

When Christina Hendricks eventually ties the knot with fiancé George Bianchini, she wants it to happen somewhere special to them both.

“It will be very festive, because we love New Orleans,” Hendricks, 48, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I've gone there for years throughout my life, and I just think it's one of the greatest American cities. I love that it has its own cuisine, architecture, music and spirit. It's just a very vibrant and sexy city.”

The Emmy Award nominee, who currently stars in the new period drama The Buccaneers, met Bianchini, a camera operator, on the set of NBC's Good Girls during the first season, although they didn’t see each other again until several years later when production moved from Atlanta back to Los Angeles. The two began dating in 2020 and got engaged in March after they "proposed to each other."  

“There's so much pressure on men to do some grand gesture, and they don't know what's right or what's wrong,” she explains. “So we read some articles about people proposing to each other, and we said, ‘Why don’t we do that?' He went first, and then five or six days later, I did mine. They were both sweet and simple. We both said, ‘Please don’t shoot something out of a rocket. Don’t get an airplane involved.’”

There’s much to love about Bianchini, the Mad Men alum explains, in part because he makes her feel like “a million bucks.” They also share much in common.

"We always want to do the same things,” she says, adding, “We love the same kind of places, the same food, the same music, the same sense of humor. He just keeps me smiling, and he always tells me that I can do whatever I set my heart to and that he believes in me.”

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That helps explain why Hendricks decided Bianchini was the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.  

“Love is terrifying — it's really, really scary,” she admits. "I didn't want to be apart from him. I realized that as those days were building up, I still wanted to be with him every single day, that I felt safe and loved, and it felt just right to me.”

The Drive actress was previously married to actor Geoffrey Arend for 10 years before announcing their separation in 2019.

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The Buccaneers can be streamed on Apple TV+.