Love Is Blind's Chelsea Griffin has made major progress in her relationship with husband Kwame Appiah's mom.
Kwame and Chelsea tied the knot on the season 4 finale of Love Is Blind, but their journey to the altar wasn't always a smooth ride. In particular, Kwame appeared torn up about his mom's reaction to him being on the show.
She was less than thrilled when Kwame, 33, broke the news that he was engaged, and he later spoke candidly about how much his mom meant to him and how much he wanted her to attend their wedding. In the end, she chose to skip their nuptials and never met Chelsea before they were married.
However, Chelsea, 31, exclusively tells PEOPLE that they have since met and their relationship is steadily growing.
"I have met Kwame's mother, and it was a beautiful first experience. There's room to grow," she shares. "We've had to give our families and friends grace with wherever they stand with us. How we met and got married was incredibly unique and nontraditional. But it's ours, and we own it. And I'm excited for the future."
"It has been an amazing year. It feels like five, when you go at hyper-speed. We get married and we move in the next day. A lot happens, and we have grown together," she continues. "We're creating memories and traditions, and there's a lot still that we want to do."
Kwame was on the same page about his wife and mom's budding relationship, telling PEOPLE: "I think it's still building with Chelsea. Her and Chelsea have met, and we have spent some time together. It's all about being cognizant of respecting the journey, and not pushing it further than it should be."
"I'm someone who is patient, and I'm hoping Chelsea can exercise that patience as well, because my mom's been patient with me my entire life," he notes. "So I think it's my turn to express that same gratitude to her."
The pair also addressed Chelsea's first time meeting Kwame's mom. "We went to the family for Thanksgiving. His mom welcomed me with open arms," she said.
"It was a wonderful first visit. It was such a beautiful experience," she continued. "I really bonded with his nieces. ... It was a wonderful start to a beautiful journey of our family together."
In addition to Kwame's mom, the couple faced other challenges throughout their road to the altar, like disagreements on their style of communication and his hesitance to relocate from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington, to be with Chelsea.
Another issue came up during their Mexico trip when Kwame had a flirty exchange with his ex Micah in front of Chelsea. At the time, Chelsea appeared to be uncomfortable with their interactions, but later told PEOPLE that she has no "bad blood" with Micah.
"It was a part of our journey. You're going into an experience where the person that you like is dating 15 other women. It is a very unique experience, and we are multifaceted people and it's okay for him to make that connection that he had with Micah," she shared. "And in Mexico, there was tequila flowing, there was a lot happening, and you have cameras all around you. It's an elevated, intense experience. And it wasn't in my nature to interject in their conversation."
"I think they had some closure that needed to happen. So yeah, it was uncomfortable at times," she continued. "But I respect Kwame's journey, and I don't have any bad blood towards Micah."
Chelsea then added: "The way I see it, if someone else is so into my man, then she's probably cool. She's probably awesome like me. I do feel that. And there's no bad blood there. And I just think everything happened for a reason."
Despite their challenges, Kwame and Chelsea both said yes at the altar. Reflecting on their wedding day, Chelsea told PEOPLE she was hopeful that Kwame would choose her in the end — but ultimately wanted him to do what he felt was best.
"I was just hoping that he was truly going to make the right decision for him," she said. "I really did, whatever that was for him, I wanted him to feel authentically ready and want to get married to me."
Kwame also spoke out about the pressures that came with their big day, writing in a post on Instagram Wednesday: "The amount of stress you feel in deciding if you're going to marry someone you met in an experience like this is.. A LOT."
"Unloading all of our baggage, combining all the different parts of our lives, hoping it makes logical sense as people who truly love each other. Its hard for people to understand," he continued. "It takes a lot of strength, courage and vulnerability to make it through this, and you embody all of those traits so well. I couldn't imagine going through this experiment with anyone else."
On Friday, shortly after season 4's wedding finale dropped on Netflix, Kwame gave fans a glimpse inside his romance with his new wife and hit back at naysayers who have questioned his connection with Chelsea.
Sharing photos and videos of the duo throughout their engagement, Kwame explained that "all of this content was taken ... when the big cameras weren't on us. We got to enjoy life, and communicate, in the ways that feel most natural to us."
He continued: "Just a quick response to anyone saying 'they have no chemistry', or 'they don't even love each other'.. based on what you saw, I don't blame you for thinking that. But actually, we had the MOST fun together falling in love!"
Love Is Blind season 4, including the live reunion, is now streaming in full on Netflix.
