Danielle Staub's Estranged Husband Laments 'She's a Challenge' the Day Before Their Wedding

Tensions between Danielle Staub and estranged husband Marty Caffrey were brewing hours before they walked down the aisle, but that didn’t stop them from saying their “I dos.”

On Sunday’s Real Housewives of New Jersey, fans got to see the couple’s May bohemian Bimini beach wedding play out — and all the drama that was happening behind the scenes.

After the couple separated, Caffrey filed for divorce in August. Their divorce has been messy, with Caffrey putting the house she lives in on the market in November and Staub filing a counterclaim earlier this month alleging verbal and physical abuse as her reasons for seeking a separation (Caffrey has denied all of Staub’s allegations).

Even before all of that, their RHONJ cast mates saw signs the couple might be in trouble. It started when the soon-to-be newlyweds opened up about the troubles they were having blending their families, Staub telling a dinner table of their friends that Caffrey’s kids “hate me.”

But following that, Caffrey remained firm in their bond. When Margaret Josephs’ husband Joe Benigno and Teresa Giudice‘s brother Joe Gorga confronted Caffrey about Staub on Sunday’s episode, he told them, “She’s a challenge. I like challenges.”

Beningo and Gorga didn’t necessarily take that as an answer.

The two had pulled Caffrey aside for an intervention of sorts the day before his nuptials, Gorga telling audiences, “Joe and I are worried about Marty. We want to make sure that he knows what he’s getting into.”

“You got to go and think about this seriously,” Beningo said. “Marge, she told me [Danielle] spent $45,000 on a dress on your black card and you don’t know it yet. You make the money, you pay for the house, you buy the dresses, you buy the jewlrey, you’ll be broke. You’ll be coming over to his house, my house, and be crying, “This is what Danielle did.’ “

“Last night’s dinner she was ripping you a new a——, basically, carrying on about you kids,” Beningo added. “That’s f—ed. That’s disrespectful. You can’t f–ing put up with that.”

Caffrey wasn’t having it. “We’re in control of different things. Certain things I control, certain things he controls,” he told Beningo, of Staub’s spending.

“I’m offended about you knocking my manhood and questioning my judgement about someone as special as Danielle,” he added, throwing a drink at Beningo. “You guys are pissing me the f— off right now. You’re questioning me!”

To calm tensions, Gorga told Caffrey that they were only testing him to see if he loved Staub. “You passed the f—ing test! It was a test,” Gorga said — quickly telling audiences, “This was not a test. We were dead serious. Marty is in for it with Danielle.”

That helped, but Gorga and Beningo once again had to defend themselves later at the rehearsal dinner — and this time to Staub herself.

“I hear you had a conversation with Marty,” she said. “Something was said about me: that I stayed with a man just for money? I can’t wait to get it confirmed because someone might be buried in Bimini.”

“Do you think I’m after Marty for his money?” she asked Beningo, who quickly shrugged things off as “drunk talk.”

Annoyed, Staub made it clear that she loved Caffrey. “If I wasn’t in love with Marty, I wouldn’t be with him. Because money isn’t as important to me as love,” she said. “I just only want to be surrounded with people who are supporting us and loving us.”

She was, the group assured her. “What came out of that conversation? This man adores you and loves you. It’s meant to be,” said Gorga, with Beningo adding, “He wants to marry you so bad, I can’t even tell you.”

The next day, Caffrey got his chance, marrying Staub in a sunset ceremony on the beach at the Luna Beach Club.

Sure, there was some fighting that morning between Staub and Josephs — who stormed off at one point and said she wouldn’t be at the wedding. But tensions cleared in time for the wedding, with Josephs joining bridesmaids Guidice (Staub’s maid of honor), Melissa Gorga, and Staub’s two daughters Christine, 24, and Jillian, 20.

Staub wore a lace mermaid gown with a sweetheart neckline, and carried a bouquet of white flowers. Caffrey wore a tan suit, with a white button-down shirt and a pink tie.

In their vows, Caffrey told Staub, “I promise that you will feel safe every day, every moment, forever. I promise that I’ll be your friend and I’ll be your husband. You’re getting all of me.”

Said Staub in her vows, “I vow to trust you, support you and love you for the rest of my days.”

Back in October, Staub told PEOPLE exclusively that she and Caffrey were never able to overcome their problems, despite the commitment they made with one another. Eventually, it got to the point where Staub knew there was no turning back.

“I think he just likes the attention of people fighting over him — for him, with him,” she said. “People think that I love to fight and I don’t know how to live like that. I really don’t.”

Caffrey, in a statement to PEOPLE, said, “This is not my world nor do I have any further interest in it. These are manufactured celebrities in manufactured lives who manufacture their own truths. I look forward to getting back to my reality among real people. My loving family and vast amount of friends.”

The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Wednesday (9 p.m. ET) on Bravo.

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