Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos Celebrate 28th Anniversary as They Joke Their 3 Kids Are Nearly 'Off the Payroll'

The longtime couple tied the knot in Las Vegas on May 1, 1996

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are marking a marriage milestone!

The pair and Live with Kelly and Mark cohosts celebrated 28 years of marriage on Wednesday, May 1, kicking off the broadcast of their syndicated talk show with a dance to Stevie Wonder's 1976 song "As."

"He really is the soundtrack of our life together," Ripa said.

The couple went on to exchange "happy anniversary" wishes, while remarking on the time that has gone by.

"I was in bed last night trying to do the math," Consuelos said. "My benchmark for a long time is going through first grade to being a senior in high school. 12 years is a long time. Like, when you were a kid, that’s a whole lifetime. That’s like doing that twice plus a PhD. Plus 4 years in college and master’s program!"

"Should I call you Dr. Consuelos?" Ripa joked, before he teased about "maybe doing a house call later."

Wednesday also marked Couple's Appreciation Day, prompting Ripa and Consuelos to read about ways to celebrate.

"I care about you a lot," Consuelos told Ripa, when she noted that couples should communicate to one another about how they feel.

When asked to share their goals for the future, Consuelos said "dinner tonight would be amazing" — a goal Ripa joked was "so manageable."

"To continue what we’ve got going," Consuelos then answered. "And by that I mean getting all the kids off the payroll."

"We’re so close," Ripa noted of their three adult children: Michael, 26, Lola, 22, and Joaquin, 21. "We can taste it! We can taste the financial freedom. Not that we’re not grateful for the three beautiful children that we love and adore."

Ripa and Consuleos' on-air celebrations comes over two months after they recreated their Las Vegas wedding photos on Instagram. The two had eloped there on May 1, 1996, at the Nevada Chapel of The Bells.

“Viva Las Vegas ✨ Then ➡️ Now,” Ripa captioned the pics, which showed the pair sharing a sweet moment at 25, alongside another image of them recreating the imagery in the same chapel.

The two also returned to the chapel while filming a week of shows in Sin City earlier this year.

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Ripa and Consuelos, both 53, met in 1995 while filming an All My Children chemistry test together. At the time, Consuelos was hired to play Ripa's love interest on the daytime drama and since then, he's been her love interest in the years to follow.

In February, Ripa described their wedding to PEOPLE as "really romantic" and "very sweet" while Consuelos described the venue itself as "a very special place."

"We cherish those memories, still to this day. It's been 28 years and we still can remember every minute of that wedding," she said of the ceremony, which cost them $179 (including airfare). "And I mean, it was really minutes. It was like two minutes!"

During an episode of Live in August 2022, Ripa called the wedding decision as an "efficient way to get married," and she later told PEOPLE that the chapel they landed on had the "biggest, biggest ad" in the Yellow Pages.

Related: Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos' Relationship Timeline

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Ripa and Consuelos celebrated one another in loving social media posts.

"Forever thankful you decided to go on this crazy, beautiful ride with me," Consuelos wrote on Instagram, captioning a gallery of photos of he and his wife over the years. "Happy 28th anniversary. Love you [Kelly]."

Ripa also posted a collection of throwback pictures, including one of a shirtless Consuelos from back in the day. "Happy anniversary [Mark]. Thank you for all the dreams," she wrote. "He's been shirtless since the beginning."

"I love you," she said.

Live with Kelly and Mark airs weekdays in syndication (check local listings).

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