Here comes The Bride. Jersey Shore's Theresa Nist marries 'Golden Bachelor'

Here we are, millions of us, tuned into ABC for a wedding. And here comes the bride.

She's 70 years old, a New Jersey widow from a 42-year marriage, with a son, a daughter, and four grandsons. When 72-year-old "Golden Bachelor" Gerry Turner dropped to one knee to offer Theresa Nist an engagement ring, we were watching - 6.1 million of us.

It has been a story that defied reason. Every "Bachelor" and "Bachelorette" in the franchise history has been far below the age of Social Security payments, all glamorous and young. But millions of viewers turned their attention to a love story between two grandparents.

"In the past six years, this is the happiest I've seen him," Turner's daughter Jenny said of her dad, a widower through those years.

They found each other after years of grief, believing romantic love was nearly impossible. They proved that it isn't. Viewers said it again and again: Nist and Turner gave others like them a feeling of hope.

And tonight, they're ending their television journey with a grand finale: the wedding.

"I couldn't have found a better partner," he told her on tonight's live show. And she said, "I feel the same way."

Get out the tissues.

Who is attending the 'Golden' wedding?

The event, at La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, California, is being hosted by Jesse Palmer. He started the show by saying his wife is expecting a baby, due to deliver any minute. Best wishes to them, but we have a wedding to attend.

As the show began, Kathy Swarts, the "zip it" contestant who battled with Nist, helped to interview wedding guests. She interviewed "Golden" runner-up Leslie Fhima, who said, "You know, Kathy, at our age, we have to celebrate love."

Nist and Swarts not only patched up their spat, the bride-to-be invited Swarts to help her choose a wedding dress.

Susan Noles, the contestant cheered on by her hometown of Philly, is officiating the wedding. "There is no one in the world that we want other than you to officiate our marriage," Nist told her when they asked if she would marry them.

Also at the wedding are Trista and Ryan Sutter, the longest lasting "Bachelorette" couple (20 years), who arrived with Molly and Jason Mesnick, who also married on television after the "Bachelor."

More: 'Golden Bachelor' contestant from NJ creates jaw-dropping moment in first episode

Another engagement!

In the middle of an interview with Palmer, "Bachelor Nation's" Braden Bowers and Christina Mandrell got engaged.

Bowers dropped to one knee and asked Mandrell to marry him. She dropped to her knees with him and said yes.

What about the ceremony?

Turner walked down the aisle, chatting as he went. "Ave Maria" played by strings in the background as their tuxedo-clad grandsons followed him.

The couple's daughters, all in matching pale blue dresses, followed the boys.

Then came the bride.

Shrewsbury's Nist walked down the aisle in a white gown with a short train and veil, accompanied by her son. Turner was doing what he does well: crying.

Officiant Susan Noles lightened up the moment before starting the nuptials.

"Gerry and I met when I stepped out of the limo and said, 'Gerry, I'm gonna marry you.' Turns out I was right," Noles said.

"Gerry and Theresa come here together to stand before all those they love, both present and all those that have passed, as they take their relationship to the deepest level of commitment," Noles said.

To Pachelbel's 'Canon in D," a familiar wedding song, their children offered their blessings to their parents.

To Turner, his daughter, Angie Warner said, "You've taught many, many, many people lessons on positivity and happiness, and you've also, as we've said so many times, taught that it's never too late to find love."

Nists's daughter, Jen Woolston, asked Turner to take care of "her best friend since birth."

Their vows

Nist told Turner that when she met him, she felt like she had always known him.

"I love your heart and your soul. I love your smiles and your laughter. We have so much fun that we laugh until we cry," she said to him in her vows. "I promise you to be your calm in a storm, to comfort you when you're sad, to laugh with you when you're happy and to stick with you throughout it all, but most of all, to have fun for the rest of the days that we have on this earth."

Gerry didn't cry during his vows., but wow ...

"I've learned that you make me a better man," he said, and through a beautiful talk that made Nist cry, he went on. "I remember it wasn't my ear that you whispered in when you said the I love yous, but my very soul. .. You were the love that came silently and without warning. You were authentic. Theresa, you have my heart, and I have yours."

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: New Jersey's Theresa Nist marries 'Golden Bachelor' Gerry Turner