The Golden Bachelor’s Gerry and Theresa Open Up About Finally Having Their Dream Wedding in Their 70s (Exclusive)

It’s never too late to live happily ever after – and The Golden BachelorGerry Turner and Theresa Nist prove just that.

The couple got engaged in the season finale of the first part of the series Bachelor spinoff, and are preparing to say “I do” in a live telecast on Thursday. In a recent interview with PEOPLE, they said it was a dream come true.

“See, you have to remember, Theresa didn’t get — her first time, she didn’t have a lot of time to plan, and actually, neither did I,” says Turner, 72, referring to his fiancee’s first time. marriage to her childhood sweetheart Billy, as they made their red carpet debut as a couple in New York in December,

The couple planned their wedding in three days, Nist, 70, previously told PEOPLE, since Billy was “mobilized during the Vietnam War” while she was still a “freshman in college.”

The same goes for Turner, whose first wife, Toni, died suddenly of cancer in 2017.

»We didn’t have much time and [we were] we’re pretty broke, both of us,” she says of her and Nist’s previous weddings. “So this is kind of big. We want to do it so that we don’t miss a single moment.”

Gerry Turner proposed to Theresa Nist in ‘The Golden Bachelor’.

John Fleenor/ABC via Getty

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The couple also shares that their families have been more than supportive of their relationship and their choice to get married so soon.

“I had my family with me — my daughters — from start to finish and they just pulled for us to be happy at the end,” Turner says. “They were excited.”

As for Nista, she says some of her friends were a little skeptical when the news of the engagement broke, but they quickly realized she was head over heels in love.

“I would say that my friends who didn’t know until the moment it actually came out, they just wanted to check, ‘Are you really in love? Are you really happy?’ Yes, I did,” she recalls. “And as soon as they found out, they were satisfied and happy and really joined in.”

The movie ‘The Golden Bachelor’ stars Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist.

Jim Wright

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The fiancees previously told PEOPLE they know it’s a quick turnaround — they got engaged in August and will say “I do” less than six months later — but they’re all for it.

“When you’re in your 20s and you put something off for a year, it’s a very small percentage of your life,” Turner said. “In your 70s, the clock ticks faster. And I am 100% sure that I have found the right girl for me. So it’s like, why not?”

Nist agreed. “I met the man of my dreams. It wasn’t our original timeline, but to be presented with the wedding of our dreams? Spectacular, incredible, wow!”

Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist attend the screening and panel of ‘The Golden Bachelor’ in New York.

Anthony Behar thanks to ABC

The retired restaurateur said he just wanted to make sure Nist didn’t feel too rushed, like she did the first time.

“Because she kind of got her first job on the fly, I wanted her to be able to enjoy her anticipation and joy and planning and everything. That was my only question, ‘Are you okay with the timeline? Do you feel a little cheated in that?’ And it doesn’t sound like she was cheated on.”

Nist “doesn’t feel cheated at all,” she said. “It’s going to be amazing.”

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Golden wedding will air Thursday, January 4 at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.

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Source: HIS Education