The Golden Bachelor’s Theresa Reveals the Wedding Tradition She Won’t Skip (Exclusive)
Theresa Nist and ‘The Golden Bachelor’ star Gerry Turner are set to tie the knot in a live, televised wedding on Jan. 4
Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist attend a ‘Golden Bachelor’ screening and For Your Consideration panel at the Times Center on December 11, 2023.
There are a few things Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist will not be skipping out on at their upcoming wedding.
The Golden Bachelor stars are set to say “I do” in a live televised ceremony on Jan. 4, and Nist, 70, tells PEOPLE that there are some must-hit items on her list for the big day.
“Oh, I will definitely do a bouquet toss,” she says, before adding with a laugh: “There’s plenty of women who want to catch that bouquet.”
Turner, 72, agrees, as the pair made their red carpet debut in New York City. “So true.”
“Sorry!” Nist says, apologizing for the comment — an underhanded reference to the 20 other women who vied for her fiancé’s heart on national television in the inaugural season of the Bachelor spinoff show. “I think we will do all the traditional things that you normally do at a wedding.”
Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist Share Their Vision for Their January Wedding: ‘It’s Going to be Spectacular’ (Exclusive)
As for whether or not there will be any familiar faces from Bachelor Nation at the ceremony, Nist teases, “You’re probably going to see some,” though she keeps her cards close to her chest.
“We won’t tell you who, but you’re going to see some.”
THERESA, GERRY TURNER
Theresa Nist and Gerry Turner during ‘The Golden Bachelor: After the Final Rose’. JOHN FLEENOR/DISNEY VIA GETTY
Turner, a retired restaurateur, says he just wants his bride-to-be to have the wedding she didn’t get the first time around, when she married her high school sweetheart, Billy.
“See, you got to remember, Theresa didn’t get — her first time around, she didn’t have much time to plan and really, I didn’t either,” he says. “We didn’t have a whole lot of time and [we were] pretty broke, both of us. So this is kind of big. We want to make it so we don’t miss any of the moments.”
Turner’s first wife, Toni, died suddenly in 2017. The high school sweethearts had been married since 1972.
The Golden Bachelor’s Theresa Nist Says ‘You Can’t Prepare for’ Watching Your Husband-to-Be Dating Other Women
Golden Bachelor, Gerry Turner & Theresa Nist
‘The Golden Bachelor’ stars Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist. JIM WRIGHT
Besides her commitment to doing a bouquet toss on her big day, Nist has also been open about her desire for the other women who dated Turner on the show to attend their wedding.
During a For Your Consideration panel at The Times Center in New York City in December, the former financial services professional confirmed that all of the other contestants had been invited to the wedding, though she wasn’t sure who would make it.
She also previously made an explicit mention of the season’s runner-up, Leslie Fhima, as she told Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt on their Bachelor Happy Hour podcast, “I would invite Leslie. I don’t know if she would come.”
Nist said that Fhima, 64, was one of her closest friends in the house during their time on the show.
“I cooked her dinner, she taught me exercise routines,” Nist told Amabile, 37, and Pitt, 26. “We sat and talked a lot. We, all the time, cried together. So this isn’t fun to have that happen to any other human being. I didn’t like that. And along those same lines, I was really good friends with Faith [Martin], so I would say the people I was the closest with in the house were Faith and Leslie. How does that happen?”
THE GOLDEN BACHELOR – “Finale and After the Final Rose” – After an incredible season of love stories, Jesse Palmer hosts as the emotional conclusion of Gerry Turner’s journey plays out in front of a live studio audience and he’s joined by his final two women for the first time since filming
Gerry Turner proposing to Theresa Nist on ‘The Golden Bachelor’. JOHN FLEENOR/ABC VIA GETTY
She also named Edith Aguirre, Pamela Burns, Peggy Dercole, Ellen Goltzer, Renee Halverson-Wright, Sandra Mason and Sylvia Robledo as the other ladies she’d want there on her big day.
Turner added Anna Zalk to the list, as Nist said, “I talk to Anna all the time.”
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The Golden Wedding will air Thursday, Jan. 4 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.