We saw their love story unfold from start to finish on the inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor — with Gerry Turner presenting Theresa Nist with a stunning Neil Lane engagement ring during the highly-anticipated finale — but now the two lovebirds are officially newlyweds!
Streaming live on ABC from the the La Quinta Resort & Club in La Quinta, California yesterday (January 4), Turner and Nist tied the knot, all while being surrounded by friends, family, and all of our favorite Bachelor Nation stars. With Wells Adams from Bachelor In Paradise bartending, Susan Noles from The Golden Bachelor officiating, Kathy Swarts from The Golden Bachelor and Charity Lawson from The Bachelorette serving as red carpet correspondents, and more, anywhere from 100 to 150 people walked the “Gold Carpet” at the event. All of The Golden Bachelor girls appeared to be in attendance, as well as Bachelorettes like Kaitlyn Bristowe, Rachel Recchia, and Tayshia Adams, Bachelors like Joey Graziadei, Ben Higgins, and Zach Shallcross, and more fan favorites, making the evening a real treat for fans of The Bachelor franchise.
Naturally, with couples both old and new flooding the function, some shenanigans occurred, leaving the those who tuned into The Golden Wedding uttering three simple words — “what the f***?”
To see five moments from the two-hour television special that left fans of The Bachelor franchise seriously shook, just keep scrolling…
1. Kathy Swarts serves as a red carpet correspondent alongside Charity Lawson
If having a red carpet — or should we say a gold carpet? — on your wedding day wasn’t wacky enough, try having your nemesis serve as the host…
Fans were stunned as soon as The Golden Wedding started, with the face of The Golden Bachelor, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor In Paradise himself, Jesse Palmer, intoducing Kathy Swarts from The Golden Bachelor season 1 and Charity Lawson from The Bachelor season 27 and The Bachelorette season 20 as the red carpet correspondents for the evening. Naturally, this came as a shock to fans of The Bachelor franchise, likely due to the fact that Swarts did not get along with the bride during their time on The Golden Bachelor together.
After a one-on-one date with Gerry Turner that was nothing short of spectacular, Theresa Nist could not help but gush about her time to her fellow The Golden Bachelor contestants. From Nist’s perspective, she was simply sharing stories about her oh-so special date with some of her newfound friends, however, Swarts was not amused, accusing her of bragging about her relationship with Gerry and how it is much more advanced than the other contestants –yikes!
When Nist caught wind of the frustration Swarts had with her and her actions, she erupted in tears and admitted that her intention was never to hurt anybody, taking to Instagram on October 16 to apologize to those she may have hurt by her actions.
“This past episode was a bit hard for me to watch. Never in a million years did I think that I was going to find myself involved in drama. That is so not who I am. I just thought that I was able to be open and honest with a new friend about how I was feeling. As you saw, I acknowledged that everyone felt a connection to Gerry, and I welcomed that. We were all on a journey to see who was the best fit for Gerry… I never ever intended to make Kathy or anyone feel less than.”
After sincerely apologizing to Swarts, Nist proceeded to thank those who have supported her through this difficult time, sending her messages via Instagram and various other platforms. Fortunately, it looks like the beef between the two The Golden Bachelor contestants has been squashed!
2. Kathy Swarts strikes again, flirting with Dotun Olubeko, Charity Lawson’s fiancé
While it was strange enough that Kathy Swarts was one of the red carpet correspondents for The Golden Wedding, it was even weirder when she seemingly tried to steal the fiancé of the woman she was hosting with — yikes!
While Charity Lawson seemed to have a difficult time reeling in the rowdy The Golden Bachelor girls all night long, things took a turn for the worse when Swarts called Dotun Olubeko “a vision of a man,” before adding, “Let me just say, Charity, you need to drink up. Take your time, because I’m taking your man.”
Swarts then linked arms with Olubeko and seemingly stormed out of the venue, to which Lawson replied “Zip It!” with a rather uncomfortable expression on her face — given how hilarious the 70-year-old is, we would feel threatened by the one and only Kathy Swarts too!
3. The Golden Bachelor girls do a boudoir photoshoot at Theresa Nist’s bachelorette party
During The Golden Wedding, viewers were able to catch a glimpse into the party planning process — including cake tasting, ring shopping, dress shopping, and more — but most importantly, Theresa Nist’s bachelorette party.
Despite what you would expect from a bachelorette party for a 70-year-old, The Golden Bachelor contestants Theresa Nist, Susan Noles, Sandra Mason, Faith Martin, and Ellen Goltzer brought the heat, dancing with a group of strippers from Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as participating in a boudoir photoshoot.
Posing in a rather risqué way while wearing their finest lingerie, The Golden Bachelor girls embraced the photoshoot in all of its glory, with Mason even making some cheeky (and NSFW) comments regarding her celebrity crush, Denzel Washington.
4. Sandra Mason brings a stripper from Theresa Nist’s bachelorette party as her date
Speaking of Sandra Mason, one of the strippers from Theresa Nist’s bachelorette party — Shyllon Melatti from The Chippendales — had his invitation extended, serving as her date to The Golden Wedding.
“This is Shyllon. He’s my escort today… His name is a misnomer because he’s not shy,” Mason shared with host Jesse Palmer before gushing about how Melatti brought his “six roommates” to the wedding, all while pointing at his abs. How hilarious is that?
Despite being the oldest member of The Golden Bachelor cast at 75 years old, Mason is seriously as youthful as can be!
5. Brayden Bowers proposes to Christina Mandrell
Last but certainly not least, arguably the biggest “WTF?” moment from The Golden Wedding was Brayden Bowers from The Bachelorette season 20 and Bachelor In Paradise season 9 getting down on one knee to propose to his new girlfriend, Christina Mandrell. Despite claiming to have gotten the blessing of both Turner and Nist beforehand, has Bowers seriously ever heard of wedding etiquette?
Naturally, viewers took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share their true thoughts.
“A PROPOSAL… from BRAYDEN of all people omg??? HOW LONG have they been dating!? #TheGoldenBachelor”
“Brayden WOULD upstage someone’s wedding and propose… that is SO TACKY #TheGoldenBachelor #TheGoldenWedding”
“Did Brayden just propose at someone else’s wedding? #TheGoldenBachelor #GoldenWedding”
According to an interview with Bachelor Nation, Bowers admitted that he and Mandrell connected in the early fall ⏤ right after he had returned from Bachelor in Paradise season 9 ⏤ after seeing that she had commented on a couple of his Instagram posts while he was away. After chatting for a bit on social media and eventually exchanging phone numbers with one another, things got really serious between the pair.
“From there, we talked like that for a week or two, and we realized we had so much in common and liked all the same silly things, like Tenacious D. She was like, ‘I actually have tickets to see them next week in Nashville,’ and asked if I wanted to go see them with her. I ended up buying a ticket to go see her, meet her in person, and go to the show. It was amazing! She had to pick me up incognito at the airport and it was the funniest thing ever. We just instantly clicked. We had been talking for a couple of weeks, but there was no awkwardness at all in person and we just flowed the entire time.”
After the concert, Bowers and Mandrell committed to a long distance relationship, going back and forth to visit each other in California and Tennessee, along with FaceTiming every single day. Now, Bowers has plans to move to Nashville on January 6 to live with Mandrell and her daughter before tying the knot sometime in the near future.
While it might not have been the most appropriate time to pop the question, we could not be happier for Bowers and Mandrell nonetheless! It’s safe to say that we’ll be keeping up with the lovebirds on social media until further notice for all of the wedding details…
To see all of the craziness for yourself, fans of The Bachelor franchise can stream The Golden Wedding via Hulu or Disney Plus now to watch Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist — or should we say Theresa Turner? — tie the knot.
