Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi are going to give their romantic relationship some time to blossom in the real world, however The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love star assures viewers that there is definitely a wedding in their future.

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"We are officially engaged. It wasn't for TV or for show," Pavelka told reporters during a Tuesday conference call.

"However it was an accelerated journey. We don't have a date yet and we want to get all of the little moments that build a relationship. We're engaged, but we haven't seen our first movie yet! We've got a lot of catch up to do. But we're so far ahead of the game, I could marry her right this minute."

Pavelka presented his final rose and a marriage proposal to Girardi -- and she accepted both during last night's The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love finale broadcast, which filmed last fall.

Girardi told reporters during the conference call that she and Pavelka are "definitely" getting married and had a message for skeptics.

"They haven't met us. They haven't seen us together apparently," she said.

While they could wed now, Pavelka explained why they're going to instead take it slow to "relish and solidify the next 60 years of our lives."

"We're just going to take everything slow," he said. "You can really add a lot of unnecessary pressure to something beautiful by rushing. I just want to date my fiancee for a little while... Right now, we're in this puppy-love phase."

Girardi said that she and Pavelka are thinking "at least a year or two" before they wed and added it will be  "at least" another four or five years before they have children.

"But you never know what could happen by accident," said Pavelka with a laugh.

When they do walk down the aisle, Pavelka said he's unsure whether ABC's cameras will be there to film it for viewers.

"I don't know if we would have ever met each other had it not been for The Bachelor and the producers and everybody that made this possible," he explained.

"So we look at ABC and [Warner Bros.] and definitely the people at The Bachelor as our family. We love them very deeply and couldn't imagine proceeding without having our great friends there. Whether they bring cameras or not, who knows?"

Although she missed last night's finale broadcast while flying to New York, Girardi said she wasn't upset Pavelka had fallen for both Tenley Molzahn and herself and been unable to decide between them until just before the final Rose Ceremony.

"My feelings on it is that Jake did love Tenley and he was in love with me. I felt that I knew that in my heart," Girardi told Reality TV World.

"It wasn't a decision on which girl to choose, it was to follow his heart or not."

Pavelka described his final decision as "bittersweet" and "confusing" and said it was "the worst and best day of my life."

According to Pavelka, peer pressure of sorts was the main reason he had struggled to choose between Girardi and Molzahn.

"I knew that probably everybody would want me with Tenley -- just because she's so light and quick on her feet and angelic," he explained to Reality TV World.

"My struggle was I love both of these women, I am clearly in love with one of them, my heart has not led me astray so far. It was a choice of do I do what everybody wants me to do and what America expects me to do or do I do what's going to make me happy, what makes me happy and what my heart is telling me to do."

Girardi also addressed her recent negative tabloid coverage during the conference call.

"We were really surprised that they were doing personal attacks to me and my family and to the other girls," she told reporters.

"At first it was very difficult for me, reading fabricated stories that are completely untrue. But now that it's an ongoing thing every week and I'm in the tabloids, we have to laugh at it. We're the first ones to buy it and laugh."

Girardi's tabloid coverage has included her former mother-in-law's claims that the bachelorette wiped out her ex-husband's life savings to pay for breast implants while he was deployed in Iraq. The ex-husband, Josh Riley, also accused Girardi of cheating on him while he was deployed and called marrying her a "mistake."

"That individual tabloid did pay for those stories. Stealing money is completely untrue," she said.

"I actually went out the day that story came out to the bank and had the bank records printed out in black and white to show it is a complete lie. I did not steal money from him. He did have money in that account when we divorced."

In addition, Pavelka said that never put much stock in the other bachelorettes' dislike of Girardi.

"Vienna and Tenley are the only two women in the entire season that didn't trash talk the other women. That was so greatly appreciated. Nobody ever told me exactly what Vienna was doing wrong," he told reporters.

"The fact that you just don't like somebody -- that's okay -- but don't try to sway me on that. If there's particular reasons that's fine, I'll listen to what you have to say. But just broad generalizations I really wasn't particularly interested in."

Girardi added that "everyone's personalities are very amplified" during The Bachelor broadcasts.

"So when you see something happen that way, it did happen, but I feel that it's more dramatic when you're watching it on television," she explained.

"I felt that I may have been portrayed very villainous, but I didn't show any villainous qualities and I'm not that kind of person at all."

Pavelka and Girardi said they got to see each other for four or five days every other week while The Bachelor was airing and talked daily by phone.

"But we're ready now to get into the real world and have some normalcy," Girardi told reporters.

However that "normalcy" will have to wait a bit longer.  During the After the Finale Rose special, ABC also announced Pavelka will be one of the eleven celebrities competing for Dancing with the Stars' mirror ball trophy when the reality competition's tenth season premieres on March 22.

"Vienna and I, we had originally planned to move to Dallas as soon as [The Bachelor] was over," Pavelka told reporters. "We had an opportunity come up..."

"And we couldn't say no to it," interjected Girardi.

"It's just a dream," continued Pavelka. "The opportunity of lifetime. We're going to temporarily reside in Los Angeles, and then as soon as I'm off the show... we'll live in Dallas."

Pavelka gushed about his Dancing with the Stars participation, calling it his "life's dream."

"I kind of kept my cool because just jumping into it and saying, 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' -- as much as I wanted to -- wouldn't have been fair to Vienna, and Vienna is just as much a part of this as I am," he told reporters.

"I had to come back and put my feet back on the ground and make sure she was on board and that I had her full support before I could pull the trigger and do something like that."

"I'm going to be his biggest cheerleader," added Girardi.

Pavelka insisted his Dancing with the Stars involvement doesn't mean he's backpedaling on his previous claims that he was doing The Bachelor for love and was not interested in a showbiz career.

"I didn't approach anybody, any of the networks or anything like that. I haven't been auditioning. I don't have a publicist. I'm probably the only The Bachelor cast member that doesn't have an agent," he said, adding that he plans to resume his commercial pilot job afterwards.

"It actually just fell in my lap. I'm actually really glad I did. But again, the cameras are not what I'm after. It's the competition."

While Pavelka participates in Dancing with the Stars, Girardi said she hopes to keep busy doing motivational speaking.

"I'm actually going to try and do some motivational speaking for young women while I'm in L.A.," she told reporters. "I look forward to trying out."

Pavelka and Girardi also commented on ABC's Monday night announcement that former The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky will serve as the star of the sixth edition of The Bachelorette, which will premiere on May 24.

Girardi said she's "really excited" for Fedotowsky, and Pavelka agreed.

"I was campaigning for Ali. Ali's got a huge personality," he said.

"You want a Bachelorette that will wear her emotion on her sleeve, and that is Ali to the T. She did so much growing and maturing through The Bachelor. I'm just so proud of her. I think she's going to be amazing. I just know in my heart she's going to find the man of her dreams."
About The Author: Christopher Rocchio

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