The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love star Jake Pavelka presented his final rose and a marriage proposal to Vienna Girardi -- and she accepted both during last night's finale broadcast of the ABC reality dating series' fourteenth edition.

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"This has been an incredible journey, and I can't believe it's come to this, but I know what's in my heart and I know what I'm doing is right," the 32-year-old commercial flight instructor from Dallas, TX said moments before Vienna -- who had been unpopular with many of the season's other bachelorettes and even made a poor initial impression with Jake's family -- arrived at the final Rose Ceremony location.

"Yes!  Yes!" Vienna said as she accepted Jake's proposal.  "I'm so happy right now!"

"There's one final thing.  Vienna, will you accept this final rose?" Jake asked after the couple had celebrated their engagement with a kiss.

"I'm in love with you," Jake said afterwards.

"I am so in love with you," Vienna replied.

Jake selected Vienna, a 23-year-old marketing representative from Sanford, FL, over Tenley Molzahn, a 25-year-old college admissions representative from Newberg, OR, during the final Rose Ceremony.

"I know what I need to do.  There's one woman who has my heart a little bit more than the other. [But] I don't know how I'm going to react to saying goodbye to a woman that I've fallen in love with.  It's just killing me," Jake said before he broke the news to Tenley.  "I don't know what I'm going to say to her.  I don't know where I'm going to find the courage to break somebody's heart."

"I don't know what it is, something just doesn't feel right.  I don't know why," Jake subsequently told Tenley as he broke down in tears.

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While she was heartbroken and also began crying, Tenley took Jake's rejection remarkably well.

"I don't know what to say," she told Jake.  "I looking for a man who can love me for everything that I am so and I want you to be completely honest with yourself so I appreciate it, as much as it hurts.  I don't know what you think is missing but thank you for showing me what I could have... I thank you for making me feel special."

After Tenley's departure, Jake explained that he had felt "forced" to behave in a certain manner around Tenley.

"I've never had to do anything that difficult in my life," he said. "With Tenley there was just something there that I felt like had to be forced.  I had her up on this pedestal and I felt like I had to act like a certain way, for some reason I just wasn't comfortable being myself.  I mean you can't force it, it just has to naturally be there and I don't know why it wasn't."

Similar to his recent interviews, Jake used his appearance on the season's After the Final Rose post-finale special to defend his selection of Vienna -- which had been widely rumored for weeks and sparked several recent negative tabloid reports about her alleged past.

"I'll say it again.  I know that girl.  I know her heart, I know her motives, I know her values, I know her passions," he told The Bachelor host Chris Harrison, who had also defended Vienna in recent weeks.

"She is the best girl for me and everybody is just going to have to trust that I let my heart lead, and hopefully celebrate with us as we move toward a marriage," Jake added. 

"The tabloids are completely coming up with these fabricated stories," Vienna told Chris in a subsequent joint interview with Jake.  "They're asking people who knew me in junior high... and I haven't seen this person in 15 years.  If you ask my best friends and people who are really close to me who I am, they'd tell you that I'm such a sweet person."

"If people don't understand why Vienna and I are together, that's okay.  I do, and that's the important thing," Jake said.

In addition, Jake and Vienna also revealed they plan to move in together immediately and begin talking about a wedding date shortly.

"Vienna is going to move to Dallas immediately," Jake said.

"Immediately?" Chris asked.

"Yes, we've already been spending the last three months away from each other," Vienna replied.

"[Any] talk of a wedding date? Marriage plans?" Chris asked.

"We've talked about getting married but we haven't set a date just yet.  We've going to get kind of acclimated together in Dallas, and we want to introduce the families and everything," Jake replied.

"Have some normalcy in our lives for a while," Vienna added.

"But we'll probably be talking about it here real quick because everything has just been blissful," Jake said.

However that sense of "normalcy" will apparently have to wait a bit longer.  During the After the Finale Rose special, ABC also announced Jake 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.

"I live my life to be stressed out," Jake told Dancing with the Stars host Tom Bergeron.  "Vienna's on board 150%. She'll be front row, center cheering me on."

The network also announced that Ali Fedotowsky will serve as the star of the sixth edition of The Bachelorette, which will premiere in May.

Ali was one of four remaining bachelorettes vying for Jake's heart when she decided to leave the show to avoid having to quit her job at Facebook, which she had only begun a few months before the show was taped last fall.

She subsequently changed her mind and attempted to return to the show, however Pavelka was unwilling to let her do so.
About The Author: Steven Rogers

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