Record-breaking California couple wed at combined age of 193
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She didn't want a relationship, but he wooed her by saying he liked her dress -- and they spent the next 15 years, in their words, "living together in sin."
That all changed for 95-year-old Lillian Hartley and 98-year-old Allan Marks when they married Wednesday near their home in Palm Springs, Calif., The Desert Sun reported. And they appear to have beaten a Guinness World Record -- for oldest combined age of a couple on their wedding -- into the bargain.
The two, who call themselves the "Romeo and Juliet of senior citizens," have lived 191 years, 126 days between them.
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As a result they will officially hold the record once they provide verification of their ages, a Guinness spokeswoman said. Their feat beats the previous record, set by a French couple, by two years.
"I don't know what will happen. I want to be together for all eternity, and I'm not taking any chances," the bride said of her newlywed status.
The couple -- a widow and widower -- first met in Palm Springs in 1994 when she was 78.
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Hartley liked Marks' compliment about her dress but told him it was "just an old rag."
"I'm not deeply religious, but I just think it was meant to be," she said. "I didn't want a relationship -- I enjoyed my freedom -- but he got me."
But the couple never got around to marrying, preferring to spend their time traveling instead.
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The short civil ceremony took place on Feb. 29 in Indio, about 26 miles east of Palm Springs.