Groom Dies Shortly After Exchanging Wedding Vows

An Iowa couple saw through their wish for marital bliss in the face of death, only to have the groom, Gordon Gordy Wolder, pass away minutes after exchanging vows.

Wolder, a 26-year-old security guard and Kari Nolte, a 28-year-old kitchen designer and single mom, met in March 2011, according to Iowa's KCCI, and hit it off right away.

Gordy made everything fun, Nolte said. It didn't matter what we were doing, and we were just so comfortable together.

The duo originally planned to tie the knot in October 2012, but the wedding plans hit the back burner when a rare form of cancer Wolder fought off in his teens made a return. The leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer, sent his health into a tailspin and caused him to lose 80 pounds.

The hard part about seeing him was that the normal joy that bounded from his body, it wasn't there, Nolte said.

Wolder tried to fight off the cancer, but his health eventually took a dire turn. Nolte called together the family and the two were wed in the hospital room by Gordy's father, Gordon Wolder, Sr.

He's looking at her, and Kari is laying along side of him, and she's got her hands on his face and I'm like 'Kari Nolte do you take'...and she's like, 'Yes, yes I do... Gordon I love you. I do. I do want to be your wife,' said Gordon Sr.

Laying alongside Wolder, his wife had no patience for the rigors of all the vows.

I had my hands on his head, and I just wanted him to look at me. To hear me say I do and that I was so proud of him, Nolte said.

Two minutes after they were wed, Wolder passed away. His last words were, I do.