After 47 years together, the legendary singer of the 70s marries her fiancé

After almost 50 years together, 72-year-old Denise Nolan married her fiancé Tom Anderson, 77, on June 17.

The two met in 1977 when Nolan sang alongside her sister in The Nolans while Anderson was drumming in the London Rooms. After Nolan went solo, he played in her band, which the two began dating that same year before asking for her hand in marriage in the 1990s.

“We’ve been together for 47 years now and we love each other. We got engaged about 30 years ago but we didn’t think we needed the piece of paper to say it,” she told OK! Magazine. “He’s proposed to me a few times but it’s usually when he’s had a drink and he’s feeling sentimental! Then I mention it to him the next day and he runs off!”

It was a long engagement period for the couple, as they finally tied the knot on Blackpool’s famous promenade surrounded by their loved ones, including Nolan’s sisters Coleen, Linda, Anne and Maureen.

In pictures provided to OK! Magazine, the bride wears a pearl-studded champagne dress and carries a yellow and white bouquet that matches Anderson’s buttonhole, as he stands next to her in a grey suit.

Nolan’s sisters posed with the bride and groom on a staircase after the ceremony.

Nolan revealed to the publication that her decision to get married was influenced by Anderson’s Parkinson’s diagnosis six years ago.

She also revealed that the couple “didn’t want to wait until things could get much worse later and it could be hard work.” There were also close personal losses, which was another reason they wanted to get married. This came after Nolan’s sister Bernie died of cancer in 2013.

Parkinson’s is a progressive disease that affects the nervous system. According to the Mayo Clinic, one of the first symptoms may be a tremor in just one hand before the tremor becomes more severe and noticeable.

The couple had originally planned a small ceremony, but it was only when Linda learned of their plans that she was able to convince them to organize a larger event.

“When we told Linda, she said, ‘You have to tell the family,’ and reminded me how sad I was when Coleen ran off and married (Shane Richie). That’s when I realised I had to tell them. Then there were no longer four of us, there were about 55 of us,” she told the publication.

While thanking her family for their support, Nolan continued to talk about her sister.

“The whole family is very generous, but Linda is especially generous,” she said. “God bless her that she won’t be leaving us anytime soon, but I think she feels that with her terminal illness, she wants to help if she can.”

“When we got to Festival House I realised we had forgotten the flowers that Linda had paid a fortune for and I thought she would be so hurt if I didn’t walk down the aisle with them – so my poor brother had to rush back and get them,” she added.

The evening was characterized by extensive dancing and a DJ played songs by Sinatra and from the Nolans’ back catalog.