Sen. Tim Scott weds South Carolina designer

Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Sen. Tim Scott , R-SC, has tied the knot with interior designer Mindy Noce in a South Carolina wedding chapel during a ceremony attended by a large handful of high-profile politicians.

The couple held the wedding Saturday in the chapel of their Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant. Pastor Greg Surratt, a close friend and mentor of Scott, performed the ceremony. He previously counseled Scott when he considered a 2024 presidential run.

The guest list included his fellow senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham , and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy -- who resigned after facing increasing internal dissent from his party and a failed re-election bid for the speakership.

Others in attendance included Republican whip John Thune , as well the senators James Lankford of Oklahoma and John Barrasso of Pennsylvania, according to the Post and Courier Palmetto Politics online news site.

"Tonight, we promised to cherish and nourish each other and our marriage for the rest of our lives," Scott posted on X . "Mindy, you've made me the happiest man alive. I love you."

Noce is a 47-year-old design and renovation consultant, and mom of three kids. She met Scott , a 58-year-old lifelong bachelor, in 2022 through a mutual friend at the church where they eventually married.

They became close while using a Bible study app together, according to the Washington Post. A mutual friend eventually helped arrange a date. Scott has described Noce as a "lovely Christian girl."

Scott had been considered high on the list of potential 2024 vice-presidential running mates for Donald Trump , who ultimately picked Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.

The couple made their first public appearance at the third GOP Presidential Primary debate last November following speculation about the South Carolina senator's love life.

Scott said before the appearance that he wouldn't drag Noce "onto the campaign trail unless I have the intention of marrying her."

Scott proposed to Noce on South Carolina's Kiawah Island in January, and announced their engagement on social media.

"She said YES," Scott followed up in a tweet on Jan. 21 showing photos of the couple on the beach on Kiawah Island. "Mindy, thank you for making me the luckiest man in the world."

Scott told The Post and Courier the night before his wedding that he believed the time was tight to end his lifelong bachelorhood, acknowledging that he had devoted most of his life to his political career, but has found the right bride after decades.

"Part of the blessing for me was not getting married before now," he said, adding that it took him a while to learn some hard truths about love, or as he put it, "Right girl, wrong time is a mess. Wrong girl, right time is chaos."