New York ? Don’t start shopping for their wedding gift just yet.

Although an estimated 29 million viewers saw Aaron Beurge choose Helene Eksterowicz as his bride on Wednesday’s finale of “The Bachelor,” on Thursday the couple seemed in no rush to walk down the aisle.

“We’re not going to Vegas next weekend, or anything like that,” said Beurge, his arm draped over his fiancee’s shoulders during a news conference at ABC headquarters.

Then Eksterowicz, asked if her acceptance to wed Beurge still applied “without a doubt,” finessed her reply like a seasoned pol. “I don’t have any doubts at this point,” she said, “if things progressed the way they have.”

This, of course, was all part of a fairy-tale ending (a publicist’s fairy tale, anyway) for a romance-reality series that had tracked its titular bachelor as he winnowed through a field of 25 would-be mates.

On the last episode, he was down to two finalists: brunette Eksterowicz, a 27-year-old grade-school psychologist from New Jersey, and blond Brooke Smith, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Alabama.

Eksterowicz won. Or at least got the ring.

Hours after the show aired, Beurge, Eksterowicz and the jilted Smith were on a publicity whirl in New York as ABC savored the ratings. According to preliminary Nielsen figures, “The Bachelor” scored a solid victory through its entire two hours.

Helene Eksterowicz won the heart of The

Going head-to-head from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. against CBS’ much-hyped, hourlong “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show,” love beat lingerie by more than 2-to-1. (“Victoria’s Secret” was third-ranked in that hour, also behind NBC’s “The West Wing.”)

But was this really love?

To be fair, as they faced the reporters, the new couple were getting reacquainted after spending weeks apart.

Since taping of “The Bachelor” wrapped in early September, they, like everyone else on the series, had been forced to keep secret which bachelorette had been picked. They hadn’t seen each other except for two brief getaways.

“I guess we’re just trying to get to know each other outside the show,” Eksterowicz said.

One thing she learned Thursday: Beurge (who, proposing to Eksterowicz, had said “I’m really looking forward to sharing my life with you”) wants a prenuptial agreement.

Meanwhile, Smith is bravely facing life without Beurge.

“I still am in love with him,” she said during an earlier interview session, adding that, until the series conclusion aired, “I haven’t been able to date anybody.”

She said she watched Wednesday’s finale with friends in her Manhattan hotel room while they snacked on room-service nachos.

“It was like getting my heart broken all over again,” she said.

But she hasn’t given up on love: “There’s another Aaron out there.”