I'm Married!

April 18, 2026 was absolutely the best day of my life. I always thought it was cheesey when people would talk about their wedding day in this way, but now that I've had a wedding I'd have to agree with those folks! I never imagined that I would be well enough to enjoy a traditional wedding, but I was and I did!

I've posted lots of pics to give you a feel for the day. We could not have had a more perfect day for the wedding--when planning an April wedding, we didn't expect that we would be able to have the ceremony outdoors, but we got one of the nicest days in April on the 18th, and were able to be outside. I love the colors of Spring, and they were on full display at the farm where we were married. Chris really wanted an outside wedding, so I was thrilled he got to have what he wanted.

My biggest concern for the week of the wedding was getting sleep so I would feel okay and managing my anxiety--I was able to do both of these things with a little bit of extra Klonopin and some Zofran on the day of the wedding. Anxiety always makes me feel nauseous, so Zofran did the trick! I even slept 7 1/2 hours the night before the wedding and felt great the day of.

We hired a wedding planner who told me that my only job was to show up for the day of the wedding and she would take care of everything else going on that day. And that's what I did. And I was able to be fully present the entire time. It was incredible to be surrounded by my four closest friends all morning while getting ready, to have 'first look' with Chris, to have my dad walk me down the aisle, to be married by one of our very favorite people, to have a close friend play the violin for the ceremony, to have a live quartet for the reception, and most of all to be surrounded by SO MUCH LOVE from friends and family. As I walked down the aisle I tried to take in the faces of everyone standing and smiling at me. Ellie was with us in every way as we had pink flowers, dresses and fairy lights in her memory.

I never had an image of a 'dream wedding' in my mind, but I did have some things that were really important to me--having a ketubah (Jewish marriage contract), a chuppah, breaking glass at the ceremony and dancing the hora were the Jewish elements that I wanted. I also wanted a live violinist (and a good friend played!), my dear friend Evelyn to officiate (and she did), and my friend Rick and his quartet to play at the reception. Other than that, I was pretty flexible on what I wanted and Chris and I decided all of the details together, including having BBQ for our dinner. It felt like our day in every way, and no detail was not as I would have liked it!

We had a busy 'wedding week', as my dad is one of 16 siblings. All were invited to the wedding. (I couldn't invite cousins since we were trying to keep it smaller). The last time I had been to Iowa to visit my dad's family was in 1998, one month before I became sick. A couple of the siblings have made it out this way since then, but most of the family I had not seen in almost 28 years. We had a family reunion on Thursday evening. It was amazing and so wonderful to see everyone who could make it. I was honored that they would all travel so far to come to our wedding

On Friday, three of my bridesmaids and I went out to lunch together before we headed to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

Before the wedding, Abbie threw me a bridal shower and it was the first bridal shower I had ever been to, since I had missed all of my friend's showers and weddings because I had been so sick. Loralea and Carrie threw me a Zoom bridal shower with a bunch of my Davidson classmates which was fantastic! It was like a mini-reunion after almost 30 years! Again, since we wanted a smaller wedding, I wasn't able to invite all of my Davidsons friends, so the shower was extra special.

I don't know how to express how all of this feels. My heart is so very full. The love. Oh, the love we felt. It's overwhelming and humbling. The fact that my body allowed me to not only have a wedding weekend, but to fully enjoy it is truly remarkable. It is nothing short of miraculous to me that my health is in this place. That I got to marry Chris, my best friend and favorite person, when I thought I would never find someone? I am over the moon. I have soaked in every moment of this season of my life.

Blessings,

Emily Steffensmeier Miller