Kristen Smith married the same man twice in one month this year.
She and her fiancé Travis Wilson were planning a full wedding celebration for August 18, filled with many of the classic rituals, guests and ceremony.
Kristen and Travis had met in high school, but reconnected in 2010 and had been together ever since. The duo has been engaged since August 2015, and finally had plans to cinch the deal.
However, in late July, Kristen’s father, Michael Smith, fell ill and was admitted to the intensive care unit at UVM Medical Center with a terminal condition. Kristen very much wanted her father to be able to walk her down the aisle and give her away and despite their wedding being scheduled just a few short weeks away, she was unsure he would make it.
So, together with a supportive group of nurses, doctors and social workers, they pulled together a wedding in just two days. On August 3, Michael Smith walked his daughter Kristen down the aisle of the small chapel at UVM Medical Center in Burlington, and watched as his daughter wed her best friend.
“Just having my Dad there, as well as our closest friends and family, is a memory I will keep forever,” Kristen says. “I was going to Burlington just about every day to be with my father.  He meant the world to me.  Having his physical therapist work with him to help him gain strength to walk me down the small chapel aisle was so meaningful and Travis and I cannot thank the staff enough for their support!”
Michael Smith passed away on August 13, just five days before his daughter’s originally planned wedding day.
“We pushed on, and over 100 of our closest friends and family joined us in Cornwall for a second wedding,” Kristen recalled. 
Kristen’s brother, Pat Smith, gave her away that day.
“It was truly an emotional day for me, my brother and all my family, yet somehow we pulled off an incredibly beautiful wedding,” she says. 
The couple was married on the grounds of Breadloaf View Farm, where Travis works as a property manager. The farm has beautifully restored barns, mountain views and a pond with a zipline over it, which both Kristen and Travis navigated in their wedding outfits, inspiring many of their guests to follow suit.
The couple also hired a horse drawn carriage to carry them to and from the ceremony, which had been a dream of Kristen’s since she was a child.
“It was truly a day I will never forget, utterly perfect, the only thing missing was my dad.”