A year after a terrible accident at her bachelorette party left her paralyzed, Rachelle Friedman finally got the wedding of her dreams. INSIDE EDITION has the story.
The bride who was paralyzed in a freak accident at her bachelorette party finally got to say "I do."
Instead of walking her down the aisle, her father pushed her wheelchair. And she shared her first dance with her groom from the chair.
But it was still the wedding of her dreams.
In 2010, one month before she was to get married, Rachelle Friedman and her bridesmaids were goofing around by a pool, and one bridesmaid playfully pushed her in. Friedman landed on her head in the shallow end.
She knew instantly that she'd suffered a devastating injury.
"I couldn't feel the water, I couldn't feel my body, I couldn't move my body," she told INSIDE EDITION.
Doctors confirmed the 24-year-old bride-to-be would never walk again. But walking away was the last thing on the mind of her fiancé Chris Chapman, who became her dedicated caretaker.
"He's passionate, he's strong, he's loving. I will roll down that aisle, and I will crawl down that aisle, whatever I need to do to get to him, I will marry him," Friedman said.
At her wedding in North Carolina, Friedman wore the same dress she'd bought before the accident. It was altered to fit her less muscular frame. And in a touching gesture, Chapman sat in a chair to be at her eye level during the ceremony. As they danced, there wasn't a dry eye in the reception hall.
Among the guests was the bridesmaid who shoved Friedman into the pool that day. A fiercely loyal Friedman has never identified her friend, saying the young woman suffered psychological trauma that parallels her physical injuries. She also says she's at peace with her condition.
The bridal website 1-800-Registry was so touched by Friedman's story that they planned and paid for the couple’s wedding and honeymoon to Fiji. For more information, go to 1800registry.com.
