Prenups, or pre-nuptial agreements, don't always have the most positive connotation. 

While they are legal agreements entered into by couples before marriage — often to keep finances separate despite being otherwise legally joined  — they can be a touchy subject for couples starting to build a life together.

But that stigma seems to be fading away. A new report from The Harris Poll said that this year, 15% of U.S. adults surveyed signed a prenup, which is up from just 3% in 2010. It also found that 35% of unmarried people say they're likely to sign a prenup in the future.

In the Americas, prenups go back to 17th century Canada, when French colonist men married women who came to the country with financial assistance from King Louis XIV. These women were so highly sought after that they were able to convince their husbands to sign prenups. This came at a time when men outnumbered women, so women had a leg up. Eventually that gender ratio evened out, and prenups went away.

They got popular again in the U.S. much later. A 1970 Florida case Posner v Posner ruled that prenups should be a standard practice.

One big possible factor in their usage today is the fact that millennials now have more debt than previous generations. One survey found that nearly three quarters of millennials have over $100,000 in debt on average, not including mortgages. 

The most common debt is credit card debt followed by student loans. There's also medical debt and personal loans. 

Prenups can protect your partner from taking on your debt in the case of death of divorce. In some states, your spouse can be held accountable for all of your debt acquired during the marriage.

SEE MORE: Weddings Are Back In A Big Way, But They Have A Higher Price Tag

Kelly Chang Rickert is a family law attorney in California who specializes in prenups, and she sees debt come up in divorce cases all the time.  

"It's not unusual for me to have a divorce where one side has a Neiman Marcus card and charged up $70,000, and the other side... they are responsible for half the debt because it was acquired during the marriage," Chang Rickert said.

But the breakdown of who's responsible for what differs from state to state. For instance, some states are community property states, meaning unless you sign a prenup, everything acquired during the marriage must be split 50/50. That's how things work in Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.

In other states, laws differ. There can be different rules around what makes prenups enforceable. For example, in Connecticut there's a specific window of time between when the prenup is presented and when the marriage happens for it to hold up. So, it's important to see what a state requires beforehand.

Another reason more people could be getting prenups is because they're getting married later in life and have more assets to protect coming into the marriage. According to Pew, in 2019 the average age a man first got married was 30, and for women it was 28. That's three years later for both men and women compared to 2003 and four years later than 1987.

"These days, a lot of people work for themselves," Chang Rickert said. "If you're a social media influencer or you're an artist or you're a writer, a lot of people make money off their creative efforts. So if they have a business coming into the marriage, a lot of them don't want to share that in case it doesn't work out."

This leads to the question of how finances are split. This determines what a prenup could look like. In the 70s and 80s, it was common practice to put all your money into shared accounts with your spouse. But over the past several years, the number of married couples who keep some of their finances separate has risen.

Experts say if couples have a joint account for things they share, they can opt to keep everything else separate, and in the case of divorce, they'll only have to worry about dividing the joint account. But it's important to note that separate accounts won't stay separate unless a prenup is signed stating that.  

"Even if you don't have a prenup, you kind of do: It's called the law," Chang Rickert said. "So if you don't have a prenup, you're just going by what your state law says. California says community property, so your debt is my debt. That's what the state law says. So if you don't like that, then you should craft your own."

SEE MORE: Vendors Are Welcoming The Wedding Boom, But Not Without Obstacles

Rickert Chang recommends getting a prenup ideally a year before your wedding. She also points out a few pros of prenups. For one, the stereotypical scenario we see in movies where a rich guy asks his fiancé to sign a prenup — it could actually be a good thing.  

"If you were smart about it, and the guy's like, 'I want you to sign a prenup saying I don't want community,' then what you could do is you can negotiate it," Chang Rickert said. "You could be like, 'Fine, I won't touch your stuff, but in lieu of that, I would like 50,000 a year or 1,000, 100,000 a year,' and that way you can negotiate, and you can actually get money by agreeing to sign a prenup."

There's also certain professions where it's strongly encouraged to protect the other person. 

"Definitely lawyers or doctors, I think you should always get prenup," Chang Rickert said. "Not just only because it's my business — I don't want you taking half of it, but also it's a business that I can get sued on. So, I would like to protect you from any lawsuits that I might get."

As prenups have become more common, more people have dug into this topic on social media platforms like TikTok. Chang Rickert has an account of her own where she educates people on prenups to help break down myths and stigmas, including that they aren't just for rich people and not just in case of divorce.

Now, there aren't necessarily more divorces now. CDC data shows that divorces declined between 2000 and 2020. 

However in the case of a divorce, not signing a prenup could really pile on to the cost of divorce, which can already be pretty high, costing between $15,000 to $20,000 on average.

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An Iowa teacher did more than take her work home with her. She featured it in her wedding.

Brandi Rickard's former students loved her second-grade class.

"She helps people a lot, like when they don't know a math question," Stella Fratzke, Richard's former student, said.

So when they found out last spring that she would be getting married over the summer, they wanted to celebrate with her.

"This was my way of including them," Rickard said.

The Wilkins Elementary teacher had her students create art ahead of summer break, which she displayed on the tables at her August wedding.

"I think it's pretty cool," Dale Wrage, a former student, said.

"Every student got to draw me and my now husband and what they thought we would look like at the wedding," Rickard said.

Watch the video above for more on this story.

Brittany Rist walked down the aisle in a dress and a white veil to the song, “Girl.”

Related video above: The most expensive celebrity divorces

“Girl, perfectly her, broken and hurt,” artist SMYL sang in a falsetto. “Shake off the night and don’t hide your face.”

It was Rist's wedding. But there was no beaming partner waiting at the altar.

Wearing a rose-colored dress, the 34-year-old read her vows alone in front of a mirror in her backyard. She’d accepted her own proposal and given herself a ring. Instead of a spouse, a red velvet cake awaited her, next to a bottle of Champagne.

Rist said "I do" to herself, and committed to loving herself for better or worse.

"I vow to never settle or abandon myself in a romantic partnership ever again," she told her reflection in the mirror. "I vow to honor my calling and live life as a work of art."

Rist did not have an officiant or guests at her self-wedding and toasted herself at a solo reception.

Months before the event, which she calls a "soul commitment ceremony," she had separated from her son's father after nine years together. She’d started working on healing her inner self, taken a vow of celibacy and signed up for therapy.

That afternoon in November 2021, at her home in Ozark, Missouri, she punctuated her self-love journey with a statement of self-appreciation.

"I realized (that) in love and in relationships with other people, I wasn't fully showing up and loving myself through that process, which made it really difficult to receive love from others," she says. "We pour all of this time and money and energy into marrying other people, and we don’t ever pour that back into ourselves."

As part of her self-discovery, she decided to commit to herself.

"I thought, 'Why don't I just buy myself a ring? Why don’t I just love myself fully during this time, and have a little ceremony?' It felt empowering to sit in front of the mirror and feel that I love all of me and my scars and all that makes me feel unlovable."

The practice is called sologamy. Its adherents may be on to something, this expert says

The concept of self-marriage, or sologamy, has been around for years. In a "Sex and the City" episode that aired in August 2003, Carrie Bradshaw seeks revenge on a frenemy by telling her that she's marrying herself and is registered at the luxury shoe store Manolo Blahnik.

No data exist on how many people celebrate sologamy with ceremonies, but the practice has been explored in a handful of recent news articles.

CNN talked to four women who've married themselves. They describe the act as a symbolic expression of self-love and an affirmation of a deep, meaningful relationship with one's self. They also say it has nothing to do with swearing off future partnerships with a spouse, which they say is a popular misconception.

About a year after Rist's solo ceremony, she tied the knot with her now-husband. She wears her self-marriage ring on her right hand as a reminder of the commitment she made to herself.

Critics have slammed the practice as narcissistic. Sologamy is not legally binding in the U.S. and is not recognized by the laws of any country. But an expert says people who commit to loving themselves after working on inner healing are on to something.

"What stands out for me about this trend is that more and more people are realizing that they need to take responsibility for their own happiness – that they can have a satisfying, meaningful life without being in a partnership," says John Amodeo, a therapist and author of "Dancing with Fire: A Mindful Way to Loving Relationships."

Amodeo describes it as a healthy form of narcissism. Without self-love, he says, people depend on others to feel worthy and valuable.

"It is actually a lack of self-love that leads to unhealthy narcissism," he says. "We are then constantly needing validation from others to fill our inner emptiness."

She had a big wedding complete with bridesmaids

Body image coach Danni Adams had planned to marry herself several years ago. She wanted a big party, filled with people she loved.

But then the pandemic hit, and she postponed her plans. Instead of a wedding, she turned to a therapist to focus on improving her self-esteem.

"I took a couple of years to really invest in myself, going to therapy, really digging deep into what it means to break generational curses, process trauma," says Adams, now 30. "Then when I really felt good about myself, I told my therapist, 'I think I want to get married to myself now.'"

So she did, before about 40 guests in December at an outdoor venue in Sanford, Florida. Adams walked down the aisle to the song, "Self Love," by Jayson Lyric, which contains the lines, "I been working on me / I been loving on me / I had to learn to love myself."

The wedding cost about $4,000 and included nine bridesmaids, Adams says. A friend officiated. Like Rist, she read her vows in front of a full-length mirror.

As Adams walked down the aisle, she thought about what led her to this moment.

"Everything that has happened to me in my past as a child, all the things that have harmed me, I was like, this is a restart at life. I get to own my life, my own joy, my own choices. And that’s what it was about."

After her self-wedding, Adams treated herself to a honeymoon in Tulum, Mexico. In addition to a ring, she also gave herself a necklace and two bracelets with the words, "beautiful girl, you were meant to change the world and focus on the good."

Adams says critics have described her choice to marry herself as a cry for help.

"A lot of people have said that I have some type of mental health concerns that need to be addressed," she says, adding she finds it interesting that people "are weaponizing mental health at the time we’re saying everyone needs access to mental health services."

Adams says if she gets married in the future, she'll slip the wedding band right next to the one she gave herself.

"Everyone always asks, 'Will I have to divorce myself to marry a man?' But the real question is, 'Why do I need to lose me in order to be married?'"

She married herself at age 77 – decades after her divorce

Dorothy Fideli never remarried after her divorce nearly five decades ago.

But this month, at age 77, she married herself in front of her three children and two dozen people at her retirement community in Goshen, Ohio.

Fideli wore a white gown, a short veil and white sneakers as she pushed her decorated walker down the aisle. Her favorite song, Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me," played in the background.

"I felt beautiful, like I had won a lottery or something. I felt like a queen," she says. "I felt important to myself… like I was somebody. It's hard to explain the feeling – you have to feel it in your soul."

Fideli had never worn a bridal dress. Her 1965 wedding to her husband was held at a courthouse and ended in divorce nine years later.

Fideli's message to younger women struggling with self-esteem issues: It's never too late to love yourself.

Her daughter, Donna Pennington, recalls the day her mother told her she wanted to marry herself.

"She didn't have a lot of confidence growing up … But she's come a long way in the last few years," Pennington says. "There's this feeling that came over her, this feeling that told her she’s enough."

Pennington picked out a Goodwill dress for her mom and came up with a menu that included potato salad, punch and cookies shaped like wedding bells.

The family worked with Rob Geiger, property manager of the retirement community, to plan and officiate the wedding. Geiger says he was stunned when Fideli, known affectionately there as Dottie, told him she wanted to marry herself.

"My eyes got real big and my mouth dropped open. I was like, 'What?' That was until she started explaining the reason why," Geiger says. "Knowing Dottie and the challenges she had growing up, it's like she finally discovered how to love herself, which most people do not discover in their lifetime. I took it as an honor."

She plans to renew her vows to herself in a few years

Ena Jones married herself on her 50th birthday in September 2020. The three dozen guests thought they were attending a milestone birthday party. Then she emerged in a tiara and a knee-length white dress, carrying a bouquet of sunflowers, walking down the aisle on the arm of her husband’s father.

A three-tiered chocolate cake waited at the end of the aisle.

Jones says she’d wanted to marry herself since her husband died of cancer in 2016.

"Is it in the county marriage records that I married myself? No," she says of her wedding in Kenansville, North Carolina. "But it's something I felt I needed to do. This is my most important relationship… It symbolizes my love for myself for the rest of my life."

Jones gave herself a sunflower ring. If she gets remarried, she'll move it to the right ring finger and wear her new ring on her left hand. Either way, she plans to renew her vows on her 55th birthday.

Amodeo, the marriage and family therapist, says while sologamy can help people with their self-esteem it should not preclude connecting in a deep way with another human being. Self-love, he says, creates a solid foundation for intimate, healthy and more fulfilling relationships with others.

But the search for self-love is a lifelong process that doesn’t end with a self-marriage, he says.

"We don’t have to be perfect at it," Amodeo says. "If we wait until we fully love ourselves before loving another, we might be in a nursing home before we feel ready for a deep intimate relationship."

The women who spoke to CNN get that. They say they also recognize why some people don’t understand sologamy.

"I think often we are triggered or confused by things that we don't fully understand because we haven't experienced that," says Rist, who now helps other women plan their self-weddings.

But she and the other women who spoke to CNN say they're unfazed by the criticism.

They say they’re proud of the inner work they're doing to heal themselves – and they would marry themselves all over again.

Aric Hutchinson is still trying to wrap his head around the idea that his wife is no longer here on Earth with him after the couple were involved in a car crash that proved fatal for her on their wedding night in South Carolina.

Now, the groom has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the alleged drunk driver involved in the crash and a number of local establishments where the driver had been "bar hopping" throughout the day, according to a news release from an attorney representing Hutchinson and the lawsuit.

While he doesn't remember the crash itself, Aric Hutchinson remembers one of the last things his new wife, Samantha Hutchinson, 34, said to him: "She wanted the night to never end," he said during an exclusive interview on "Good Morning America" on Friday.

South Carolina authorities say Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, drove her car into the newlywed couple’s golf-cart-style vehicle.

The bride died of blunt force injuries, according to the Charleston County Coroner’s Office. Aric Hutchinson, his brother-in-law and the couple’s nephew were also injured in the crash, GMA reported.

"She (Komoroski) stole an amazing human being that should not have been taken," Aric Hutchinson said.

The lawsuit, which is also an injury lawsuit filed by the brother-in-law and nephew, claims Komoroski visited the El Gallo Bar and Grill in Charleston before making her way to Folly Beach, where she began bar hopping on Center Street, with stops at several bars and restaurants.

Video above: Husband attends paddle vigil for bride killed

CNN has reached out to the other establishments named in the suit and is awaiting comment.

"Despite being noticeably and visibly intoxicated at each of these establishments," the lawsuit states, "Jaime Komoroski continued to be served, provided, and/or allowed to consume additional alcohol at each of them."

Chris Gramiccioni, an attorney representing Komoroski in the criminal case said he and his client "ask that there not be a rush to judgment."

"We cannot fathom what the families are going through and offer our deepest sympathies," the statement said. "Our court system is founded upon principles of justice and mercy and that is where all facts will come to light."

"The state grants restaurants and bars a license for the privilege to serve alcohol, and with that privilege comes a responsibility to the community to serve patrons responsibly and to deny service to individuals who are visibly intoxicated," Danny Dalton, Hutchinson’s attorney, said.

Komoroski was a new employee of a local restaurant, Taco Boy, and her supervisor is accused of “organizing, arranging, and supervising an employee function/meeting knowing that excessive amounts of alcoholic beverages would be purchased for, served to, and consumed by the employees attending the function/meeting,” the lawsuit says.

"We can confirm with absolute certainty that Jamie Komoroski did not set foot in Taco Boy, nor did anyone on our team serve her alcohol at the restaurant," Taco Boy said in a statement in response to the lawsuit. "We have confirmed this by watching 16 hours of video footage from multiple cameras, staff interviews with everyone working that day, and by reviewing all sales receipts."

Komoroski's blood alcohol level was over three times the legal limit at the time of the crash, according to a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division toxicology report. She is now charged with one count of reckless homicide and three counts of felony DUI resulting in great bodily harm, online court records show.

Two broken legs, broken bones in his face, subsequent injuries and multiple surgeries later, Aric Hutchinson is finding comfort being back in the apartment the couple shared, he said.

“It's hard but it's also nice, he said. "It's got Sam written all over the house."

Komoroski remains in custody, jail records show.

"If this (lawsuit) stops one person from getting in their car while intoxicated, or helps someone have the courage to step up and stop that from happening, or helps an establishment really take a hard stand on over-serving people – that's something positive that can come out of out of this," Dalton said Wednesday.

A bride's parents are suing a New York hotel for allegedly "destroying" their daughter's wedding due to its "severe" noise restrictions.

According to a complaint filed in Kings County on Jan. 31, Marjorie and Russell Newman are suing the Brooklyn Pier 1 Hotel for forcing their daughter and son-in-law to move their wedding reception off-site to "a much smaller, dark dingy room" for music and dancing.

The Newmans said they spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" on the Sept. 18 event, which included 200 guests, the complaint stated.

According to the court documents, the hotel failed to inform them until after the reception began about a rule that restricted the music to a "woefully low, inadequate and inappropriate" decibel level that no one could hear.

The couple said before they signed a contract with the hotel, the music was approved beforehand by hotel employee Bethanne Lanteri, the court documents stated.

The Newmans are suing the hotel, the wedding planner "Real Housewives of Miami" star Guerdy Abraira, and Laterni for allegedly breach of contract and fraud.

They are seeking $5 million in damages.

An Iowa man pulled off the surprise of a lifetime from his hospital room.Jonathan Johnson was on a ventilator for nearly four weeks fighting COVID-19. After having the vent removed, he wanted to surprise his fiance by getting married in the hospital. The staff then helped him get a cake and take photos, while a friend snuck his fiance Mariah's dress into the hospital. "I was an emotional ball. I was shocked," said Mariah Copeland-Johnson. "I didn't think this would happen that soon, but I'm so happy that it did, so I can spend my forever with the man that I love."The couple has a son who is turning 2 soon. Jonathan can't wait to one day tell their son the unusual way his parents got married. Watch the video above to see pictures from the couple's special day.

When Jonathan Johnson was in the hospital battling COVID-19, his nurses said his outlook wasn't always good.

"He was as sick as you could be without passing away," said Amy Waldstein, critical care nurse at Methodist Jennie Edmunson in Iowa.

But they said he was a fighter throughout the journey.

"It was admirable about how he fought the whole time, he did every possible thing he needed to do to get past COVID," Waldstein said.

Johnathan finally got off the ventilator and his condition improved, but before he left the hospital, he had another goal in mind.

"When I finally woke up from being on the ventilator for three and a half weeks, and I was feeling a little better, and was able to breathe, I thought to myself, you know, I want to marry this one," Jonathan said.

He wanted to surprise his fiancé Mariah, so Jonathan and his nurses started planning.

Critical care nurse Jenna Harvey said it was a little unorthodox.

"There was no flower girl. However, I did throw some petals here and there for them," Harvey said.

The couple had been engaged for more than a year and Mariah says when she went to the hospital, she had no idea what was in store for her.

"We get in there, he told me, and I was completely blown back," Mariah said.

Harvey said the couple needed to celebrate after Jonathan's long battle.

"It's something they both deserve after going through such a tragic time in their relationship," Harvey said.

While it wasn't the wedding the couple had planned.

"She wanted to do a Halloween theme wedding, but I didn't know how long I was gonna be in the hospital," Jonathan said.

Jonathan says surviving his battle gave him some new perspective.

"I didn't want to have any regrets because after coming off the ventilator, you view a lot of things differently in life," Jonathan said.

Watch the full story in the video above.

A South Carolina animal shelter hosted a canine wedding Thursday to support donations for the new Have a Heart Heartworm Treatment Fund and raise awareness to adopt shelter dogs.

Greenville County Animal Care in South Carolina hosted a livestream of the ceremony for Sassy and Spero.

Click the video player above to watch the full ceremony.

The event was planned by Wedding Festivals and Upstate Bridal Association, according to the shelter.

Sassy and Spero have been together since Sassy started her heartworm treatment, according to the shelter.

"Every heartworm positive dog will have their treatment covered in full, making it easier than ever to adopt a heartworm positive dog," the shelter posted on Facebook.

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This tradition of doggy weddings has gone on for multiple years, with last year's couple being Honey and Duke.

This content is imported from Facebook.
You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

MINNEAPOLIS (Video: WCCO via CNN) —

Just as weddings were beginning to see a bit of normalcy, the delta variant has couples considering changes to their plans.

Allie Messimer and Kevin Field have decided to require COVID-19 vaccines for the 100 guests who attend their upcoming ceremony in Minnesota.

Messimer told WCCO that this isn't the first time her wedding was altered by the pandemic. She and Field were supposed to get married in fall of 2020.

"We were ready to go and then pulled the plug in late July and early August," she said.

Now, a year after her wedding was supposed to take place, Messimer is planning another change.

"I really want to ensure that our wedding is fun but also safe," she said.

The couple's wedding website now notifies guests that COVID-19 vaccination will be required to attend.

Messimer believes most friends and family already have their shots.

"We knew that kind of going into the requirement," Messimer said. "There might be a few ancillary people that we might have to have some tough conversations with, but we're willing to do it."

Rachelle Mazumdar, the owner of Style Architects Weddings, said she's seeing more couples make the same decision. She also said churches have started requiring masks again.

Mazumdar said wedding vendors are "scrambling" in the midst of what she calls a snowball effect on the entire industry that will take years to return to normal. Many of her 2022 wedding dates are already booked.

"Before, you used to be able to plan a wedding, you know, 6 to 12 months out. And now it feels like it's turning into an 18 to 24 months planning cycle."

Don't let them eat this cake.A slice of one of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's wedding cakes is up for auction 40 years after the nuptials were watched around the world.The iced slice came from one of the 23 official wedding cakes marking the July 29, 1981 marriage of the heir to the British throne and his shy 20-year-old bride. It features a marzipan base and a sugar onlay coat-of-arms, colored in gold, red, blue, and silver, on top.The piece of cake was given to Moyra Smith, a member of the Queen Mother’s household at Clarence House. Smith kept it in a floral cake tin and with a handmade label on the lid reading: "Handle with Care - Prince Charles & Princess Diane’s (sic) Wedding Cake" which she signed and dated 29/7/81.Smith's family sold the cake to a collector in 2008, but it is up for auction again Aug. 11. It is expected to fetch between 300 pounds ($418) and 500 pounds ($697), together with an order of service, ceremonial details and a royal wedding breakfast program."It appears to be in exactly the same good condition as when originally sold," Chris Albury, auctioneer and senior valuer at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, said. "But we advise against eating it."

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postponed micro or virtual engaged couples have had to be creative and certainly flexible during the pandemic. This Kansas City couple wouldn't let a hospital stay or a covid 19 diagnosis. Stop them from saying, I do not feel away pronouncing Justin, Stephanie, this husband and wife, Stephanie and Justin spent most of the days leading up to their wedding dealing with some ups and downs, including Justin falling ill looking like he's going to get better and came home and then having to bring them right back to the hospital. The day before their nuptials, Justin got a devastating diagnosis. He tested positive for Covid 19 and needed to stay in the hospital. It was heartbreaking. This also meant the wedding was postponed until Stephanie came up with an idea. What do you feel about getting married today from his hospital bed? Justin was totally on board. All this bad stuff just felt like it was just raining down and wanted something really good to come out of it. The nurses quickly became wedding planners and put Stephanie in the hospital chapel, and a family friend officiated the wedding. Justin, do you take Stephanie as your partner, going to treasure life. The point of the day is to be married to the person you love. And that's what we did with our love to you. And while the first kiss looks a bit different, we high five. The couple loved their impromptu ceremony. Ended up being a million times better than I thought it was gonna love, Stephanie. I just felt like a good right time.

Couple has virtual wedding while groom recovers from COVID-19

Impromptu wedding held for couple recovering from COVID-19

Updated: 1:20 PM EST Mar 12, 2021

Stephanie and Justin spent most of the days leading up to their wedding dealing with some ups and downs, including Justin falling ill. The day before their nuptials, Justin got a devastating diagnosis: He tested positive for COVID-19, and needed to stay in the hospital.This also meant the wedding was postponed —that is, until Stephanie came up with an idea.Watch more on this story in the video player above. Stitch brings you heartwarming stories from a community just like yours. It celebrates our hometown heroes and is inspired by communities, revitalized. Stitch is committed to honoring our history, celebrating our potential and highlighting the tales that bring us together. Every day, we are stitching together the American story.Want more stories like these? Follow Stitch on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. —

Stephanie and Justin spent most of the days leading up to their wedding dealing with some ups and downs, including Justin falling ill. The day before their nuptials, Justin got a devastating diagnosis: He tested positive for COVID-19, and needed to stay in the hospital.

This also meant the wedding was postponed —that is, until Stephanie came up with an idea.

Watch more on this story in the video player above.

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Stitch brings you heartwarming stories from a community just like yours. It celebrates our hometown heroes and is inspired by communities, revitalized. Stitch is committed to honoring our history, celebrating our potential and highlighting the tales that bring us together. Every day, we are stitching together the American story.

Want more stories like these? Follow Stitch on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.