Paralyzed Bride Walks Down the Aisle at Her Wedding

— -- An Iowa woman who was paralyzed from the waist down after a car crash stunned friends and family when she walked down the aisle at her wedding.

Gina Giaffoglione, of Pacific Junction, Iowa, had to do all the wedding planning of a typical bride, but with one important exception -- she had to learn to walk again.

The bride-to-be, who for years has been confined to a wheelchair, wanted to fulfill her childhood dream of walking down the aisle with her dad.

So Giaffoglione attended months of therapy to learn how to stand tall and walk with the help of a custom-designed brace and crutch with her father by her side.

She told ABC affiliate KETV that she did it for her dad.

"I'm my dad's only girl, and I'm the baby. Dad deserves that," Giaffoglione said.

After a year and a half of training, Giaffoglione walked down the aisle.

"When you can't feel anything, and you're doing something you used to do that you used to take for granted ... it's a floating sensation you can't even explain," she said.

"It's not even talking about the walking; your emotions are floating. Everything just seems to feel so good at that moment," she said.

Nobody but her fiance John Springhower and her close family knew Giaffoglione was going to walk down the aisle.

Her surprise left friends and family at her wedding silent and in tears.

"It was so special," said Diana Palm, who was Giaffoglione's physical therapist at CHI Health Rehabilitation in Iowa. "The fact that we can even help her get to that point is awesome."