If there’s one thing all parents know, it’s that kids are going to do whatever they want whenever they want. That includes being born. North Carolina woman Jasmine Smith and her fiancé were staring down the end of a 60-day marriage license and had set a date to marry, but their baby had other plans. On the day they were supposed to be married, the couple found themselves rushing to the hospital because Smith was in labor. The couple, however, was undeterred and proceeded with their wedding. Now, they will have a story to tell forever.
Jasmine Smith woke up on October 15, 2025, when her water broke. Suddenly, she and her fiancé, Latroy Parker, found themselves rushing to Cone Health Women’s & Children’s Center at Moses Cone Hospital, the hospital shared in a news release. Smith and Parker still wanted to get married. In fact, they had to because of the deadline. So they told hospital staff about their initial plans, and the staff knew they had to make this wedding happen.
One of the nurses reached out to her pastor, Rev. Sharon Lee of Lowes United Methodist Church, to perform the ceremony.
“She said, Do you know anyone who, a chaplain that can do a wedding because the mother and the bride-to-be have gone into labor. And I said, How quickly do you need the wedding? And she said, pretty quick,” Lee told WXII.
Lee was struck by the couple’s determination to make their wedding happen. “It was very clear to me when I met them to begin with, that this was something that they wanted. They had prepared for it to be part of this humongous day for them,” she explained.
While Jasmine Smith was having contractions, she walked on her father’s arm down a crosswalk to wed the love of her life. To make the wedding as special as possible, hospital staff bought flowers for the flower girl, tracked down a cake, and put together refreshments for a reception in the hospital family room.
Parker and the pastor stood in front of Corous, a heart-shaped piece of art not far from the Women’s & Children’s Center. Hospital staff even arranged for the ceremony to be photographed, documenting the special occasion.
“It was the perfect setting, the perfect moment. I appreciate everybody for what they did,” Parker shared in the hospital’s news release.
“This is definitely one for the numbers. Like this is definitely one for the numbers. So ten years from now, I mean 30, 40 years from now, I will always like to draw back to this moment right here. This is very special,” he told WXII.
The couple’s baby girl, Stella Reign Parker, was born shortly after 11 that night, weighing 8 lbs., 1 oz.
