Newell and Avery write in their biography, "When Emma Hale awoke on a Thursday morning, January 18, 1827, she did not plan to be married by evening." [1]
"Joseph. . .had asked for Emma's hand twice and had been rebuffed—not by Emma, but by her father." [2] Emma and Joseph again discussed marriage while visiting the Stowell home that day. Later in life Emma relates, "Preferring to marry him to any other man I knew, I consented." [3]
Before the day was over Joseph and Emma were married at South Bainbridge, New York. [4]
In Emma's 1835 hymnal she included only one hymn on marrage (See transcription of When Earth was Dress'd in Beauty as printed in 1835 hymnal).