Eight years after Jaquie Goncher's legs were paralyzed in a diving accident, most of her family and friends expected her to roll down the aisle in a wheelchair at her wedding.

But Goncher didn't use her wheelchair – she walked down the aisle and stood beside her husband to say, "I do."

Goncher says she worked eight long years to rehabilitate her paralyzed body to the point where she could leave the wheelchair behind, so she could walk (and even dance) on her wedding day. The Georgia woman says her now-husband was in on the surprise, but most of the wedding attendees were completely shocked to see her standing up on her big day.

"It was so overwhelming and I honestly was so nervous I felt like I was going to throw up," Goncher told CTV News Channel on Thursday, from her home in Georgia. She says didn't even get a chance to see the surprised looks on people's faces, because she was so focused on putting one foot in front of the other. "I just looked down at my feet the entire time and I completely missed everyone else," she said.

Goncher spent four hours out of the wheelchair that day, and managed to not only stand at the ceremony, but to dance at her reception. "I danced the entire night," she said, adding that she and her husband were "both in complete shock" throughout the event.

Goncher was paralyzed at the age of 17, when she suffered a spinal cord injury from a botched dive into a friend's swimming pool.

The newlywed says she worked long and hard to regain feeling in her legs, enduring lots of physiotherapy and time in the gym, often with her now-husband there to help her. She says she got to her feet a few times before her wedding, but, until that point, she had not walked any long distances.

Now she's trying to stand as often as possible, on her own or with the assistance of a cane. And at home, she says she tries to use the walls instead of the chair.

"I'm trying to use it less and less every day," she said.

Goncher says her physiotherapists hope that she will be able to improve her walking ability, although she's set an even loftier goal for herself. "I'm praying and believing that with God, I'm going to be running," she said.