Bride dies in Motorcycle crash on her way to reception minutes after marrying new husband

An Illinois bride (pictured above) died just minutes after saying "I do" to the love of her life when the motorcycle she and her groom were riding to their reception crashed, family said. Jana Miles-Burnett, 40, exchanged vows with William Burnett, 31, in a city park in Illinois about 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

The couple had met through friends and decided to wed after a whirl-wind romance, family told Inside Edition. "After two months, they knew they wanted to be together," the woman's daughter, Sarah Smillie, said.

 "There wasn't a time that I had seen her happier. If they were together, she was smiling," Smillie, 22, told IE. The wedding ceremony reflected their relationship and was light and full of love, she said. "I’ve never been to a wedding where there was so much laughter. They were stumbling over each other's words because they were nervous, but they were laughing," Smillie said. "It was the most relaxed and funny thing I've ever seen at a wedding."

After being pronounced husband and wife, the couple hopped on Burnett's motorcycle and waved on family to start a procession to the reception, Smillie's husband, Khole Smillie said. Read: Engaged Couple Who Discovered They Were Preschool Sweethearts Return to Old School "They went to do the procession and they wanted them (Miles-Burnett and Burnett) to go first, but Jana waved everyone on because she wanted to be the last one," Khole Smillie said.

"They all got to the reception and they saw ambulances and firetrucks going back." It was during the procession that a deer ran onto the road and into the newlyweds' lane, causing a crash that threw Miles-Burnett, 40, to the ground. "There were three or four motorcycles together and William tried to swerve and did everything he could. It (the deer) had turned around and darted right at the bike. There's some things you cannot control," Khole Smillie said.

"Deer were going crazy that night. It's mating season and it's a rural road. Coming back, we saw 30 deer in a 20-minute ride running across the road." Still wearing her wedding gown, Miles-Burnett was rushed to the hospital but could not be saved and was pronounced dead an hour later. "At least she didn't suffer. Everybody else just suffers the pain now," Khole Smillie said.

Her new husband suffered minor injuries in the crash. "We've seen each other every day since then," Smillie said of her mother's husband, who in less than a day of being married, became a widower. "He's holding up. He's like me. Every hour or so he breaks down."

Source: CNN's Inside Edition

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