Photo Cred: Janna Wissmann Instagram
Recently, Jana Duggar, the oldest daughter of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, got married in a beautiful ceremony along with hundreds of family members and friends. However, before the wedding, Jana had largely kept her relationship a secret. Many people believe this was because their relationship went against the strict courtship rules that her parents have in place.
Wedding Bells
Jana Duggar recently married Stephen Wissmann, who is a business owner who works with irrigation systems. Like Jana, he comes from a large family as he is one of thirteen siblings. Jana is one of the eldest children of the Duggar Family, which is famous for being the subjects of the show “19 Kids and Counting”, which ran on TV for 10 seasons.
While the ceremony looked lovely and the pair seemed very much in love, why did she keep her husband and their relationship a secret early on? Well, there’s some online speculation that she kept it a secret because of her parent’s relatively stringent rules surrounding courtship and dating. This includes having chaperones on dates, not holding hands or exhibiting other forms of PDA, and only greeting with side hugs.
In a recent video posted by Jana on her YouTube channel from before the pair were married, they are seen breaking several of these rules, which could be why the duo decided to keep things under wraps for as long as they did. Either way, the pair has finally gone public with their relationship and seem incredibly in love and excited for the future together.
Future Plans
As for what the future holds, the pair has plans to live together in Nebraska, which is where Stephen lives with his family. They’re going to live in a small house that they bought together, which they have been fixing up with one another.
Jana and Stephen first met over a decade ago when Stephen and his family were snowed in at the Duggar residence. The Wissmann family would travel and sing together, and a snowstorm prevented them from leaving the Duggar’s home one night.
The families played games together and did puzzles until the snow melted and the Wissmann family could leave. Being that she’s a little bit older than Stephen, Jana admitted that he wasn’t on her radar at all at the time.
However, years later the pair reconnected and dated briefly, before ultimately breaking up and going their own ways in life. They stayed in touch though, and eventually decided to reconnect and try the relationship again.
It obviously worked out, as the couple married in an elegant ceremony in Arkansas in front of around 500 guests on August 15th 2024, which was two months after they got engaged. The wedding featured interactive games, a huge meal made by the Wissmann family, and several other activities for the guests. Being that both of them come from large households, it was a priority for both of them to ensure that their families were heavily involved in the event.
