Elizabeth Smart marries at Hawaii Mormon temple

Elizabeth Smart married his fiancee Saturday in a Mormon temple in Hawaii, several months ahead of scheduled plans for the wedding after the news of her engagement last month attracted widespread media attention.

A family spokesman said Utah woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint at age 14 and held captive for nine months married Matthew Gilmour on Oahu’s North Shore.

“Elizabeth is a desire for what most women want – to celebrate the wedding in a private wedding with family and close friends,” said family spokesman Chris Thomas said in a statement. “He decided, about a week ago, the best way to avoid significant disruption is to change the wedding plans and married in a ceremony scheduled outside of Utah.”

The 24-year-Smart is a senior at Brigham Young University. He met Gilmour, of Aberdeen, Scotland, while doing Mormon missionary work in Paris.

The couple married in the Laie Hawaii Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in front of a small group of family members, said Thomas. The group was then celebrated at a private reception and luau.

Smart and Gilmour got engaged last month and was originally made plans to marry this summer.

“The bride and groom who beamed as they left the LDS Temple,” he added, noting the couple plans to go on an extended honeymoon at an undisclosed location.

“We’re just glad that he’s married,” said his father, Ed Smart, The Salt Lake Tribune, called the ceremony “as a kind of sudden thing.”

Use street preacher Brian David Mitchell was convicted in 2010 of 2002 Smart kidnapping and sexual assault. He is serving life in prison.

Since the rescue, Smart has become increasingly involved in advocacy work for victims of crime, form the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, is intended primarily to protect children from abuse through prevention and education.

“The wedding is further demonstrates circumstances likely to arise from the challenge to lead a happy and productive lives,” said Thomas. “When Elizabeth returned from her honeymoon, she hopes to continue her child advocacy work.”