She was living in London and studying landscape art when she met Ernest Nieriker. The couple married on March 22, 1878, in London. The marriage was said by authors Eiselein and Phillips to have occurred despite her family's reluctance. In contrast, Louisa Alcott called the day a "happy event" and described Ernest as a handsome, cultivated and successful "tender friend". Further, "May is old enough to choose for herself, and seems so happy in the new relation that we have nothing to say against it." May was 38 years old, and Ernest Nieriker a 22-year-old Swiss tobacco merchant and violinist. Ernest was supportive of May's artist career and had helped her through the death of her mother on November 25, 1877, and they were engaged in February 1878. The couple honeymooned in Le Havre and then lived in Meudon, a Parisian suburb, where she primarily lived after her marriage.