Bride Who Lost Dad Ten Years Ago Has Emotional First-Look At Wedding With All The Men In Her Life | Happily TV

A bride who had lost her father 10 years before her wedding day paid a beautiful surprise tribute to all the men in her life who have stepped up since by including them in her first-look shoot. The six men who had gathered near bride Gracie Calkins, 31, from San Angelo, Texas, had no idea they were being included in such a significant moment, thinking instead that they were headed for a series of formal group photos. Gracie lost her father, Jerry, 53, to a pulmonary embolism in 2014, when she was just 19 years old. Jerry was a pillar of the community and a friend to all, Gracie said, and so the loss hit her and her family extremely hard. But over the years, Gracie noticed that certain men had started to step up in her father's place – whether it be Jerry's best friend taking her for quarterly lunch dates when she was back from college, or her godfather making sure that he checked in every birthday, holiday, and anniversary. Gracie's stepfather and father-in-law played dad-like roles on various occasions, while her brother embodied Jerry's personality, and Gracie's brother-in-law, along with her sister, helped keep her dad's memory alive. And so, ahead of her wedding day, on November 29, 2024, in Lafayette, Louisiana, Gracie started to think about all the father-daughter moments that she would like to fill in her own way. Having selected the six men who she thought had stepped up for Jerry, the group were then taken to what they thought would be formal photographs. But as they gathered, the men were pinned with their boutonnières and each handed a note, thanking them for the ways they had stepped up to support Gracie over the past decade. Some fought back tears before they were encouraged to turn around and witness the 31-year-old in her wedding dress for the first time.