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A bride found a way to include her blind father in her first-look moment, guiding him through a "first touch" of her wedding dress instead. Shannon Lewis, 31, a wedding planner from Fort Worth, Texas, knew the weight of first looks the moment a family member, usually the father of the bride, sees her in her gown for the first time. Her father, Gary McAfee, 68, went blind when Shannon was a teenager and has since lost his hearing too, now relying on cochlear implants. Planning her June 20 wedding, Shannon adapted the "first touch" she had arranged for other couples, where the bride and groom hold hands around a corner before the ceremony without seeing each other. She also drew on family movie nights, when everyone would describe the scenes on screen to Gary. In the bridal suite, alongside his wife of 36 years, Kerin, Gary felt his way across the dress as Shannon described each detail - the off-the-shoulder puffed sleeves, a family bracelet, the fitted waist and the full ball gown skirt. He followed the train to its end before touching the buttons down the back and his daughter's hair. Shannon then told him the flower he was wearing was yellow, something he had not known until that moment.
Transcript
00:00It's been waiting a long time for this one.
00:03I have to describe everything to you.
00:04Hi.
00:05Girl.
00:06Hi.
00:07Beautiful girl.
00:08I forget that he's blind because he really
00:11does interact with everybody and the world so seamlessly.
00:15So I was trying to do my best to make sure
00:18that he was, like, envisioning everything.
00:20I'm the only daughter.
00:22I have two brothers.
00:23So being the only girl, me and my dad
00:26have always been a little closer, daddy's girl, kind of.
00:30And he's always been excited for me to get married.
00:33He started losing his vision back in high school
00:36in a football accident.
00:38In 2011 is when he fully lost his vision.
00:42He also lost his hearing a few years after that.
00:45So he has cochlear implants and yet another thing
00:49that he learned how to cope with and learn how to, like,
00:52work with so quickly and just doesn't complain about anything.
00:55For us, it was kind of, oh, like, we need
00:57to learn how to describe.
00:59I'm going to describe the trees.
01:01I'm going to describe, like, the way things that are shot
01:03on movies.
01:04I'm going to describe, like, what we're seeing
01:06as we're walking.
01:07It just makes you kind of, like, see things
01:09a little bit differently.
01:10He's always been excited for me to get married.
01:13He's a big softie.
01:14So I wanted to make sure that he had his moment
01:17to feel, you know, like a dad and to take everything in.
01:22I'm a wedding planner as well.
01:23So I see a lot of brides do, like, a first touch
01:25where they just hold hands around the corner
01:27so that they're not seeing each other.
01:28I thought that would be, like, a perfect thing for my dad
01:31because he can't see anyway.
01:32Since he was walking me down the aisle,
01:34everybody else was going to be seeing me.
01:35So I wanted to make sure that before we walked down
01:38the aisle together that he, like, knew what I was looking
01:42like, next to him.
01:43He's been waiting a long time.
01:45Hi.
01:46My girl.
01:47Hi.
01:48Beautiful girl.
01:49Love you.
01:50Love you.
01:51Okay, so there's puff sleeves.
01:53She's puffed?
01:54And they're, like, separate, so they're, like,
01:56not on my shoulder at all.
01:57Okay.
01:58And then right here is Mom's, um, bracelet.
02:01This smooth one.
02:03It's, like, kind of, like, textured on the top part.
02:06It's super thin.
02:07And then when it hits my waist right here,
02:09it, like, goes out into, like, a big ball gown.
02:11Okay.
02:12Yeah.
02:13It's so great here.
02:14It's soft.
02:14And then, you know, see if you can find the end.
02:16Keep on going and see if you can find the end.
02:18Oh, my land.
02:19You have the biggest train.
02:22You got one.
02:23Oh, I love the buttons.
02:25They go all the way down to the end.
02:28Are you the train?
02:29Aren't you beautiful?
02:31I've ripped in my hair.
02:32How'd she do it?
02:33Did you get your hair?
02:34Yeah, too.
02:35How neat.
02:36It's got real long, pretty curl.
02:39Whoa.
02:40Yeah.
02:40It was kind of surreal.
02:42I really wasn't sure if I was going to make it through
02:44because I was just crying already.
02:47Do you like it?
02:48I love it.
02:49I love you.
02:49See you in the bit.
02:51Every part of my wedding day,
02:52I really wanted to be very intentional,
02:54and I really wanted to honor the people in my life
02:57that have, like, poured so much into me.
03:00I think you need to cherish moments with your parents.
03:02I think it really means the world to be able to, like, share a moment like that with them.
03:07See you soon.
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