The best wedding moments are the unexpected surprises that come along with the day. If a wedding can make someone cry, bring someone home or give someone strength, then those are the moments worth remembering.

Daniel and Sarah: “I am here.”

Sarah spent the night before her wedding day crying in her mother’s lap because her best friend and brother, Daniel, could not come to her wedding. Daniel, a deployed marine, informed his sister that they would not grant his leave request in order to attend his the wedding. “Since we have been so close for our whole lives, having him gone was really hard and knowing that he could not be at my wedding was almost too much.” But, at the last minute, Daniel was granted one day of leave. He did not even take time to change his clothes but rushed back to his home state to see his sister. He walked up to her an hour before she was supposed to walk down the aisle. The look on her face said it all. Sarah sobbed in his arms and the smile on her face was like no other. Her makeup was ruined, but she did not care. Her brother simply held her and said “I am here,” and that was the best wedding present that Sarah could have ever asked for.

Richard and Carla: “Nothing was going to stop me.”

Two months before Carla’s big day, her father, Richard suffered a relapse into cancer. He began going through chemotherapy and was responding well, however, the medication made him very weak. Refusing to let his daughter postpone her wedding, they continued with the plans. “He was always afraid that, if we changed the wedding date, that he would miss it.” Two weeks before the wedding, Richard got worse, “I was not afraid to die, I was just afraid of missing my chance to give away my little girl.” Carla was in shambles, her fear for her father was overwhelming. Her father wanted nothing more than to walk his daughter down the aisle. Richard’s doctors informed the family that he needed to stay at the hospital and that too much physical activity would be a risk. But, on the day of the wedding, Richard proudly walked his daughter down the aisle with the aid of a walker. “Nothing was going to stop me, I felt stronger that day than I had felt in months.” Richard was able to overcome his sickness for his daughter and today, he is stable and making his way through recovery.

A wedding combines two pasts to make a whole new future and it just might touch a few extra hearts along the way.