Brittany Bachman and Jeremy Peck were getting married.
However, the news didn’t come without a little bit of pain.
Although he would never say anything about it, her stepfather, Todd Cendrosky, felt left out.
For him, the event was bittersweet.
“What dad doesn’t want to walk his daughter down the aisle?” he told the New York Times. “So yes, I was disappointed.”
“It crossed my mind every time we went and tried on tuxes and we did this and we did that,” Cendrosky said.
“Anything wedding-related, it was like man, I’m putting on a tux for what? To sit in the crowd?”
Brittany’s parents had split when she was six and bitter custody battles and legal disputes followed.
Throughout her childhood, she sometimes felt like she had to pick sides between her father and stepfather.
“It was really, really tough,” she shared.
“We did not get along,” her stepfather noted in regard to Brittany’s father. “We tolerated each other. That’s probably the best way to describe it.”
Unbeknownst to the Cendrosky, however, Brittany’s dad had something up his sleeve.
(Coincidentally, he is also named Todd.)
Before the ceremony, he informed Delia Blackburn, the wedding photographer, that he was going to be doing something special and told her to be ready with the camera.
In an interview following the wedding, her father explained that he had wanted to thank Brittany’s stepfather for the role he had played in her life.
So, as he walked down the aisle to give his daughter away, he went over and grabbed the stepfather’s hand.
And the photographer was right there to catch it on camera.
The moment was both moving and powerful.
“He came up to me and reached out and grabbed my hand and said, ‘Hey, you’ve worked for this as hard as I have. You deserve this as much as I do. Let’s walk our daughter down the aisle.'”
A couple of moments later, the pair walked their daughter down the aisle.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
Even the photographer was caught off-guard by the beauty of it all.
“I started crying myself,” she said. “I had to stop and say, ‘Wait, I better get it [the photo], before I lose it.'”
Brittany’s stepfather was especially touched by the gesture.
“I got weak in the knees and everything,” he said. “I couldn’t have had something better in my life.”
What a fantastic, humble and respectful gesture by Brittany’s father.
Both men were even seen hugging each other after the ceremony as well.
After the wedding, Delia Blackburn shared the photos on social media where they quickly went viral.
And I mean super viral, garnering over 60 million views in the first few days.
Shortly after, Delia posted a note from Brittany’s dad. He wrote:
“I would like to thank you all! I am very honored that so many people around the world took the time to look and share the story. If anything happens with it, I hope that at least one family can follow my example and work together for the greater good of their children.”
(You can see the original post below.)
In the end, the wedding was better than anyone had even imagined.
And it brought both men closer in the end.
Hear more about this beautiful moment in the video below!
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Sources: YouTube – Humankind, New York Times, CBS News
