She knew her dad wouldn't make it till her wedding, so she chose to cancel her engagement photoshoot to create everlasting memories with the man who meant the world to her.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on November 22, 2019. It has since been updated.
A daughter looks forward to the father-daughter wedding dance her entire life, so she could share one of the most emotional moments of her life with the man who brought her up before she steps into her new life. But when a daughter remains deprived of this happy moment a sense of incompleteness lingers in her heart always. Becky Carey did not want that to happen to her. So, she requested her photographer for a father-daughter dance photoshoot before he leaves them forever.
Becky's father, Tim, had been suffering from prostate cancer and knew that he could not be a part of his daughter's wedding. Therefore, she decided to replace her engagement photoshoot, which was put off due to bad weather, with a father-daughter dance photoshoot before he was sent to hospice care.
The father-daughter dance is a wedding ritual that takes place on the day of the reception, but this was an exception and made everyone involved emotional, including the photographer who kept in touch with the family the whole time.
“We haven’t had professional family photos taken since my brother and I were little, and this would mean so much to us,” Becky wrote to the photographer for the family photoshoot request. “Of course this is a very difficult and dark time, but I know how you feel about love and capturing it so beautifully and meaningfully.”
She decided to get the photoshoot done at her parents' home where she grew up. Becky said that her dad was "getting weaker by the day, and unfortunately, we have to do this as soon as possible." So she put the plan together as fast as she could.
Bonnie, the photographer, could not turn this emotional request down and experienced a very tender and heartfelt event in her life. Becky dressed up as a bride in her white lace gown and Tim, donned a suave navy blue tuxedo for the day. The duo looked engrossed and overwhelmed with emotions at the moment as they twirled with each other for the last time.
Describing how much these photos meant to the family, Bonnie wrote, "These photos are near and dear to this family and most of all, special to [Becky]. She knew [her dad] possibly wouldn’t make it to walk her down the aisle or share that father-daughter dance on her wedding day. So she took it upon herself to scratch those engagement photos for a while and share that father-daughter moment in the back yard where she grew up."
Tim passed away five months after the photoshoot on March 29th, 2019. Bonnie shared the photos from this emotional day and extended her condolences for the family. “My heart is heavy today as I have been informed of his passing,” she wrote, “He fought so hard for a very long time. Photographs and memories are EVERYTHING when they are all you have left.”
So moved was she with this project of hers that she started a GoFundMe page to cover the medical, funeral, and home expenses, in addition to Becky and Matt’s [her fiancé’s] wedding. “Tim and Becky shared those photos together for 5 months until his passing on March 29, 2019,” the photographer wrote on the fundraising page. “Any help will be appreciated to this amazing family,” the page says.
References:
https://doyouremember.com/95586/bride-photoshoot-dying-father
