Before attending a wedding it’s a good idea to stuff your pockets or purse with tissues. After all, you never know when a heart-tugging moment is going to pop up, leaving you with tears running down your face!
One West Virginia couple’s wedding took an emotional turn thanks to a special surprise that occurred during their reception. Not only did the bride herself end up needing a big box of tissues – but footage of the surprise has the internet’s eyes welling up too.
Ali Kiman and her new husband Mitch were surrounded by guests when her father stood up to deliver a speech.
Wedding speeches can range anywhere from being hilarious, to ones that make your mascara run. Little did Ali know at the time her dad, Al Jones, had planned something quite unique for his!
He began with a story about something terrible that happened two years before. Al shared:
“As a lot of you all know, a couple years ago Ali was in a pretty bad accident. As she laid in the hospital bed with her jaws wired shut, tubes down her throat, we had to come up with a way to communicate with her.”
Ali knew sign language, so she tried to use it to communicate with her mom and dad while in the hospital. However, they didn’t know it at the time.
Al explained that their next solution was to give Ali a whiteboard so she could write things down. Then, he revealed a secret he’d been keeping for his daughter’s big day.
“I’ve been practicing my sign language, Ali. Still not that good at it, but I’ve been practicing. So here’s your whiteboard, hopefully we won’t need it here this evening.”
In the video, music fills the room and Al hands his microphone to a seated guest.
The dad’s surprise is that he learned how to perform Heartland’s “I Loved Her First” in American Sign Language. Now, if you’ve listened to the tune before – you know that the lyrics alone can make one sob like a baby. But this is on another level.
The moment Ali sees her dad start to sign she bursts into tears.
As the country hit plays in the background, Al gives a heartfelt performance that’s gone viral.
“I Loved Her First” is from the point of view of a father, and he’s speaking to his daughter’s soon-to-be husband. The lyrics of the song beautifully capture how difficult it would be for a dad to “give his daughter away.”
Ali can’t control her tears watching her dad sign and lip-sync the song. Understandably, it made others emotional too.
According to Daily Mail, videographer Andrew Stevens (from Always Hope Creative) had a lump in his throat while filming the surprise. YouTube viewers have also been touched by it, leaving comments like:
“Wow, this was the most heartwarming and loving thing a dad could do for his daughter. Yes, I’m crying.”
Another person wrote:
“This had me in tears I’m not gonna lie so powerful awesome moment this is priceless ❤️❤️a dad’s love for his daughter I still get goosebumps when I watch this…”
The performance ends with a big round of applause and Ali giving her father a gigantic, loving hug. Who’s chopping onions here?
You can watch Al’s special performance for yourself below. What a lucky daughter!
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