This Kindergarten Teacher Did A Wedding 'First Look' With Her Students

Teacher and bride-to-be Kelsey Smith did a “first look” with her kindergarten class so they could see her in her wedding dress. And the pictures from the shoot are cute as can be. 

“My students mean the world to me and I was so excited for them to see me in my dress before anyone [else],” Smith, who teaches at Hugh Goodwin Elementary in El Dorado, Arkansas, told HuffPost.

Photographer Angi Gibbons of Flying Pig Photography captured the sweet moment in March, less than two weeks before schools were closed due to COVID-19. Gibbons recently shared some of the images on her Facebook page , where they racked up tens of thousands of likes and were later shared by the Love What Matters Facebook page .

When the kids walked into the classroom and saw Miss Smith in her veil and lace gown, they “went silent,” she said. 

“They didn’t know what to do or say, but they were so excited,” Smith recalled.
“They loved seeing me in a different light and I am so thankful.”

After the reveal, the students surprised Smith with a bridal shower that Smith’s mom, a substitute teacher at the school, helped organize. The class gifted her a dress signed with their names that they decorated with butterfly and flower designs.

Smith married her husband, John, on May 30. The couple had to make some adjustments to their wedding plans in accordance with CDC guidelines, she said. At the wedding, she displayed the dress her class had made for her and hung up a banner with one of the photos from the shoot. 

“I know it was meant to be for all of these kiddos to share in the wedding of their teacher, even if it wasn’t possible for everyone to come to the ceremony,” Gibbons wrote on Facebook .

Below, check out more heartwarming moments from the photo shoot.