A groom who saved an empty chair at his wedding for his late father was left in tears when his wife surprised him on the altar with an audio message made up of recordings of his dad.
Tyler Duplechin, 29, from Covington, Louisiana, wasn’t sure what the future held when dad Marshall was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in 2005.
The disease of the heart muscle makes it increasingly difficult for the organ to pump blood, and, initially, Marshall was only given a few years to live.
But thanks to medicine and technology, Tyler said Marshall lived life to its fullest – eating good food, drinking beer, spending time with family – until he passed away in October 2023.
Two years later, when planning his wedding to Brooke, 25, he was thinking about how we wished his father, who was his best friend, could be there.
He asked for a seat to be left for Marshall, but secretly Brooke had been working on a bigger surprise.
As Tyler stood on the altar at Oak Meadows Lodge, in Abita Springs, on October 11, waiting for his bride to walk down the aisle, a message started to play.
“Just wanted to let you know, son, I’m stoked,” the voice said, before adding it’s “nice out here today.”
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“I’m so excited. I just can’t hide it. Love you, son. Congratulations,” the message continued, with Tyler smiling as he realized it was his dad’s voice.
Brooke had compiled the messages from chopped up old recordings of Marshall, and as Tyler took everything in, he began to fight back tears as the music played Brooke down the aisle.
Tyler said: “We had a chair saved for him at the wedding, I thought that was a nice touch and didn’t expect anything else to come of it.
“But Brooke’s surprise was one of the most memorable moments of my life and I’ll cherish that forever.
“I went through so many emotions: surprised, happy, sad, thankful, at ease, everything.
“It was just so perfect because my back was turned, so for a moment I felt like I was by myself up there and my dad had grabbed the mic from the DJ.
“If I had been staring at the speaker from which the audio was coming from, I feel it would’ve taken me out of the moment a bit.
“It’s hard to explain, but everything about the moment was perfect.”
