A stunned bride welled up with joy when the high school dance team she coaches followed up on a promise and crashed her wedding.
Catey Thomson, a former cheerleader with the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, had no idea that 14 teenagers from the Ayala Song Team were set to attend her wedding in Los Angeles, California.
27-year-old Catey has been coaching the team for six years. Around the time she got engaged in December 2022, the girls started joking that they would make it to her wedding as guest performers.
Ahead of the big day, Catey would inform the girls that there was not enough room in her headcount – but her mom, Caren, who was helping organize the wedding, had other ideas.
Secretly, she reached out to Catey’s wedding planner and the moms of her team, asking if there was any way they could make a surprise performance work.
The girls were advised to show up at the venue on January 27 at 8pm sharp, wearing uniforms and carrying their usual pom-poms.
As Catey stood amongst a crowd of guests, the DJ made an announcement to look to the upper level, where Catey saw a stream of girls running down the ramp to the bottom level, waiving their pom-poms and holding a championship banner from a recent competition.
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They then jumped on their coach and gave her a huge hug, with Catey welling up at the emotion of the surprise.
Later in the evening, Catey took the floor and performed a dance with the team, which they do at football games.
Speaking of the surprise, she said: “I was in complete shock and was so happy to see them.
“Even though they are high schoolers and coaching is my job, they mean so much more to me than just that.
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“These girls were so thrilled to be there, and it was so incredibly special to share this memory with them – I know they will remember that night forever.
“My guests were equally as shocked and there were definitely tears as they all ran to me on the dance floor.
“Social media comments were mostly very supportive and emotional.
“Many people admire how much the girls look up to me as an adult figure, not just a coach.
“My husband [Jake] also knows how important this team is to me, and he has always been so supportive of me as a coach.
“He sat front row cheering at their competitions this season, so they were very excited to see him too.”