Bride Surprises Everyone By Signing Her Vows For Her Deaf In-Laws.
Planning a wedding takes time and hard work, but Kelsey Kulick thought of the perfect touch to add to their vows the minute she and Michael Kulick got engaged.
Since both of Michael’s parents are deaf, Kelsey decided to learn sign language so she can sign her vows.
She made sure to run it by Michael to check if his parents would be fine with it, and he thought that they would love it.
But then, Michael “completely forgot” about it, so Kelsey grabbed the opportunity to make it a surprise for everyone.
Kelsey asked for help from one of Michael’s aunts, who is married to a deaf man.
As Kelsey O’Neal started to recite her vows at her wedding to Michael Kulick on Nov. 13, 2021, in Boaz, Alabama, she didn’t just say them aloud. Much to the surprise of her fiancé, she signed them as well. As soon as her hands started forming the words, the tears welled in his eyes. He knew she had done it just for his parents, Paul and Gina, who are deaf.
Other than Kelsey, only two people – her videographer, Chandler Smith, and Michael’s aunt, Christy Crouch – among the 170 guests knew what she had planned. “Michael was crying, and everyone else was crying,” Kelsey says. “It went better than I thought it would.”
Michael shared, “It took me a second to really realize that she was actually signing her vows. All my emotions caught up to me at once, and I just couldn’t contain myself. I thought it was really sweet. It really was probably the most special moment of the wedding besides us actually getting married and becoming husband and wife.”
“My parents thought it was super sweet. They kept on going on and on and on about how special Kelsey was and how special that moment was for them,” Michael added.
After the videographer posted the video of Kelsey signing her vows on TikTok, it was viewed more than 10 million times and was featured on “Good Morning America” last week. “It’s blown up,” Kelsey says, even though that was never her intention. She had planned the surprise for a long time.
Kelsey and Michael met in the summer of 2018,
when they both worked as lifeguards at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega. They were paired together for CPR training, Kelsey says, laughing. But she was smitten with him.
As coworkers, they weren’t allowed to date each other. But on Aug. 6, 2018, they went out for the first time. “After two weeks of dating, we both told our friends we were going to marry each other,” she remembers. They both went back to college – he to the University of Alabama, and she to Judson College – but have been together ever since.
Kelsey shared that while the video has gone viral, it wasn’t attention that she was seeking. She genuinely wanted to do a show of respect for Michael’s family, and she will continue to do so for the coming years.
She plans to become fluent in sign language so she can communicate with her family and also teach their future kids.
@chandlersmithfilms The sweetest surprise to her groom ❤️ #fyp #weddingtiktok #weddingvows #groomreaction ♬ this is how you fall in love – Jeremy Zucker & Chelsea Cutler
Source:lovewhatmatters.com, inspiremore.com, al.com
