When kindergarten teacher Catie Corken was planning her early February wedding this year, she knew she wanted her beloved students involved. The 34-year-old recently told Good Morning America that she had initially considered having some of her students sing at her wedding, as fellow teachers had done in the past.
That’s when Miss Corken -- now Mrs. Zwier -- realized her ceremony would fall during Catholic Schools Week, a weeklong celebration full of parties and dress-up days that ran this year from January 28 to February 3. With two great reasons to celebrate, she, her fiancé, and the school principal decided to do something extra special.
"We called it 'Fancy Surprise Day,'" Catie Zwier said. "The whole school was involved. The kids didn't know. It was just a giant surprise for the whole community."
A video reel on Zwier's Facebook page shows Good Shepherd students erupting in joy as their teacher is walked down the aisle in her mother's wedding dress.
"The place just went crazy," the 38-year-old groom Kevin Zwier, a copywriter, said. "I knew how loved she was but, man, that was a whole other level."
Photos of the ceremony show Father Ben, the officiant, involving the students in the nuptials in a meaningful way. There are shots of children smiling and raising their hands to answer questions during the wedding Mass. One can only imagine how taking part in such a beautiful experience will shape the view of the Sacrament of Matrimony in the hearts and minds of all the young people involved.
Kevin and Catie celebrated their wedding the next day with friends and family but said their ceremony with the students Catie's been teaching for nine years was hard to "top."
"It exceeded our wildest dreams," Catie said, describing the walk through the celebratory receiving line afterward. "It was like five minutes of pure joy from every single kid in the entire school."
