Groom's heart-melting reaction to seeing bride walk down the aisle is precious: 'A beautiful moment'

Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 12, 2023. It has since been updated.

It's always heartwarming to see grooms get emotional when seeing their bride for the first time on the wedding day. But one groom has taken the internet by storm with his heart-melting reaction. In a TikTok video shared by @aspenavenue, the groom Anthony Cortesi can be seen breaking down into tears upon seeing his bride walking down the aisle in her wedding dress. The 9-second video shows him turning around to see his bride make her entrance and almost immediately starting to cry uncontrollably at the sight.

The video has garnered more than 52 million views. It is captioned, "Just crying over here watching this groom’s priceless reaction." @mrs.east2018 commented, "Now I wanna see the bride!!!! Congrats!!" @laceandlyssa shared, "So sweet!" @thatcrazydanemom expressed, "If my fiancée doesn’t do this when I walk down the aisle, I’m turning around j/k! You can see the love in his eyes! So sweet."

@ashleystevens89 expressed, "But can we also appreciate the best man?? He is just as excited." @serinasinnaeve pointed out, "If my man doesn’t look like this, I don’t want it." @richlilydesigns commented, "Such an amazing moment to witness the amazing love between these two! #stillcrying."

Speaking to Good Morning America, Cortesi shared that he was so emotional because he felt like the moment was a long time coming.

"We both worked really hard for this for a number of years," shared Cortesi. He proposed to his now-wife Lindsey Cortesi in 2020 after dating her for six years. "We planned it out, found the perfect place, and everything like that. So that's why I had the reaction, I feel like we just have great love and family support."

Lindsey wasn't prepared for such a reaction from her husband on the wedding day. "Just to see him, the way he just turned and his emotion. [They say], 'You'll know when he's the one,' and it was like, I knew it," she said. "It was just a beautiful moment."

The couple's wedding videographer Michael Gonzalez, who captured the special moment, knew it was a "one in a million" reaction. "I do a lot of wedding videos, we shoot like 40 to 60 a year. We always make the joke when we talk to the groom that we'll bring a little bag of onions or we'll step on a toe to get the reaction... As soon as I saw [Anthony Cortesi] cry, I was like, 'Oh, he really loves this woman and I'll tell you that much,'" said Gonzalez, who is co-founder of the wedding business Aspen Avenue along with his wife and photographer Nicole Gonzalez, who posted the video on TikTok.

Nicole, who is also the bride's step-sister, shared that seeing the moment in person "felt so real." "It was such a beautiful moment... just seeing it come to life," she added. "And I was like, 'This is this is going to go next level [on TikTok]."

Although Cortesi is shocked that the video went viral, he is glad that people are enjoying the moment. "A lot of guys at work are like, 'Yeah, I've seen your video' and they're sending me videos on Instagram and messenger and text, all kinds of stuff," said Cortesi. "I didn't expect this to happen, I just thought it was gonna be you know a few likes."

He added that going viral doesn't bother him so much. However, his wife shared, "Oh, he loves it."