Bridal Shower Guests All Moved to Tears When Bride Gets Surprise from Late Dad: 'Not a Dry Eye' (Exclusive)
Kelsey Detoro was surprised to see her late dad's best friends at her bridal shower
Alix Haberkern at Ever After Unplugged
Kelsey Detoro (center) and her dad's two best friends at her bridal showerKelsey Detoro was celebrating her bridal shower at a New Jersey restaurant when she got a surprise
Her late father's two best friends happened to be at the same venue for a different shower
“Like, no matter what you believe in or if you believe in a higher power or not, my dad had pulled some major strings to pull this off," the bride-to-be tells PEOPLE
A bride-to-be got a heartwarming surprise at her bridal shower.
There’s still almost a year until Kelsey Detoro walks down the aisle, but her wedding festivities have already begun. On Nov. 17, she hosted a small bridal shower at a restaurant in her hometown in New Jersey. The guest list included many of the women in her family and some close friends — but she wasn’t expecting a gift from her late father to show up at the restaurant, too.
Detoro, 27, lost her dad in 2019, but his two best friends surprised her at her shower. A video of the reunion posted to TikTok took off, garnering more than 160,000 likes and 470 comments.
“These two gentlemen are his best friends,” Detoro shares exclusively with PEOPLE. “He literally went to elementary school with them and was a cop with one of them. He's just been friends with them their whole life.”
Alix Haberkern at Ever After Unplugged
Kelsey Detoro (center) with her dad's two best friends and others who attended her bridal showerNever miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
As bridal showers are traditionally attended by the women close to the bride and groom, both of her late father’s friends weren’t invited to the event. Coincidentally, one of the two men was invited by his wife to a baby shower happening at the same restaurant — and he texted the other that morning to ask him to tag along.
“It just all happened that day that they were like, ‘Hey, let's just meet up at this place and hang out,’ “ Detoro says of the serendipitous moment. “And it just so happened that my bridal shower was happening at the same exact time as this baby shower.”
As described in the video’s caption by Alix Haberkern, who posted the clip originally, “when i say not a single dry eye in the room, i mean it.”
“Everyone I've talked to [has] been like, there is no way your dad had nothing to do with this,” the bride-to-be recounts. “Like, no matter what you believe in or if you believe in a higher power or not, my dad had pulled some major strings to pull this off.”
The comments of the original TikTok are filled with viewers who were also touched by the moment, agreeing that it was likely a sign from Detoro’s late father.
“You can tell they see their friend in you,” one TikTok commenter wrote. “Especially the one in the dark shirt. He looks like he was holding back the emotions.”
“I’d crumble! This is the most clear sign that there’s something greater than humans. Your dad is looking over you,” another wrote.
Detoro admits to PEOPLE that the town she lives in isn’t particularly small, but describes it as “one of those towns where everyone knows everyone.”
“[My dad] literally grew up on the same street he lived on his entire life. He was very much a homebody,” she says. “He was a cop in town. He had to retire early because he was injured, but then he got another job in town as the fire marshal. So he's just never really ventured out of town.”
Alix Haberkern at Ever After Unplugged
Kelsey Detoro, her dad's two best friends and another family member at her bridal showerBut that also gave her father deep connections throughout the town. She confirmed that her dad’s best friends are invited to the wedding, which is currently scheduled for November 2025, but seeing them at her bridal shower was an extra surprise.
This also isn’t where the serendipity of Detoro’s love story ends, either. Though her father died of a heart attack in 2019, she’s been with her fiancé since 2017. Long before the pair decided to tie the knot, her husband-to-be was her father’s first-ever intern.
“[My fiancé] was actually going to school to be an arson investigator, and turns out, that's what my dad does — and it's not like, super common,” she explains. “So I was like, ‘Oh my God, no way. I’ve got to tell my dad about this.’ And then our relationship just progressed.”
“[My dad’s] never taken an intern in his whole life, but his first ever intern was my boyfriend, who's now my fiancé,” she explains. “They were like twin flames. They're the exact same person, pretty much. So they were really, really close too.”
“It just runs so deep, all these connections,” Detoro says.
