- Mikayla and Austin Dunsmuir got married on March 22 in Charleston, South Carolina
- The groom and father of the bride have gone viral on TikTok for their emotional wedding ceremony reactions
- “It’s just been a whirlwind,” Mikayla tells PEOPLE
The most important men in one bride’s life have gone viral for their heartfelt wedding ceremony reactions.
Mikayla and Austin Dunsmuir got married in an elegant outdoor wedding ceremony attended by 75 guests in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 22. Like many brides, Mikayla expected Austin and her father to get a little emotional when she walked down the aisle — but she “had no idea” their reactions would be so sentimental that they’d go viral.
Mikayla, 27, recorded a surprise audio message for the DJ to play while Austin, 25, was turned around, waiting for her to walk down the aisle.
“I wanted to make my wedding authentically us, and we’re very emotional people. I wanted to do something that he wasn’t expecting,” Mikayla tells PEOPLE, adding, “Nothing’s ever about the groom on his wedding day.”
Footage captured by Whale Tale Weddings and posted by the bride on TikTok on April 7 shows Austin’s eyes quickly well up during the ceremony as the recording plays.
“Hi baby, it’s me, your bride!” Mikayla’s message began. “I wanted you to take a moment to relax your nerves before I walk out of these doors. Breathe in this moment, feel every emotion, because this entire day is going to fly by. I just want you to know I’d do it all again, through every journey I’ve been on and every road I’ve gone down, I wouldn’t have changed a single thing because it led me to you, this exact moment. We finally made it.”
With each word, Austin appeared to be more and more moved by the thoughtful sentiments.
“We’re about to start this beautiful life together that we’ve always talked about,” the bride continued. “I would choose you in every lifetime over and over again. You are my soulmate, my dream man, you’re my person, my home, my best friend, my soon-to-be husband. You are quite literally my everything. I cannot wait for everything that is to come, every adventure we take after this as husband and wife. I love you more than anything. Alright, are you ready? Here I come. I can’t wait to see you.”
The flood gates opened once Austin finally turned around and saw Mikayla. His face tightened, lips trembled and shoulders shook with each breath as he cried.
“He had pictured that moment in [his] head for years, so actually seeing it, [he] just couldn’t believe it,” Mikayla tells PEOPLE.
“All my bridesmaids started crying immediately, my parents were crying,” she adds. “Austin was obviously sobbing as soon as he heard my voice. Everyone was just really shocked.”
Another TikTok video — which has 2.3 million views and 470,000 likes — captures Austin’s reaction from a deeper perspective. The videographer added a microphone to Austin’s suit, which recorded the sounds of his happy cries and hiccups, as well as his private comments to his wife after tying the knot.
“I didn’t even know that was part of the plan,” Mikayla tells PEOPLE. “…I had no idea. So when I got the video back, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, they put a microphone on him!’ And it’s so cute.”
She continues, “Watching that video and then hearing all that, I was just like, ‘Oh, my God.’ It’s just so special to have that moment forever.”
But Austin wasn’t the only one crying. As many TikTok users pointed out in the comments section, Mikayla’s father, Michael Caruso, had the sweetest facial expressions as he accompanied his daughter down the stairs and aisle.
His eyebrows knit together, and he was clearly holding back tears. He had already broken down during his emotional first look with his daughter earlier in the day.
“Me and my dad are very, very, very close, so we’ve talked about that moment forever,” Mikayla says. “And finally getting to that moment, it’s just been a whirlwind. Like, here’s my dad, and then I’m trying to soak in looking at my guests. It was important to me. I wanted to take in every second walking down the aisle.”
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One of Mikayla’s favorite moments between her husband and father is when she reached the end of the aisle, Austin told her, “You look beautiful,” before turning to Caruso and telling him, “She’s absolutely beautiful.”
“I just love that he said that to him,” Mikayla shares. “And then after we were pronounced married, when we were walking down the aisle, him and my dad did a little handshake and it was really cute.”
Mikayla and Austin started dating five years ago after meeting through Greek life in college in Pennsylvania. They got engaged on April 20, 2024, and are now taking in all of their recent wedding memories together, though Austin has mixed feelings about going viral.
“He’s very modest. He’s not like a huge social media guy. So when it first started going viral, he was like, ‘Oh, my God, everyone’s seeing me cry.’ And I was like, ‘No, everyone loves you. They love this, they think it’s so special,’ ” Mikayla says. “He just gets red, like blushy. He’s such a cutie.”
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