Groom Shocked by Bride's Red Wedding Dress — and His Reaction Just Went Viral: 'My Jaw Dropped' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Woodell Productions/Woodellproductions.com

Woodell Productions/Woodellproductions.com

One groom couldn’t contain his shock after seeing his bride in a bold wedding dress on their big day.

When Tyler Dufford, 31, saw Amanda Dufford, 32, walking down the aisle he immediately smiled and shouted “Yes!” as he threw his hands in the air. As Amanda got closer, allowing Tyler to better see her red wedding dress, he bent down with his hands on his knees and his mouth agape. He maintained his mesmerized expression until she reached the altar, even covering his jaw-dropped mouth with both hands at one point.

“My reaction was a mixture of two different emotions. Number one was relief,” Tyler tells PEOPLE of his reaction, which is now viral onTikTok. He explains that he was told that Amanda would be wearing makeup for the ceremony. This worried him because he had rarely ever seen her wear makeup in the nearly six years they’ve been together.

Tyler Dufford reacts to Amanda Dufford walking down the aisle.Woodell Productions/Woodellproductions.com

“I was horrified that she was going to come out of those doors and it wasn’t going to look like Amanda,” he continues. “Because sometimes makeup does that. But the bridesmaids did a fantastic job of keeping it very subtle, keeping it very minimal to where it still looked like my now-wife. So when I’m cheering, it was me being super relieved at her still looking like herself. And then me laughing about it was me being like, ‘I don’t know why I was scared about that,’ so I just laughed it off.”

At first, all Tyler could see was Amanda’s face and hair due to a photographer blocking his view of her wedding dress. But once her red gown was in eyesight, Tyler was floored.

“When I stood back up and the photographer had stepped out of the way, my jaw just dropped,” Tyler says. “I was absolutely dumbfounded with how gorgeous she looked and how perfect that dress was for her. And I literally just sat there and thought, ‘That is my wife.'”

For Amanda, Tyler’s reaction will be a memory she cherishes forever.

“I was just like, ‘Yep, that’s my husband,'” Amanda tells PEOPLE. “I was so excited to see him at the end, so happy and we’re still so in love, and it just felt like we were meeting each other for the first time again and I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t help, I almost wanted to run up there, but still trying to remember how to walk.”

She adds, “I was smiling so much, but also I was trying to hold back the tears from his reaction, from how handsome he looked. It was a whole bundle of nerves and it ended up just, all I can do is just stare at him and realize how happy and how we’re here. We’re doing this.”

Amanda and Tyler Dufford.Woodell Productions/Woodellproductions.com

During the ceremony, Tyler and Amanda engaged in an ancient Celtic practice that involves tying the couple’s hands together with rope, symbolizing their commitment to each other. This is where the phrase “tying the knot” originates.

As for Amanda’s dress, she says red is an important color in Viking culture.

Amanda Dufford’s wedding dress.Woodell Productions/Woodellproductions.com

“We’re not traditional. Tyler here knew I wasn’t wearing white, but he didn’t know exactly what I was wearing,” she says. “It was just something that was more us and definitely gave it more of the Gothic feel. And it’s just something I fell in love with for two years after looking at so many other dresses.”

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“We were in the crowd and moshing and all of a sudden, at the corner of my eye, I was like, ‘This man is hilarious. He is in a chicken onesie,'” Amanda recalls of seeing Tyler for the first time. “And I actually came on to him, just messing with him and doing our dancing and moshing during Of Mice & Men. I got up to him and just gave him that look of ‘I like you. I want to continue this.’ But no words were spoken.”

One thing led to another and the pair physically collided.

“Somehow I ended up breaking his nose and he busted my lip,” Amanda says.

source: people.com