Gabrielle Stelzer-Dolan not only chose to have her elder brother, Thomas Stelzer, officiate at her wedding but also had a special surprise for him—a sibling dance that left him and everyone in the audience in tears.
“He has shown me more love in my life than [anyone], so he was the one to marry me,” 26-year-old Ms. Stelzer-Dolan told The Epoch Times. “I just knew that I wanted to honor him some more.”
Hailing from Pennsylvania, Ms. Stelzer-Dolan—who currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina—grew up in a tight household and has shared a close bond with both her older sister, Danielle Brown, 28, and brother, Mr. Stelzer, 30.
“I grew up known as Tommy’s little sister, and I was never known as anything else, and we’ve always just been there for each other, done a lot for each other, and he’s one of my best friends,” the physical therapist said.
Ever since she began planning her wedding with her now-husband, Elliot Dolan, 26, she wanted her brother to be a part of their big day.
In Christmas 2022, she asked her brother to officiate the wedding, and he was overjoyed.
“When you get married, the officiant is very important,“ she said. ”I know a lot of people do [find] one that’s ordained that they don’t really know, but for me, I wanted someone up there that has definitely shown me what unconditional love means, and he is the one person in this world that, along with my mother, has shown me complete, unconditional love.”
In addition, she began to hatch a plan to surprise and honor her brother with a sibling dance with him after her husband had his mother-son dance at the wedding.
Keeping it a secret from her brother, she ensured that only a few bridesmaids, her sister, and now-husband knew about her plan.
After dinner on April 19, the day of the wedding, when all the speeches and the mother-son dance we completed, the DJ announced: “Now the bride would like to dance with a special someone, one of her biggest supporters and favorite people in this world, a man she always looked up to since the day she was born. Would Thomas Selzer please join the bride for a sibling dance?”
Hearing this, Mr. Stelzer was taken aback.
“He immediately started crying,“ Ms. Stelzer-Dolan said. ”His words were, ‘That’s not fair’. It was very emotional.”
The siblings danced to “Just the Way You Are” by Billy Joel, as it had personal significance for them.
“It’s who we’ve listened to since we were children,” Ms. Stelzer-Dolan said, adding that they had often blasted songs by Billy Joel in the car.
Seeing the siblings together, there was not a dry eye in the audience.
“It was definitely an emotional thing for everyone that had a sibling there, or to think of a sibling, whether they had them there with them, whether they were somewhere far, or whether they have passed,” she said.
Soon, other siblings present in the audience joined the pair on the dance floor.
The special moment was a poignant reminder that siblings are “your built-in best friend.”
“They’re the ones that are there with you since the day one of you is born, until, you know, the end of time. You know your parents are there for, hopefully, a lot of it, but they don’t get to experience every life goal with you,” Ms. Stelzer-Dolan said.
Thus, honoring her brother on her wedding day was important for her.
“As a mom,” one commenter said, “I would’ve been in a puddle of tears!”
“Immediate tears. Siblings are the only ones with us for the entire journey,” wrote another.
