Five brothers shared a moving moment with their sister on her wedding day when they all turned out for a first look at her wedding dress at the same time. Her angelic look left them speechless.
Amelia Bishop is the middle child of seven siblings in Oradell, New Jersey. Ms. Bishop, 29, has an older sister, Julie Talarico, 35, and five brothers: Christian Talarico, 33, Guy Talarico, 31, Alec Talarico, 27, Travis Talarico, 24, and George Talarico, 21. Her husband, Taylor Bishop, attended the same high school as her brothers.
“I’ve always loved my brothers so much. I’ve always needed them so much, and they’ve always needed me,” Ms. Bishop told The Epoch Times. “All five of them have played really, really significant roles in my life, from the youngest to the oldest, so to give them that moment, it was just so cool.”
On July 1, outside the chapel at Bonnet Island Estate in Manahawkin, New Jersey, the bride’s brothers gathered for their sister’s first look. As they turned to see her in her elegant off-the-shoulder wedding gown and flowing veil, they all showed their emotion in their own unique way.
“I think it was really like they couldn’t believe it,” Ms. Bishop said. “Travis kept going, ‘You look like an angel!’ ... Guy, he is the funniest. ... He’s the one that turned around and he’s screaming ... it was just so genuine because I know, he just wanted to hype me up.”
Overwhelmed by emotion, Ms. Bishop took a moment to look at each of their faces as it was just so endearing.
“George, I can tell he’s trying not to cry; Alec is just like, ‘What?’ ... Chris and I are the most similar, and he just looked so delighted the whole time.”
At the moment, being surrounded by family, Ms. Bishop felt immense love.
Sharing their close sibling bond, the bride—who got the idea of sharing her first look with her siblings from the internet—said she can’t imagine life any other way and is grateful that her husband, who has two older brothers, feels the same about family.
“I just always wanted to be doing what my brothers were doing,” Ms. Bishop said, recalling her childhood. “Like, if you look back in pictures, I’m wearing their hand-me-down clothes. ... If they were digging up salamanders in the backyard, that’s what I was doing.”
Ms. Bishop also said she tried her hand at lacrosse since all of her five brothers played lacrosse until they went to college.
However, as Ms. Bishop got older she moved away from the game and just hung out with her siblings.
When puberty hit, Ms. Bishop began to experience struggles with school and mental health, thus she then grew closer to her sister, and her brothers took on a new role: protectors. “I didn’t look like a little boy anymore and that was always such a big thing growing up. My brothers could not really deal with that transition,” she said. “They were so protective, and, you know, part of me was annoyed, but part of me kind of liked it.”
Mr. Bishop played football at Bergen Catholic High School while his future wife’s brothers played lacrosse for the same school. However, Ms. Bishop hadn’t seen Mr. Bishop through her senior year of high school. One summer, as Ms. Bishop met up with her friend and her friend’s older sibling, she connected with Mr. Bishop, who was also a part of the gathering.
They established a friendship that later blossomed into a relationship.
Mr. Bishop got along well with his brothers-in-law despite being at the opposite end of the spectrum from them in terms of personalities.
“Sometimes they probably prefer to hang out with him over me!” Ms. Bishop said.
The groom surprised his bride by proposing in September 2022 and knew his future wife’s family had to be involved. “We went over to a rooftop bar in Hoboken, and my whole family was there,” Ms. Bishop said. “They were so thrilled for us; we walked in and my dad was crying.”
Two weeks after tying the knot, the newlyweds headed to Hawaii for their honeymoon but not before spending a week at the bride’s family’s shore house, a vacation home for which the bride credits her hardworking mom and dad and their steadfast family values. That week was a “mini-moon” with her siblings and parents.
Since marrying, the light that Ms. Bishop’s family and five loving brothers have provided has been magnified by her husband.
“For as close as I am with my siblings ... I was very, very different from them,” she told The Epoch Times. “No matter what, they were always there for me, even when I didn’t think that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. ... I met Taylor, and he really, truly was the light at the end of my tunnel.”
Being fortunate to be surrounded by such a close and warm family, Ms. Bishop has a message for others: “Be loyal to those who stay by you when you’re at the worst, and best, times of your life,” she said. “There is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
