Photographer captures moment butterfly lands on dad’s hand during tribute to his late daughter

Publish Date: Thursday, 4 July 2019, 1:18PM

Weddings are emotional occasions in which we celebrate love and togetherness — and one photographer's incredible pictures from a recent ceremony are reminding the internet of this exact fact.

Jessica Manns was tasked with taking photos at a unique wedding in Fox Hill Farm, Pennsylvania.

Taking to social, she told her followers that it was "probably the most emotional thing" she’d ever witnessed - thanks to one little butterfly.

Groom Max Van Gorder tragically lost his sister Vanessa, who would have been 29, in a car accident at Christmas a few years ago.

View this post on Instagram

That’s a real butterfly on his finger. This is probably the most emotional thing I’ve witnessed at a wedding. The groom’s sister tragically passed away in a car accident a few years prior during the Christmas holiday. To honor her, the groom’s parents released butterflies during the ceremony in her honor. There’s a common belief that our loved ones visit us sometimes as butterflies. As they released the butterflies, they wouldn’t fly off. They clung all over them and even stayed on their bodies the entire ceremony and well afterwards into cocktail hour. This same butterfly on his finger stayed there the entire ceremony and then flew onto the bride’s bouquet after the recessional. Lydia, the bride, even walked down the aisle with two on her dress. Then a few hours later during the speeches, another butterfly somehow got inside the barn and landed on Lydia’s neck and remained there for all the speeches. Unreal. // @foxhillfarmexp

A post shared by PA & NY Wedding Photographer (@jessicamannsphotography) on Jun 20, 2019 at 6:17pm PDT

When he decided to marry his now wife, Lydia, they decided to pay tribute to Vanessa during what would be a bittersweet moment by releasing orange monarch butterflies into the air as a symbol of resurrection and a representation of life.

But instead of flying away, one of the beautiful creatures perched on Vanessa's dad's finger through the whole of the ceremony.

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As Jessica explained: "This same butterfly on his finger stayed there the entire ceremony and then flew onto the bride’s bouquet after the recessional ... Unreal."

The bride herself commented on the now-viral post, saying: "Thank you again Jessica Manns for capturing such a special and loving moment during our wedding. Vanessa was with us there and throughout the night."

To say there wasn't a dry eye at the wedding would be an understatement.

You can find more information about Jessica Manns Photography on her website, here.

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