Josie wasn’t worried about the dress or the party: what broke her heart was thinking that one day she would walk down the aisle without her dad 🥹
Jim Zetz was 62 years old and facing terminal pancreatic cancer when his wife shared that fear with photographer Lindsey Villatoro. The girl was 10 at the time and knew that her father probably wouldn’t be there when she decided to get married someday.
Lindsey wanted to give them that moment while they could still experience it. In just 72 hours, she secured donations to organize a symbolic ceremony in California, timed to coincide with Josie’s 11th birthday. There was a dress, flowers, cake, guests, and a pastor, but no groom: the star was the bond between father and daughter.
Jim took his little girl by the arm and walked her down the aisle as everything was captured in photographs and video. The idea was that, when her real wedding came, she could watch him walking by her side again.
The next day, Josie told her mom it had been the best day of her life. And someday, if she decides to get married, she’ll have the moment saved when her dad fulfilled in advance a promise that time threatened to take away from them 🥹