Bride surprises groom by announcing pregnancy at wedding reception in front of guests

One glowing bride took the cake for most creative wedding toast when she stood in front of her guests to tell her groom he was going to be a father.

Jamie Forbes dropped the pregnancy bombshell during the reception at her destination wedding to now-husband Charlie in Isle of Palms, S.C. In a moment captured on video, the bride presented her groom with a gift box, then launched into her candid speech.

“I didn’t fall in love with you. I walked in love with you, eyes wide open, knowing exactly what I was looking for,” Jamie told Charlie.From the moment you left work to come push my stranded car I knew you were the one I wanted in my corner forever.” She continued, “Please accept this gift — it is the most precious thing I will give you and I hope it makes you as happy as you’ve made me.”

Charlie then opens the box and is left speechless by what’s inside: a framed sonogram. “I’m two months pregnant!” Jamie then said emotionally. “It was the shock of a lifetime, but a good shock,” Charlie told WCNC.

Charlie holds up the framed sonogram of his future daughter. (Photo: James Brindley Wedding Photography)
Charlie holds up the framed sonogram of his future daughter. (Photo: James Brindley Wedding Photography)

What made the moment — and the wedding itself — even more poignant is the fact that just a year before, Jamie was becoming certain she’d never get married or have kids. After “so many bad dates,” she told WCNC, “I couldn’t find anyone that wouldn’t be like settling.” Then she met Charlie in March on the dating site Match.com. By September, they were engaged.

“Our courtship has been kind of a whirlwind — pretty quickly we knew,” Jamie said of Charlie, who simply added, “I knew she was the one.”

The couple, who hail from the Charlotte, N.C., area, decided to have a destination wedding that was “really simple. I figured why not do it now, why wait,” Jamie said. They got married in front of close family and friends. They even had a bridal party of one: their dog, Izzy, who served as flower girl.

Jamie Forbes surprised her husband, Charlie, but gifting him a framed sonogram at their wedding to let him know he’s a dad-to-be. (Photo: James Brindley Wedding Photography)
Jamie Forbes surprised her husband, Charlie, but gifting him a framed sonogram at their wedding to let him know he’s a dad-to-be. (Photo: James Brindley Wedding Photography)

Jaime and Charlie also knew they wanted a family right away and didn’t want to wait for that either, according to WCNC. “Because I’m in my 30s, we’re both in our 30s, we thought maybe it would take a year,” Jamie said. But neither expected things to move as fast as they actually did. So when Jamie realized she was expecting, she siezed her opportunity to wait for the perfect moment to tell her betrothed: a month later, at their wedding.

“The morning I took the test, of course I wanted to go scream and wake him up,” Jamie admitted. But instead she stayed mum for an entire month so the big reveal could be captured for posterity. “It was so hard, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she told WCNC. “I just thought it would be so special and unique, and now we have it on video.” Charlie couldn’t be happier that she made that decision. “I tear up every time I see it,” he said. “It’s the best gift I could have possibly received, so, it’s amazing.”

After finding out they’d be having a girl due in July, the couple picked out a name that holds deep meaning. They plan on calling their daughter Jillian, in honor of Jamie’s younger sister, who died almost two years ago — just eight months after being diagnosed with a rare cancer. “Last year I was actually very depressed,” Jamie said. “It was my first Christmas without my sister, I was single.”

By contrast, she calls this Christmas “one of the best of my life.”

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