In May 2019, Katie Swantek was on a kayaking trip with her husband of four years, Brett, when an undertow carried him away and ultimately claimed his life. When Brett's body was discovered 10 days later, he was still wearing his wedding ring.
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Katie, now a grieving widow, was left to raise their young son on her own.
A few months later, Katie was organizing her storage rooms when she saw the big white box tucked away in the closet. Inside the box was her wedding dress.
She tore open the box and, without much thinking at all, slipped right back into the dress. She didn't expect it would still fit, but sure enough it did.
"I was the happiest girl on the planet the last time I wore that dress," Katie wrote on Her View From Home. "Now, I found myself more depressed than ever while wearing it — being faced with the reality of no longer having the husband that I married when I wore it."
Katie spent the rest of the day in her wedding dress watching her old wedding videos and crying on the couch.
Then an image popped into her mind; she couldn't help but recall a specific scene from a Friends episode that originally aired in 1998.
She came up with an idea and ended up contacting the photographer who shot her and Brett's wedding photos.