Bride And Dad Recreate Adoption Day First-Look On Wedding Day

A dad who cherishes a VHS of the day he first met his adopted daughter as a baby burst into tears when the pair recreated the first-look on her wedding day. Taylor Shennett Heintzman, 28, from Orlando, Florida, and dad Robert, 61, share a running joke he was Taylor's "first buddy," since he was the first in the family to meet her when she was adopted from China in 1997. Robert travelled to China alone, as during the adoption process, his wife, Kelly, unexpectedly fell pregnant and gave birth their daughter, Nicole, two months before the couple were scheduled to fly. As a result, Kelly asked Robert to bring a video recorder with him to China, so she could feel part of Taylor's adoption when he returned. When Robert arrived at the hotel where he was due to meet Taylor, a fellow adoptive parent grabbed his camcorder and was able to capture a clip he and Kelly could never have imagined. As Taylor was the first baby to arrive, the fellow parent shot a beaming Robert being handed Taylor, who he emotionally held and pressed his head into her chest. Over the years that followed, Taylor said she wasn't completely comfortable with talking about her adoption until high school, during which time her dad was her biggest supporter. Robert even accepted a job in China so Taylor could experience her biological family's culture, and so on her wedding day, Taylor knew she wanted to plan a special dad-daughter moment. Having set up a first-look shoot, at The Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, Florida, Taylor said she was already fighting back tears as she approached her dad to tap him on the shoulder. Robert, meanwhile, was holding back emotions of his own – as while he was waiting, he remembered the white onesie his daughter had been wearing in the hotel all those years ago, and how that was now a white wedding gown.

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