A bride’s dream wedding day turned into a nightmare after she fainted at the altar, just seconds after saying ‘I do’.
A TikTok clip shows Catherine Franks was collapsing at the church altar moments after marrying her husband, which she put down to heat exhaustion and dehydration.
The 28-year-old had been enduring 37C temperatures under ‘all the lights’ for more than 40 minutes when her head began to spin after exchanging her vows.
As the couple were pronounced man and wife, the speech therapist tumbled to the ground during the ceremony, while her concerned fiancé Alex Franks rushed to her side.
Shocking wedding footage captures the moment Catherine slumps to the ground three times as the bridesmaids and groom try to keep her upright.
More footage then reveals her lay prostrate across the floor of the alter as everyone frantically fans the horizontal bride.
Catherine said she passed out from dehydration – a moment which was shared on TikTok and racked up more than 500,000 views.
Catherine said: ‘We get to the wedding and get to the ceremony and I start feeling a bit light-headed at the altar with everyone watching.
‘I think we had just said ‘I do’ and were waiting on the final prayer so we were technically married. We’d been standing there for about 40 minutes.
‘My husband knew something was wrong and kept looking at me, and I said ‘I think I’m going to pass out’. I started getting tunnel vision and feeling really light-headed.
‘The next thing I knew, I woke up and just saw boots around me because my dad and husband wore cowboy boots.’
Catherine, who met her husband on the dating app Hinge before becoming engaged in August 2022, said she managed to compose herself after the incident when her new husband helped calm her down.
Catherine said: ‘I was trying to get myself together and gather myself because all these people were here and watching me.
‘I thought ‘I just need to get up and finish’. It was so hot on the altar with all the lights.
‘My husband was really worried about me. I heard people say ‘is she okay?’ ‘get her some water’.
‘He said to me ‘it’s okay, you’ll be fine’, he really talked me down from freaking out too much.
‘I’m a pretty clumsy person so I’m kind of used to things like that happening to me.
‘Lots of people came up to me at the reception and asked if I was okay.’
Catherine, who married 26-year-old teacher Alex in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, US, on July 7th 2023, said the moment has become a ‘family joke’ among her nearest and dearest.
She ended up going to the ER the following day due to dehydration – but admits the debacle will be a funny tale to tell her daughter in years to come.
Catherine, who is expecting a baby girl in April, said: ‘I didn’t faint again but I got sick. We took a school bus from the church to our reception and I got sick on the bus and then I was fine for the rest of the night.
‘I actually went to the emergency room the next day because we think I had a little virus and I was so dehydrated.
‘At the time it was distressing, but now we look back and laugh. It’s funny now. It made the day very memorable! It’s now a family joke.
‘This will be a funny moment we can share with our daughter in years to come!’