Jimmy Gisondi made not one, but two sets of vows on his wedding day: first to his new wife, Kelsea, then to his new stepdaughter, Olivia.
At the Nov 2 nuptials at Durham Hill Farm in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, he brought his bride, her 9-year-old daughter and many of their guests to tears with his heartfelt words.
“Olivia, from this day forward, I promise to remind you every day how truly loved you are,” he said. “I promise to teach, guide and respect you for the rest of our days. I promise to never treat you [like] anything less than my own child. I’m very happy to say that you’re my daughter. From this day forward, you will truly be my daughter and the other love of my life. I love you, Olivia.”
Photographer Abigail Lydick of Abigail Gingerale Photography was there to capture the emotional moment.
You can hear audio of Jimmy’s vows to Olivia in the video below.
Kelsea said she knew Jimmy was planning to read something to Olivia during the ceremony, but she didn’t know what he was going to say.
“I have been a single mom pretty much since day one,” the bride told HuffPost. “This was something I had always dreamed of but never really thought would ever happen. The part that stuck out to me is when he called Olivia ‘the other love of my life.’ Having a man love your child as much as he loves you is an indescribable feeling.”
The decision to make a separate vow to Olivia was an easy one for Jimmy, he said.
“Since I already saw her as my own daughter and I was marrying her mother, I wanted her to feel as special as her mom did and give her her own moment on such a special day,” the groom said.
Seeing Olivia’s emotional response to his words meant “everything” to him.
“It confirmed to me that she loves me just as much as I love her,” he said.
Along with the vows, Jimmy presented Olivia (who was also the maid of honor) with a necklace that had her name, birthstone and the wedding date engraved on it.
The Gisondis have known each other since preschool but lost touch over the years. In 2017, they reconnected via Facebook and instantly hit it off. Kelsea said she soon realized Jimmy would make a great stepdad to Olivia.
“He was so quick to want to do ‘family’ things,” she said. “One of our first outings we went bowling and then they played in the arcade together and the smile on her face and his was just priceless. He wanted to be involved in everything: school meetings, doctor appointments — she even asked him to her father-daughter dance and that’s when I really knew how much he meant to her.”
Jimmy and Olivia have grown close over the past two years, with the groom referring to her as his “No. 1 sidekick.”
“She pretty much wants to go and goes where I go,” Jimmy said. “Our favorite outing is, of course, Home Depot!”
See more beautiful big day photos below.
