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 collapsing at the church altar moments after marrying her husband, which she attributed to heat exhaustion and dehydration.
The 28-year-old had been enduring 37C temperatures under “all lights” for more than 40 minutes when her head started spinning after exchanging their vows.
When the couple were pronounced husband and wife, the speech therapist fell to the ground during the ceremony, while her worried fiancé Alex Franks rushed to her side.
Shocking footage from the wedding captures the moment Catherine falls to the floor three times as the bridesmaids and groom try to keep her upright.
Catherine Frnaks, 28, fainted on her wedding day after enduring 37C heat at the altar under the lights where she said “I do.”
Then, more images reveal her prostrate on the floor of the altar while everyone frantically fans the horizontal bride.
Catherine said she passed out from dehydration, a moment that was shared on TikTok and racked up more than 500,000 views.
Catherine said: ‘We get to the wedding and the ceremony and I’m starting to feel a little dizzy at the altar with everyone watching.
After Catherine collapsed spectacularly at the altar, her husband Alex rushed to her aid, along with other guests.
“I think we had just said ‘I do’ and were waiting for the final prayer, so technically we were married. We had been there for about 40 minutes.
“My husband knew something was wrong and he kept looking at me and I said, ‘I think I’m going to faint.’ I started getting tunnel vision and feeling very dizzy.
“The next thing I knew, I woke up and saw boots all around me because my dad and my husband were wearing cowboy boots.”
Catherine, who met her husband on dating app Hinge before getting engaged in August 2022, said she managed to pull herself together after the incident when her new husband helped her calm down.
Despite the strange start to the couple’s married life, they looked like a match made in heaven as they smiled in front of their guests.
After Catherine collapsed, her husband and other wedding guests, including a bridesmaid, helped her into a chair.
Catherine said: ‘I was trying to pull myself together and pull myself together because all these people were here and looking at me.
“I thought, ‘I just need to get up and finish.'” It was very hot at the altar with all the lights.
‘My husband was really worried about me. I heard people say ‘is this okay?’ “Give him some water.”
‘He told me ‘it’s okay, you’ll be fine’, he really convinced me not to be too scared.
“I’m a pretty clumsy person, so I’m used to things like that happening to me.
“A lot of people came up to me at the reception and asked if I was okay.”
Catherine, who married teacher Alex, 26, in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, US, on July 7, 2023, said the moment has become a “family joke” among those closest to her and loved ones.
She ended up going to the emergency room the next day due to dehydration, but admits the debacle will be a fun story to tell her daughter for years to come.
Catherine, who is expecting a baby girl in April, said: “I didn’t faint again but I did get 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 thought I had a little virus and I was very dehydrated.
‘At the time it was distressing, but now we look back and laugh. It’s funny now. He made the day very memorable! Now it’s a family joke.
‘This will be a fun time we can share with our daughter for years to come!’