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 collapsed at the church altar shortly after marrying her husband, which she attributed to heat exhaustion and dehydration.
The 28-year-old had endured more than 40 minutes of 37 degrees Celsius under ‘all the lights’ when her head started spinning after taking her vows.
When the couple was pronounced husband and wife, the speech therapist fell to the floor during the ceremony while her worried fiancé Alex Franks rushed to her side.
Shocking wedding footage shows the moment Catherine collapses to the floor three times as the bridesmaids and groom try to hold her up.
Catherine Frnaks, 28, fainted on her own wedding day after enduring 37-degree heat at the altar under the lamps where she said, ‘I do’
More footage shows her stretched out on the floor of the altar as everyone frantically fans the horizontal bride.
Catherine said she fainted from dehydration – a moment that was shared on TikTok and has been viewed more than 500,000 times.
Catherine said: ‘We’re getting to the wedding and the ceremony and I’m starting to feel a little light-headed 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 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 faint.’ I started to get tunnel vision and felt very light-headed.
“The next thing I knew, I woke up and there were only boots around me because my dad and husband were wearing cowboy boots.”
Catherine, who met her husband on dating app Hinge before getting engaged in August 2022, said she managed to compose herself after the incident as 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 beamed for their guests
After Catherine collapsed, she was helped into a chair by her husband and other wedding guests, including a bridesmaid
Catherine said: “I was trying to get myself together and collect myself because all these people were here and looking at me.
“I thought, ‘I just have to get up and finish it.’ It was so hot on the altar with all those lights.
‘My husband was really worried about me. I heard people say, ‘is she okay?’ ‘get her some water’.
“He told me, ‘It’s OK, it’s going to be OK’, he really persuaded me not to panic too much.
‘I’m a pretty clumsy person, so I’m kind of used to things like this happening to me.
‘A lot of people came up to me at the reception and asked if everything was okay.’
Catherine, who married 26-year-old teacher Alex on July 7, 2023, in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, US, said the moment has become a “family joke” among those close to her.
She ended up going to the ER the next day due to dehydration, but admits the debacle will be a funny story to tell her daughter for years to come.
Catherine, who is expecting a baby girl in April, said: ‘I didn’t faint again, I got sick. We took a school bus from church to our reception and I got sick on the bus and then I was fine 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.
‘It was poignant at the time, but now we look back and laugh. It’s funny now. It made the day very memorable! It’s a family joke now.
“This will be a fun moment we can share with our daughter for years to come!”