Bride and Groom Wrote Each of Their 140 Guests a Note to Read Before the Wedding. Their Reactions Went Viral (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

A bride and groom found a beautifully sentimental way to honor their “village” on their wedding day.

While Alivia Zaubi and now-husband John Pisani were planning their nuptials last year, it occurred to them that their wedding would be the ideal opportunity to let their friends and family know just how much they are loved and appreciated. But instead of making a toast or handing out favors, they decided to put pen to paper and hand write each of their 140 guests a personalized letter.

“We felt we had the perfect opportunity to do that with all of our people in one place,” she continues. “Though we felt we could make a strong effort to be present with everyone [at the wedding] and show our gratitude, we wanted to ensure that each person was properly thanked. Their love, support and efforts throughout the years shaped us — individually and as a couple — and these letters felt like a way that we could reciprocate that love and effort.”

While Zaubi says the hardest part of the ambitious project was simply getting started, once she and Pisani, 31, began writing “it came easy.” To share the load, the pair divided their guest list “almost like the traditional aisle split of ‘bride on the left, groom on the right,’ " she explains.

As for the guests Zaubi described as “the in-betweeners” — people with whom she and Pisani have a shared relationship — they either collaborated on a single letter or wrote two.

The couple would plan weekend dates at coffee shops or parks to work on the letter project together, sharing “stories for inspiration and coffee for fuel,” Zaubi recalls, noting that it turned out to be one of their favorite parts of the entire wedding experience.

She explains that they didn’t intend for the letters to be a “thank you for coming, have fun” gesture, but instead a way to express their sincere gratitude for the impact their loved ones have had on their lives.

“We included core memories with the person, things we admire about them, and anything else we felt we wanted to share with them,” Zaubi says of the letters' contents. “[As we wrote], we would laugh, we would cry, and we learned a lot about some of the guests that might have been more on the other side of the aisle.”

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On the day of their wedding — held in Idaho Springs, Colo., on July 14, 2024 — Zaubi and Pisani placed all of the letters at the entrance of their reception at Blackstone Rivers Ranch. The letters were wax sealed with the guests' table numbers.

“The design was for them to find their letter, head to their table and take a moment to open it,” the bride says. “The [wedding] day/weekend had somewhat unavoidably revolved around us to this point. So this moment was an opportunity for us to spotlight them and share how much we care for them and the tremendous impact they have made on our lives.”

In the viral video, guests can be seen overcome with emotion as they read their personalized letters. One woman wipes tears from her face, while another smiles and holds the letter to her chest.

“We saw quite a few tears, heard some laughs, and had a few guests who told us they refused to open it for fear of further ruining their makeup,” Zaubi recalls. “It was all ‘icing on the cake.’ For us, it was never about the anticipated reaction; it was about taking the time to give thanks to the village that raised us.”

“This is beautiful,” one person wrote. “There are so many different relationships in that room that they want to celebrate ♥️.” Someone else commented, “That even made me cry and I don’t even know what the cards say.”

Sharing her advice for other couples looking to do something similar at their own wedding, Zaubi says: “Do not rush it. It is a special time for you to reminisce and share. You will learn so much about the other side of the aisle, and you will dig up fond memories that have been tucked away.”

“It is so worth it!” she adds.

source: people.com