Groom breaks down at the sight of his bride in heartwarming viral photos
"I was so thankful for that moment seeing her walking," Quintin Reed said.
— -- A groom who dissolved into a puddle of tears when he saw his bride walking down the aisle is now warming up hearts everywhere.
Quintin Reed tried to hold back his tears, even cupping his face before folding over, his body nearly touching the ground in now-viral photos of the event. A groomsman can be seen consoling him as he attempts to hold it together.
Reed, 27, told ABC News he was "just really excited."
"The moment I saw her, all of the emotions -- the joy, the happiness, the anxiousness -- overwhelmed my heart, so to speak," he said. "I just looked to God. I was so thankful for that moment."
His bride, Ashleigh Reed, walked down the aisle on Oct. 7 at Cottleville Wine Cellar in St. Charles, Missouri, next to her uncle, who gave her away. The 26-year-old bride said she "lost it" when she saw her groom.
"It actually took my breath away," she said of the moment. "I thought, 'It's happening!' It's everything that I've been wanting since the day I met him. I knew he was the one I wanted to marry. I had been wanting to marry him for about four years."
The Reeds met approximately four years ago at Lindenwood University, where they were both enrolled.
"We met on a swing on our campus and we talked probably for four hours," Ashleigh Reed recalled.
The bride said she was impressed by her now-husband's chivalry.
"I had to go study and he said, 'I'll walk you to the library,'" she recalled. "But he said, 'Wait, I need to get on the outside of you to walk closest to the road just in case something were to happen.' I had never heard of that ... and thought, 'That's really sweet.'"
Ashleigh Reed said later that day she told her mom, "I met the guy I'm marrying tonight, and she just kind of laughed at me."