Kindergarten teacher surprises students by having wedding at school
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Students at Good Shepherd Catholic School were the special guests of honor at a surprise event late last week: their teacher's wedding.
Catie Zwier, who teaches kindergarten, married her husband Kevin during school Mass last Thursday, the day before the couple would have a ceremony with family and friends. Zwier said the plan was in the works for months and she kept it a secret from most of the students except for the scripture readers and designated flower girls.
"I had a teacher growing up. I wasn't in her class at the time, but she had her class sing at her wedding and I always thought that was the coolest thing. And I'm like, 'someday when I get married, my class is going to sing at my wedding,'" she said. "Well, we did it a little bit bigger than that and surprised the whole school. It was awesome."
When she told school staff and the parish priest about her idea, they were enthusiastically on board. Zwier said it exceeded every expectation and she loved seeing students' joy and excitement. Good Shepherd has students from preschool through sixth grade.
Zac Jacob, who was in Zwier's class back when she was Miss Corken and is now in sixth grade, said he was shocked when the priest announced that the regularly scheduled service would become Zwier's wedding Mass.
"It was insane – I knew it was a celebration but I didn't know they were actually getting married in the middle of the day," he said.
After the wedding ended, students and staff lined the hallway waving pom-poms as a "send-off" for the couple. They had their second wedding Feb. 2.
"We thought it was a cool idea. We thought it was going to be really special. But just seeing the outpouring of love — we feel like we've just been floating ever since," Zwier said.
