To surprise groom who is blind, bride wears special tactile wedding dress

Throughout their relationship, Kelly Anne Ferraro has come up with creative ways to let her new husband, Anthony Ferraro, know how much she cares — and it was no different on their wedding day, when she wore a special gown so he could get a sense of how she looked.

Anthony is blind, and on their first date in 2017, Kelly wore a velvet dress, so even though he couldn't see what it looked like, he could feel the nice fabric. "No one's ever thought to do that, like ever," Anthony told CBS News. They officially became a couple that night, and Anthony, who practices judo, started inviting her to his tournaments across the country.

"My whole life changed when I met Kelly," he said, adding that she would "describe these landscapes to me, visually, where it would paint these pictures in my head. And she literally became my eyes for the world." The couple became engaged this year, and Kelly said she was adamant about finding a dress with several textures, so Anthony could get a sense of it through touch and have "a whole experience." She found the perfect gown at a Brooklyn shop that makes wedding dresses out of recycled fabrics — it was made of different fabrics, covered in embossed flowers, with velvet tassels.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Kelly said it was "the dress I dreamed about," and she added a jacket made of velvet, a callback to their first date. The couple wed in Maine earlier this month, and Anthony said his "mind was blown" by the dress. "I started crying," he told CBS News. "And it was just like — I was able to see Kelly. That was the best part, I was able to feel her dress."