Groom Stunned as Best Friend Flies 7,000 Miles to Wedding After 6 Years Apart in Viral TikTok (Exclusive) Ashley VegaSeptember 19, 2025 at 9:07 PM 2 @hollsmp/TikTokDuke Duke, Hesston and friend Duke secretly traveled from South Korea to Mexico to surprise his best friend Hesston on his wedding day a...
- - Groom Stunned as Best Friend Flies 7,000 Miles to Wedding After 6 Years Apart in Viral TikTok (Exclusive)
Ashley VegaSeptember 19, 2025 at 9:07 PM
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@hollsmp/TikTokDuke
Duke, Hesston and friend -
Duke secretly traveled from South Korea to Mexico to surprise his best friend Hesston on his wedding day after six years apart
Holly, the groom's sister, filmed the moment and posted it to TikTok, where it went viral with millions of views
Mikayla, Hesston's partner, coordinated the surprise and says seeing her husband reunited with Duke was "so heartfelt"
In a TikTok that swept the internet, a groom's best friend stunned him at his wedding in Cancun, Mexico, after flying 7,000 miles from Seoul, South Korea, to reunite after six years apart.
"My whole job was keeping the secret and not cracking the whole time," Holly, the sister of the groom, tells PEOPLE. She was the one behind the camera, capturing the exact moment her brother Hesston laid eyes on his longtime friend Duke again.
"I didn't do too much of the logistics," Holly says. "I was just trying to keep the secret and then ended up videoing the reunion."
The logistics fell largely to Mikayla, Hesston's partner, who worked quietly with their wedding coordinator and travel agent. "Duke reached out to me about a month before the wedding, asking if there was any way he could still come," Mikayla tells PEOPLE.
"I had to get with my coordinator and my travel agent to get it all worked out," Mikayla explains. "It was Duke's idea to keep it a surprise."
Keeping the plan airtight wasn't easy. "The most challenging part was keeping it a secret, Hesston and I have never been able to keep surprises well," Mikayla says.
"Not even for birthdays or Christmas," she adds. "So it was really hard to keep this from him. Plus, Duke already told Hesston he wouldn't be able to make it a few months prior. So, he really has no idea!"
Duke
Duke and Hesston
For Duke, the decision to come wasn't made until just before the big day. "At first, I don't think I could have made it 'cause of work and my financial status," Duke tells PEOPLE.
"But a couple weeks before his wedding, I decided to go," he continues. "I decided to show up... without Hesston knowing. So yeah, it was a surprise and a little like a wedding prank that I tried to do."
Even then, he worried the secret might slip. "I thought they were gonna accidentally maybe tell Heston," Duke says. "I told Mikayla several times to keep it a secret, which she did really great."
"There's another friend, Anthony, and I told him," Duke explains. "Maybe like four or five people knew, including Holly, and I told them several, several times not to tell Hesston. And it turns out nobody actually told him, so it really turned out great."
When the day arrived, Hesston had no inkling. "It was pretty insane," Hesston tells PEOPLE. "We just got out of the pool and everyone was gathering, and then there he was."
"That just blew my mind," he continues. "I haven't seen him since 2019 when we graduated. I don't know how else to say, but [it was] not expected."
Seeing Duke again was like welcoming back family. "It's like a sibling moving far away," Hesston says. "We just did everything together back in high school and in college for a little bit. It's more meaningful than I can fully describe."
Their friendship stretches back more than a decade. "We were friends since like 2013 maybe," Hesston recalls. "I offered for him to live with my family for a couple different years during high school."
"We went to OSU together for the first year too," he says. "So we spent a lot of time there before life took him overseas."
When he saw the reunion unfold, Duke admits he was struck by Hesston's reaction. "He's not a really like emotional guy, he's a really chill guy," Duke says.
Duke
Duke, Hesston, and their friend when they were younger
"So I wasn't expecting to see that kind of facial expression when he first saw me," Duke continues. "I haven't seen him for five or six years, and then I got to show up at his wedding and surprise him. So it was a great day."
Mikayla, watching it happen, felt overwhelmed. "It was a very special moment for me," she tells PEOPLE. "I had actually never met Duke in person since he has been in South Korea for so long."
"Heston's reaction to the surprise was so heartfelt," Mikayla adds. "I was just so happy to see him happy in that moment."
Holly turned to TikTok to share what she had caught on film. "There is absolutely no way I thought that it would blow up the way it did," she shares.
But the post took off. It currently has more than 4.4 million views and 560,000 likes. The responses to the video, Holly says, "have been overwhelmingly positive."
"Just people in the comments like, all I do is get on this app and cry," she continues. "It just speaks to how far Duke traveled for his best friend."
Duke
Duke, Hesston, and their friend
The comments were filled with admiration — and some envy. "Not a lot of people would do that," Holly says. "I saw a lot of comments talking about how 'I wish I had a friend like this.' "
"People were also like, Hesston, now you have to go to Korea for his wedding one day," Holly shares. "And he's like, yeah, 100%."
Duke even posted his own version of the moment. "It wasn't as viral as hers, but I got some views, so it was pretty fun," he tells PEOPLE. "I've never got so much attention like this before in my life. Crazy. I kind of hate internet attention, honestly. But, you know, it's fun."
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For Hesston, the experience comes down to one thought. "Not expected," he says, smiling. "But unforgettable."
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Source: "AOL Lifestyle"
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