Students, staff put on surprise wedding for beloved principal at her New York school

Buffalo, New York — When Brianna Lanoye and her fiancé Zach Klapp started planning their wedding, they had a hard time whittling down the guest list, Lanoye especially.

She is the principal of the Buffalo Academy of Science, a K-12 charter school in Buffalo, New York, and she kept telling people she wanted to invite the whole school.

“I definitely mentioned it multiple times,” Lanoye told CBS News.

This wasn’t just lip service. She really did want them there. But since that would be impractical, the staff and students got together, in secret, to create the next best thing.

Earlier this month, just a few days before her actual wedding, the staff dressed Lanoye in a makeshift wedding dress and led her into the school courtyard.

“When I exited the building and saw all the students gathered there, I was blown away,” Lanoye said.

The couple in white stood before more than 400 students and staff. The students saw Lanoye and Klapp exchange vows and candy ring pops. And a student officiated the proceedings.

No one in the audience objected to the union, but a few of the students joked with CBS News that  

Klapp is not Lanoye’s one, true love.

 “She couldn’t stop smiling…She loves the kids more than her husband,” student Sabahat Uddin said.

When CBS News asked Lanoye to confirm or deny the allegations, she just laughed and said the ceremony was everything she could have wanted.

“I love my students more than anything,” Lanoye said. “And I just hope that our students feel as loved as I felt in that moment.”