Becky Carey’s fiance gave his full support for her to skip the couple’s engagement photos so that she could spend time with her father instead.

The couple got engaged in 2018, 4 years after U.S. Air Force Colonel Timothy Carey was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate and pancreatic cancer. He was in hospice care at the time but managed to make it back to the house where he raised his daughter in order to stage the father-daughter dance they feared he wouldn’t live to see at the wedding.

“We whispered to each other this was just practice,” Becky Carey told Good Morning America. “But I choked up at the end, realizing how important it was.”

Bonnie Turner was emotional as well. She was the photographer hired to take the photos. The owner of Bonnie Turner Photography told GMA that she had never done anything like it before.

“Photos are everything you have when people are gone, it’s what we have to look back on to feel that person with us,” she said.

Turner also set up a GoFundMe page for Carey to help with both the photography and wedding expenses.

“I shared their heartfelt story on Facebook and so many of you have given a tremendous outpour of love. You all have asked to donate to her engagement photos and wedding expenses,” she explained in her plea which has so far raised over $8,000 for the couple as well as Carey’s mother.

The heartwarming and heartbreaking “just in case” photoshoot took place on Oct. 14, 2018.

The wedding was scheduled for September 2019 and it turns out the preemptive photoshoot was the right thing to do. Col. Carey died on March 29, 2019.

At the wedding, a video of their dance captured by Luke Denton of Media Cure Productions played on a big screen, tears flowing freely among the guests. In it, the two danced to Col. Carey’s favorite song “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers.

“He fought cancer harder than anyone. He should have died at least seven times prior. I know he was holding on for me,” the bride said.

After a 30-year military career, including flying 240 combat missions in Vietnam and earning many honors such as the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 15 Air Medals, and 3 Air Force Commendation Medals, Carey’s last battle ended at Arlington Cemetary.

While he didn’t make it to the wedding, he did live long enough to watch the final cut of their heartwarming video as well as attend the couple’s engagement party (which took place just 4 days before he passed away).

“I had been in chosen denial about how sick he was. We were able to talk and laugh,” Becky told Inside Edition.

There were, of course, some tears captured on film as well.

“He started crying, so of course I started crying,” Becky recalled. “It was sad. But it was also beautiful.”

Col. Carey died at home in his own bed in the middle of the night.

“We found him at 7:30 in the morning,” his daughter said of finding him in the exact position he had been in when they tucked him in the night before. “He didn’t move. I think it was very peaceful.”

Be sure to scroll down below to see emotional video of the father and daughter’s “just in case” dance.

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Source: Good Morning America, Mountcastle Funeral Home, PEOPLE, Inside Edition