India Dawn Jones tells PEOPLE she thought there was “no way” her brother would come home from Iraq in time for the wedding

• India Dawn Jones was completely surprised when her brother Christian returned from his deployment in Iraq and unexpectedly showed up at her rehearsal dinner

• Jones and her loved ones burst into tears when the soldier appeared at the event, and the bride shared footage of the moment in a now-viral TikTok video

• She tells PEOPLE that they included Christian in the ceremony the next day and performed a special sibling dance

Despite her highest hopes, India Dawn Jones had come to terms with the fact that her brother Christian would not be able to attend her wedding in June. After eight months of deployment in Iraq, he would have to miss the event, just as he had missed her other sister’s wedding the previous October – or so he claimed.

Jones was in tears when she saw a special video message Christian recorded for their rehearsal dinner, a moment the bride later shared on TikTok. Then Christian explained why he wasn’t wearing his full military gear on camera, and Jones’ jaw dropped in disbelief.

“I’m leaving for Kuwait in a few hours and from there I’ll be back home in time for the wedding,” Christian said in his recording, causing his older sister to burst into tears while her equally surprised loved ones reacted in kind.

Related: Couple shocks engagement party guests with surprise wedding: ‘Give me 20 minutes to change my dress’ (exclusive)

Screams of joy filled the room when Jones saw her brother, who had finished his deployment a month early, enter the rehearsal room for dinner, completely surprising the entire wedding party.

“I thought I was dreaming,” she tells PEOPLE, recalling the unexpected family reunion just before her wedding day. “I couldn’t believe I could hug him and touch him.”

She uploaded the emotional footage of her rehearsal to TikTok, where it received over 173,000 likes. Christian’s reveal comes about 30 seconds into the video, but Jones let her family’s reactions, ranging from crying and gasping to cheers and hugs, flow for over a minute.

Related: Man Promises to Plant 1,000 Peonies in His Marriage Proposal. Five Years Later, He Shows Off His Impressive Promise (Exclusive)

Jones says only a few people knew about the surprise beforehand: her parents, Christian’s wife and their family. Everyone else at the rehearsal dinner was just as shocked as the bride-to-be, as evidenced by the reactions of her sister at her side at the dinner table and later in the video by the hearty sobs of her grandparents.

At one point in the clip, Jones’ mother can be heard joking about the strong emotions behind the camera’s view. “I have paramedics on standby, don’t worry,” she joked.

The next day, the family was even more excited about Christian’s return and welcomed him to the wedding festivities. He brightened Jones’ already cheerful mood by wearing funky pink sunglasses and walking her mother down the aisle during the ceremony.

Related: Groom Goes Viral After Noticing His Zipper Was Unzipped During Entire Wedding Ceremony (Exclusive)

“He surprised me with a special dance with him and in the middle of it all, my older sister came in and finished the dance with us,” Jones tells PEOPLE of the unforgettable celebration. She also got to personally deliver a meaningful note addressed “To my brother on my wedding day.”

Thanks in part to Christian’s performance, her wedding was “a dream,” according to the supportive sister. After accepting that there was “no way” he would make it to the wedding, Jones was extremely grateful that she was wrong.

“We were always close because I always wanted to protect him,” she adds. “The worst part was thinking that my little brother was over there serving his country, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive more People news!

Read the original article on People.