Nearly a year after the Gaudreau brothers’ deaths, their sister made sure Johnny and Matt were at her wedding
Guy Gaudreau’s suit jacket, a surprise gift from Katie to her father, was full of pictures of the former NHL star and his brother, who were killed the night before her wedding was scheduled last summer.
Katie Gaudreau knew her wedding needed to honor her two brothers, Johnny and Matthew, who died the night of her rehearsal dinner almost a year ago.
Johnny, who played 11 NHL seasons, and Matthew, who coached at their alma mater, Gloucester Catholic, were struck and killed by an alleged drunken driver in August while biking home from the dinner the night before Katie’s wedding, which was postponed following the tragedy.
Three weeks before the rescheduled wedding on July 11, Katie surprised her father, Guy, with a gift — a custom suit jacket to honor Johnny and Matthew, created by Montreal designer J.F. Bedard.
Katie and her new husband, Devin Joyce, wanted to make sure her brothers’ presence was felt at the wedding, where both were supposed to be groomsmen.
That brought her to Bedard, who had previously designed a custom suit jacket for Canadiens player Cole Caufield, who as a similarly short hockey player had grown up idolizing Gaudreau. Katie saw the jacket and reached out to Bedard about potentially designing one for her fiancé for the wedding.
“Devin comes to Montreal with Guy [Gaudreau] and when I take measurements for Devin, I said to Guy, ‘I will take your measurements, just in case,’” Bedard said. “After the meeting, I chatted with Katie, and I said, ‘Katie, I need to do something for your dad. He’s such a good person, very good human, and so kind.’ And when you talk with Guy, you understand how amazing Johnny was for the hockey world.”
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Working on a jacket with such sentimental value is more an art than a science, Bedard said. He was careful to follow Katie’s lead on how best to honor Johnny and Matthew.
Katie sent Bedard a collection of photos spanning Matthew and Johnny’s lives to line the inside of the jacket. Bedard used a large photo of Guy with his two young sons on skates for the back lining and a collage of family photos for the sides. He also embroidered “Love ya, Pops” on Guy’s jacket.
When Bedard presented Guy Gaudreau with the jacket, he was overcome with emotion.
“He said, ‘Oh my God, thank you for putting all my life in this jacket,’” Bedard said. “For all the pictures, he told me all the stories behind the photos. It was a very, very nice moment for me to see and hear all the stories he had.”