Hurricanes mascot Stormy crashes fan's wedding first look

Matt Beeman thought he was turning around to see his bride, Margaret. Instead he came face-to-face with a pig.

Stormy the ice hog, the Carolina Hurricanes mascot, surprised Beeman by crashing the Hurricanes season-ticket holder's first look a day before his wedding on Lake Gaston, North Carolina.

"I was getting a little choked up because I was ready to see my bride to be in her dress," Matt told NHL.com, "and then I turned around and was like 'yeah, they got me' because I wasn't expecting it."
Matt is both a Hurricanes fan and avid supporter of mascots, which is why Margaret made arrangements for Stormy to show up 72 miles north of Raleigh on Friday.
"I was trying to figure out a wedding gift, and I knew I wanted to do something with the Hurricanes Stormy because he loves mascots and particularly Stormy," Margaret said. "I figured I would shoot for the stars and see if [Stormy] would come."
Margaret booked Stormy for an hour, so after the surprise hung out and did some chores around Matt's family's lake house while the couple completed their pictures.

Matt caught wind of Margaret's surprise when he accidentally saw the email to Carolina on her phone, but he thought she was organizing a surprise for his birthday, Oct. 5. When that came and went, he figured she wasn't able to pull it off.
Margaret admitted she was jealous of the Hurricanes mascot by the end of the event.
"I hugged Stormy, and then I hugged him again, and I hugged him again," Matt said, "and Margaret said she was kind of jealous because I couldn't quite kiss her and hug her like I did to Stormy."
"Stormy got a bigger reaction than I did," Margaret said.
But the stunt had the desired effect.
"It actually relieved a lot of the tension for the rest of the day," Matt said. "It was loads of fun. I said [she earned] a lot of wife points."
Photo courtesy: Crystal Nowoc