Zach Bryan sends message to late mother Annette about wife Samantha

Zach Bryan is paying tribute to his late mother in a new Instagram post as he plans to marry his wife Samantha Leonard in December 2025.

“I think you loved this and she,” Bryan, 29, began in the caption of the post, which included a new series of candid photos of intimate moments taken on the “Something in the Orange” singer’s wedding day.

“Last week we all flew to Spain and you ate it all up. I think you ordered everything twice and your dress was perfect. You guys, I love you too. There was a lot of champagne and Mac looked beautiful,” continued Brian, who released his single “Aeroplane” on January 8th.

The singer went on to say of his wife, “My family is kind and they don’t try to fix me.”

“My dad was on the dance floor smoking a cigar and doing splits. Rocky Lane was our ring bearer. He named me after Lane Frost years ago and I think you love it too,” Brian wrote, linking the moment from their wedding day to his connection to his mother. (Lane Frost was a bull rider who died during the 1989 event, and Brian’s middle name is Lane.)

“If only I could see all those toothy cheeks smiling under the Spanish moon late on New Year’s Day morning. Belly laughs and Samantha in her dress was just a sight to behold,” Brian said in the caption.

“I often remind you of all the moments you’ve missed, but Sam reminds you that you’re my other half anyway. She’s something special and precious. Once she touches your life, it’s something you have to hold on to.”
I feel lighter. “My heart beats so easily and the days don’t seem as hard as they once did,” Brian wrote to his late mother, Annette, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 49.

He added: “I wish you could have seen us smiling like children when we met on that beach in Spain,” adding that his wife “loves a man as only a mother can.”

“Maybe you’ll be in that Spanish moon. I’ll see you soon, until then I’ll tell her I love her,” Brian concluded his caption, including a nod to his New Year’s Eve wedding to Leonard at the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Coro, a baroque Roman Catholic church in San Sebastian, Spain.

Leonard also paid tribute to Annette at the couple’s wedding. Brian said on January 5 that Leonard “went out of his way” to incorporate some of the lace from his late mother’s wedding dress into his own dress.

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“I cried for a while because Samantha went out of her way to add the lace from my mom’s wedding dress to her own,” Brian wrote in a post on his Instagram Stories. “Thank you, you are a very important person.”