An Irish couple had no idea what their family and friends were going to do at their wedding ceremony and what they did next blew them away completely.
Rachel and Shane McNally got married at St Joseph’s Church in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan recently and were emotional when family and friends from both sides sang a choral performance of ‘Stand By Me’ at the couple’s wedding ceremony.
Stand By Me was first recorded in 1960 by Ben E. King, who wrote it with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
Hannah O’Brien a friend had spent weeks training friends and family on both sides to perform the song, and even Rachel’s father joined in. She shared a clip of the performance on Facebook and wrote, “Weeks of secret rehearsals led up to a magical moment last Saturday 03/08/2019 In St. Josephs Church Carrickmacross at the wedding ceremony of a very special couple…. Mr & Mrs Shane & Rachel Mc Nally.”
Hannah is part of four piece female vocal harmonic group Starling Blue, whose members attended the wedding. Hannah said that she realized that there were going to be plenty of singers and musicians at the wedding and wanted to do something magical for the happy couple who love music.
“I asked family and friends from both sides and we held secret rehearsals for 5 weeks running up to the big day with Starling Blue teaching the harmonies and melody.”
The video shows guests of all ages stand up at their seats and begin singing, and then gather at the alter while Hannah conducts the performance which stunned Rachel and Shane who are seen wiping tears from their eyes as more guests walked up the aisle to join them.
Ray Yore captured the video of their performance saying he was told the performance would happen at some point in the ceremony, he said, “It was an awesome surprise and moved everyone to tears. It was a beautiful tribute to the bride and groom.”
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