An Irish couple had no idea what their family and friends would do at their wedding ceremony, and what happened next utterly blew them away.
Rachel and Shane McNally got married at St Joseph’s Church in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan recently and were emotional as family and friends from both sides did a choral performance of ‘Stand By Me’ at the couple’s wedding ceremony.
Stand By Me was initially recorded in 1960 by Ben E. King, who composed it with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
Hannah O’Brien a friend had spent weeks preparing friends and family on both sides to perform the song, and even Rachel’s father joined in. She published footage of the performance on Facebook and commented, “Weeks of secret rehearsals led up to a magical moment last Saturday 03/08/2019 In St. Joseph Church Carrickmacross at the wedding ceremony of a very special couple…. Mr & Mrs Shane & Rachel Mc Nally.”
Hannah is part of the 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 visitors of all ages standing up in their seats and starting singing, then gathering at the alter while Hannah conducts the performance, which left Rachel and Shane in tears as more people marched up the aisle to join them.
Ray Yore, who filmed the video of their performance, stated that he was promised it would happen at some time during the ceremony, and that “it was an awesome surprise and moved everyone to tears.” It was a lovely memorial to the bride and husband.”