Maid of honour praised for recorded speech after being unable to attend wedding

One maid of honour was unable to attend her best friend’s wedding but made up for it with a heartwarming pre-recorded speech.

On 23 February, Woodell Films, a popular wedding videographer, shared the poignant moment when Michelle Levenson was surprised with the touching words from her friend, Ally Lothman. The video, which has recieved over 17.5 million views, shows Levenson breaking down in tears next to her husband as Lothman’s voice was sent through the speakers at her reception. Having just given birth, Lothman couldn’t deliver the speech in-person.

“You didn’t think a little bit of childbirth was going to keep me from giving the maid of honour speech at my best friend’s wedding, did you?” she started in the recording.

Levenson asked Lothman to be her maid of honour before Lothman was pregnant. She found out she and her husband were expecting eight months before Levenson’s Athens, Georgia wedding.

“I’ve decided I’d let you in on one of my most favourite memories with the bride. There were endless memories to choose from,” Lothman noted. “We would be here all night if I wrote about them all… but I’ll never forget my first evening in Cortona, Italy.”

Lothman went on to detail her and Levenson’s 2014 experience, meeting up while they both were working abroad. Lothman was living in Spain, and Levenson was residing in Italy. The two reunited in Tuscany, drinking wine and exploring the city together.

However, one night of the trip felt particularly meaningful to the duo. “I remember Michelle and I had a moment, like the culmination of a lifetime of friendship had brought us to this one special place in time, 5,000 miles from where we grew up,” Lothman admitted.

She added: “Sister. The word hit me like a tonne of bricks. This was our sisterhood. In fact, I believe it was in this moment that we decided we needed to become sister wives.”

To Levenson’s husband, Lothman said: “So Matt, I hope you understand: Michelle and I made a pact in 2014 that we would find husbands someday but it would always be sister wives first.”

Speaking to Today, Lothman confessed she and Levenson have been close friends for a long time as they grew up in Georgia together. According to Lothman, their friendship was “written in the stars” .

“I had this unhinged idea that I was going to make it. but as the days crept closer I was still recovering and… had new-parent jitters,” Lothman, who gave birth on 1 January, explained.

Despite the obvious disappointment that her best friend couldn’t be with her on the big day, Levenson told Today: “This baby is the biggest blessing and I was so excited for Ally.”

Online, social media users were quick to comment on the “soulmate” nature of their friendship.

“Her husband looks at her like there’s nothing else in this world and this MOH is her soulmate. She is One BLESSED woman,” one sweet woman noted.

Another added: “It’s too early in the morning to be crying this hard over a stranger’s wedding and maid of honor speech.”

“This maid of honor needs to write a book the way she eloquently describes each moment is so beautiful,” a TikTok user wrote.

In conversation with The Independent, Levenson spoke about how Lothman’s speech made her emotional. “Ally’s speech was incredible,” she said.

“When it started playing I was a little taken back. I knew she recorded a speech, but I had absolutely no expectations for what it would be like or what she would say. From the first mic tap it felt like I was in a movie. Time slowed down. She had everyone’s full attention. Honestly she brought the house down,” Levenson continued. “The recorded speech was a last-minute decision.”

Lothman detailed the time she spent writing the speech. “I wrote the speech at 3 am during a middle on the night diaper change on my newborn baby. It was the night before the wedding Michelle and I had already come to terms that I wouldn’t make it to the wedding in person,” she told The Independent.

“I knew I wanted to write a speech and it was then in the middle of the night that I was overcome by the memory of that moment in Italy,” she went on to say. “The words poured out onto the note in my notes app. The next morning I woke up and recorded the speech in the nick of time and sent the audio file off.”