This 23-year-old man has a passion for singing. While he’s not as amazing as the singers who made it onto American Idol, he does impress his friends when he sings karaoke. A while ago, he was a groomsman for his best friend Travis’ wedding to his fiancée, Taylor. Travis and Taylor are both 23-years-old.
Leading up to the wedding, Taylor was, thankfully, the furthest thing from a “bridezilla.” Her only request was that she wanted a live band to perform for her walk down the aisle instead of playing a track, which he thought was something within reason.
Travis and Taylor chose the song “Enchanted” by Taylor Swift to be the song she would walk down the aisle to. Travis proposed to Taylor while this song was being performed by one of their friends during karaoke night, so it’s very sentimental to them.
Unfortunately, on Travis and Taylor’s wedding day, the lead singer of the band they booked to perform the song fainted while rehearsing, and she had to go to the hospital. Since Travis obviously couldn’t see Taylor, Travis enlisted him to go and let one of Taylor’s bridesmaids know about what happened.
After a bit, the bridesmaid told him Taylor’s thoughts: She was concerned for the hospitalized singer, hoped she was able to recover, and accepted that she clearly could no longer perform, but she doubled down on not wanting a track to be played.
“She asked if I was willing to sing in place, but I told her that my voice wouldn’t fit the song she wanted. The bridesmaids asked me to do whatever I needed to do and try to make something work. I spoke with the band, and I asked them if they were able to learn ‘True’ by Ryan Cabrera, a relatively simple song, with an hour’s notice, and a song I know my voice can handle,” he said.
The band accepted his request, changed course, and rehearsed the new song choice. The entire wedding party was also kept in the loop of the changes, and later, the ceremony began. Taylor didn’t know that he would be the one singing or what song he would be performing, so when she began walking down the aisle, she was obviously a bit baffled but also thrilled.
“I then took my position as a groomsman. At the photos portion, Taylor came up to me and jumped me with a hug, thanking me for stepping in. She asked why I changed the song, but after a brief explanation of how my voice wouldn’t have worked, she understood and said she was happy I chose that song,” he explained.
Travis, however, didn’t share in Taylor’s happiness about the change of song. Throughout the wedding reception, Travis wasn’t too conversational with him. After the wedding, Travis didn’t keep in touch with him. Eventually, he was tired of Travis ignoring him, so he went to his house to have a discussion and resolve any issues Travis had with him. Sadly, the situation only escalated.
When he and Travis talked, Travis was furious with him for not performing “Enchanted” as planned with the other singer, pointing out that they chose that song because it was Taylor’s favorite. In Travis’ view, he should have just sung the song they wanted him to instead of performing something else.
“I defended myself by stating the following: 1. I was following Taylor’s ONE request for no track music. 2. My voice would have ruined any of the video footage because the song didn’t fit my voice. 3. I chose another song that I KNOW he and Taylor loved and that I could actually sing,” he shared.
Expressing all of this didn’t alleviate Travis’ anger, though. In response, Travis repeated his opinion that he should have just performed the song they originally wanted Taylor to walk down the aisle to. When he argued back that Taylor wasn’t upset with him about the song change, Travis forced him to leave.
Later, the wedding party weighed in with their views. The groomsmen sided with Travis and said he was wrong for singing a different song than the one Travis and Taylor originally wanted. Taylor’s bridesmaids sided with him and stood up for him. They agreed with his decision to perform a song he felt confident about that was still fitting for a wedding ceremony.
Throughout all of this, Taylor hasn’t spoken up, most likely because she doesn’t want to get in the middle since she’s now married to Travis and doesn’t want to voice her differing opinion. He’s grateful that Taylor acknowledged that he did his best.
What advice would you give him?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
By Chip Chick
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology. I... More about Chip Chick
