Ellie Goulding during her wedding. File

Gulf Today Report

An NHS nurse and her new husband received an unexpected surprise during their virtual wedding when Ellie Goulding appeared to serenade them for their first dance.

Hayley Pitman, a theatre practitioner at Bristol Hospital, and her partner, rugby coach Harvey Skelton, were originally scheduled to tie the knot in Cheltenham on Saturday 11 April.

However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the couple had to delay their nuptials until later this year.

Wedding Directory Company “For Better For Worse” wanted to help Hayley and Harvey celebrate their wedding despite the unprecedented circumstances, and so arranged an online ceremony attended by family and friends on video conferencing platform Zoom on Saturday 18 April.

“As a special thank you from us at For Better For Worse, to sing your first dance song, we present Ellie Goulding,” a spokesperson for the company says in the video.

Goulding then appears on screen holding her guitar, much to the shock of the newlyweds.

“Congratulations Harvey and Hayley. You’re both heroes and we all love you,” the singer says.

The Grammy Award-winning artist then performs a rendition of her 2015 song “Love Me Like You Do” as the couple slow dance on screen.

“Despite not being able to be with our friends and family in person, being thrown a virtual wedding by the For Better For Worse team was such a magical experience, and the appearance by one of our favourite singers Ellie Goulding was just the icing on the cake,” frontline NHS worker Hayley said.

After the couple made their vows, they received applause from their loved ones before being informed of the surprise that was in store.

“I couldn’t believe it. The memories of this will certainly keep us both going until we can celebrate properly later on in the year.”

Tammy Madge, from For Better For Worse, said it was “really difficult” to see the number of betrothed couples having to postpone their weddings amid the Covid-19 outbreak “after spending months or even years saving and planning for their special day”.

“To help bring a smile back to a special couple’s face, we took it upon ourselves to organise a virtual wedding. With such close ties to the NHS, Hayley and Harvey were the perfect choice for us, and of course Ellie Goulding surprising the couple made it so much more special and beautifully emotional even if we were all sat behind our screens.”