A talented maid of honour had wedding guests in stitches with a special version Abba's Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!. Lauren O'Brien has been best friends with bride Natasha Long, who is a huge fan of the iconic Swedish supergroup, since they were in primary school.
In tribute to her pal's obsession with the pop legends, she surprised the 25-year-old with a unique rendition of the 1979 chart-topper, Wales Online reports. Featuring lyrics she rewrote especially for bride, she used the hit song to tell the tale of their friendship and share the story of how Natasha met husband Bradlee Harker.
Lauren, a former accountants supervisor from Bridgend, said: "Tasha's Abba mad and always has been, so I knew exactly what I had to do." The 25-year-old added: "She's always got their music on every time I go to her house - she even had a Mamma Mia-themed hen party, for God's sake. I'm not such a big fan though and had to swot up on them before I was able to rewrite the lyrics.
"As a result I had it playing on my headphones when I was at the gym, even in the background while I was in the shower - literally everywhere I went. So I'm a bit sick of them now to be honest," she laughed, adding that she didn't tell anyone at the ceremony about what she was planning.
"Other than the bridesmaids who I got to join in on the chorus and the wedding planner who was in charge of cueing the music, I kept it totally secret." Good job too, as Natasha's hubby Bradlee had, unbeknownst to Lauren, banned any mention of Abba from the couples' bash at Bryngarw Country Park, Brynmenyn, near Bridgend, earlier this month.
"I didn't realise that until the week before the wedding, by which time it was way too late to change my plan," she added. "I'd already written my version, with help from my sister, so there was no going back."
A video of the performance, uploaded to social media, has since been viewed thousands of times."
In it, Lauren charts her and Natasha's very first meeting at Tondu Primary School, right the way through the moment she heard she was getting engaged some two decades later.
"Let me raise a glass to my beautiful bestie/Thanks for all the times that you have been there for me," she sings in the rejigged chorus. "There's no one quite like you and I'm lucky to spend/20 years of friendship creating new memories."
And, while it may have proved a complete surprise for Natasha, it was an even bigger shock to Lauren that she manged to pull it off at all. "I'm quite an out-going person, but a singer I am not," she said.
"I just figured we're all here together, so why not have a laugh? Plus I'd had a couple of gins beforehand, which really helped."
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
