WATCH: Philly Bride Belts Out “Natural Woman” With the Band During Her Wedding Reception

Plus, band leader Eddie Bruce gives us the inside scoop.

We love a story of a bride who serenades her new husband on their wedding day (remember this awesome chick?)—especially when said bride is from Philly and the celebration went down at one of the city’s most beloved venues.

That was the case with Courtney Simmons and Yanir Demri, a New York City couple who returned to the bride’s hometown for their July 10th wedding at the Hyatt at the Bellevue.

As a long-time singer and theater teacher, it only seemed right that the bride perform on her Big Day, and she blew the crowd away with a rendition of “Natural Woman,” the song Demri watched her sing at a bar’s “Soul Night” on their third date together. Take a look:

We spoke to veteran band leader Eddie Bruce, who filled us in on how the whole performance came to be:

“Whenever we have a bride who wants to get on stage and sing with us, there’s always a few things we have to go through: setting up a rehearsal, finding the right song and key. But with Courtney, she knew what she wanted to sing going into it and even though she had rehearsed with a pianist the week before, that moment at her wedding was the first time she sang with the entire band.

“Even as a pro, you’re going to be nervous to sing on your wedding day, but Courtney was fearless and really took the room by storm. She just went with the emotion of the song; I could see the connection she had with her groom and the way she sang right to him made the performance so authentic and real.

“We purposefully scheduled Courtney’s moment early on in the evening so she could relax for the rest of the partyit was an off-the-hook celebration; it was high energy until the very end of the night.”

{h/t: HuffPost}

RELATED: Watch This Philly Bride Crush “Don’t Stop Believin” With the Band at Her Own Wedding 

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