Ally Lothman had to skip her best friend's wedding because she had just given birth, but she didn't want to neglect her maid of honor duties.
So she taped an emotional speech for her "sister wife" that had the bride, and the whole reception, in tears.
Michelle Levenson and Lothman have been best friends since they were kids in Georgia. In January, Lothman gave birth to her first child before Levenson's wedding, and thus couldn't attend.
A video of Levenson's smiling and sobbing reaction to Lothman's speech — shared to the TikTok page of wedding photography and videography company Woodell Productions — has more than 17 million views.
"You didn’t think a little bit of childbirth was going to keep me from giving the maid-of-honor speech at my best friend's wedding, did you?" Lothman said in her speech to newlyweds Michelle and Matthew Levenson.
Lothman continued, "I've decided I'd let you in on one of my most favorite memories with the bride. There were endless memories to choose from. We would be here all night if I wrote about them all ... but I'll never forget my first evening in Cortona, Italy."
In 2014, the women were living and working abroad — Michelle in Italy and Lothman in Spain — and reunited to sightsee.
"In true Michelle fashion, she had whisked me up and down the incredibly steep winding roads that Tuscan city was perched upon," Lothman said in her speech. "She had planned my first day to a tee. She showed me an ancient mummy preserved in a church — and I think that may have been the day I was hit by the car and then promptly asked out on a date by the Italian man inside the car."
Watching at her reception, Levenson laughed as her friend continued, "If I remember correctly, it was that late summer sunset that we spent alone in the kind of bar bistro you would see in a life insurance commercial. We drank dry white wine and I remember we were moved to tears together for how beautiful it was."
Maybe it was the white wine or the scenery, said Lothman, "But 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 remarked on the "deep, insightful understanding you've always had with me" adding, "Sister. The word hit me like a ton of bricks. This was our sisterhood. In fact, I believe it was in this moment that we decided we needed to become sister wives."
Lothman addressed Levenson's new husband.
"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," she said. "I'm pretty sure this means we all have to live together now — I'll be bringing a baby so I hope that's OK."
Lothman, 30, of Marietta Georgia, tells TODAY.com that her friendship with Levenson was "written into the stars."
Although neither have biological sisters, their older brothers played baseball together.
When Lothman accepted the maid of honor role in Levenson's Athens, Georgia wedding, she and her fiancé, Chance Roberson, weren't expecting.
Eight months before the wedding, Lothman learned she was pregnant.
"I called Michelle and said, 'I'm having a baby and the due date is around the time of your wedding,'" said Lothman. On Jan. 1, she gave birth to a baby girl after 50 hours of labor. Traveling to the wedding just wasn't realistic.
"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" about traveling with a newborn, says Lothman.
Her friend understood completely.
"This baby is the biggest blessing and I was so excited for Ally," Levenson, of Richmond, Virginia, tells TODAY.com. Lothman's absence, she says, "was heartbreaking ... but she would always be my maid of honor in spirit."
Besides, adds Levenson, the birth of Lothman's daughter "was more important than any wedding."
Lothman's family went to the wedding and her father set up a live-feed so she could watch from her couch at home. During Lothman's speech, recorded in a voice memo and played by the DJ, the women saw each other over Facetime.
Levenson's husband Matthew understands that the women are a package deal. After the wedding, he and Michelle drove from Athens to Marietta to meet Lothman's daughter.
"It's really cool to know that Michelle has such a great, lifelong friendship," Matthew Levenson tells TODAY.com.
Michelle Levenson says Lothman's speech was "impactful and earth shattering."
“(We’re) each other’s limb,” says Michelle Levenson. “I can’t imagine my life without Ally.”