Best man enlists star-studded cast for wedding video

Stephen Henning wanted his best man’s speech to be a little different — so he enlisted the help of celebrities to congratulate the bride and groom with a special 10-minute video.

Mr Henning, from Co Down, spent six months producing the video featuring a host of well-known faces including John Bishop, Eamonn Holmes, Chris O’Dowd, Manchester United player Jonny Evans, and Ed Byrne.

Also on the video were Irish rugby players Stephen Ferris and Rory Best, the cast of Mrs Brown’s Boys, as well as rockers Ash, British athlete Iwan Thomas, Graeme McDowell, and Neighbours actor Alan Fletcher.

Mr Henning said he could have followed the traditional route of embarrassing his brother Michael in front of his bride Victoria and guests.

But he hatched a plan using Twitter to let others do the talking when it came to delivering his speech at the reception at Galgorm last Friday.

Some celebrities used smartphones to record their congratulations while others like Sky News’s Eamonn Holmes went all the way by using the studio set and cameras.

Mr Henning said it was a difficult task contacting and persuading the names to take part. “There were quite a few celebrities who said they would send me a video but then two or three months would pass before I would receive it. I was messaging them three to four times a week to get them to send it across.”

He contacted them through Twitter, passing it off as a social media experiment to his unsuspecting brother.

He requested that the celebrities follow him so he could send them private messages without alerting members of his family.

Groom Michael said he had no idea. “I knew he was up to something, but I had no idea that it was for the wedding.”

He now feels pressure should Stephen ever get married. “I have no idea how I could top that. I’d have to get an A-lister probably or have to pay a singer or somebody.”