Max Singer and Kenya Smith had an unforgettable wedding celebration on Saturday, thanks in part to an unexpected appearance from Taylor Swift.
The pop superstar surprised the couple at their reception in New Jersey on Saturday, performing an acoustic version of her hit “Blank Space” and posing for a series of photos.
Longtime Taylor fan Max spoke to AccessHollywood.com on Sunday to share how he responded to the A-lister’s “awesome” cameo, and revealed that neither he nor Kenya had any clue what was in store for their special day.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BGQLq_5DvCp/?taken-by=taylorswift&hl=en
“I had no idea until the second she actually walked in,” he said of Taylor’s arrival. “And I reacted like a little 10-year-old fanboy rather than a grown man [laughs].”
Max’s sister, Ali, helped orchestrate the surprise after she reached out to Taylor to share the story of how Max and Kenya married at his mother’s hospital bedside before she passed away.
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So Taylor swift showed up to my cousins wedding… 😳 #Surprised pic.twitter.com/98yDtmg7kH
— Gage Simmons (@Gage_Simmons) June 4, 2016
Months later, Taylor followed through on her and Ali’s conversation and appeared at the festivities during a pause in Ali’s speech. According to Max, it was the perfect time to catch him off guard.
“We thought we were about to start having dinner because the toasts were over, but then [Taylor] literally walked in at that exact moment,” he recalled.
Despite the initial shock, Max said that once he caught a glimpse at his sister during the reveal, his instincts immediately kicked in.
“As it was happening, I just looked at [Ali] and she had that, like, smile like she knew what was going on. And I clearly didn’t, so I knew she had to have something to do with it,” he laughed.
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Ali didn’t act alone. Max told Access that his sister’s friend, Morgan, was also aware what a big Taylor fan he is. After he wrote an essay about her album “1989” and submitted it for admission to business school, Max said that Morgan got such a kick out of his strategy that she used it to help Ali give her brother and his bride the ultimate wedding gift.
“I had sent that essay and [Morgan] thought it was hilarious, so she wanted to do something cool with it and I knew. It clicked, like, ‘Oh, you. I know it’s you!'” he laughed.
Taylor arrived to the festivities with more than just her voice. She also gave Max and Kenya a handmade card with the “Blank Space” lyric “So it’s gonna be forever” painted on the front, a gesture which Max said points to Taylor’s generous character.
“It’s really incredible, because not only is she this crazy, huge star who did that for us, but she actually took the time to make something like that,” Max said. “It’s really, it’s unbelievable, honestly, that a person like her would do that, which just speaks to how amazing a person she is.”
Max said that the evening was such a “cool and crazy” blur, he couldn’t even guess how long Taylor’s appearance lasted – but he was happy to simply be present for it.
“It was all so crazy that it just happened and I don’t even know,” he said. “I was just loving the moment.”
The newlywed told Access that his and Kenya’s nuptials were already everything they’d hoped for, but Ali and Morgan’s secret plan brought things to a whole new level they never saw coming.
“Everybody was great. We were with all our family and friends. It was perfect,” he said. “Everybody did their part to make the wedding amazing to start with, and then that, obviously, was the icing on the cake.”
— Erin Biglow
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