It’s not exactly the setting for a romantic dance to flee to a hotel’s basement shelter during a tornado, but that’s precisely what happened to 25-year-old newlyweds Alex and Sarah Schilke back in June.

A tornado warning was issued for the area when the couple was having their wedding reception at the Grand Geneva Resort and Spa Hotel in Wisconsin.

The basement of the venue served as a haven for the bridal party and the other hotel guests. When the newlyweds mentioned that they hadn’t had their first dance, a bunch of strangers offered to sing and play the guitar.

In a touching cellphone video, people staying at the hotel shine their phones’ spotlights at Alex and Sarah as they sway to their first dance, chase away the darkness.

Sarah told the news organization SWNS, “That moment of having our loved ones and strangers come together to create this beautiful moment and share it with us was so important.”

“It made me believe in people again.” Everyone in the room exuded kindness and compassion, as Alex remarks. “I recall seeing one of my groomsmen as I walked out into the throng following the dance.

We just threw ourselves into an embrace and began to cry. Everything was quite sentimental. While enrolled in the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire’s computer science program, Alex and Sarah first crossed paths four and a half years ago.

After 15 months of preparation, Alex proposed to Sarah, and the two eventually got married. They might not have had backup procedures for tornado alerts even if it had been fifteen years.

I was so astonished to learn that everyone was moving to the shelter that I didn’t even realize what was going on around me,” Sarah remarked.

“There was, of course, a moment of mourning for the wedding reception that took fifteen months to organize.” Members of every other party that was going on at the resort joined the 181-person wedding party as they relocated to the basement shelter.

The couple’s situation worsened when the electricity went out and the basement was left completely dark, creating a chaotic scenario that Sarah described.

“To provide us with some comfort, a few of our party members braved the storm and went upstairs to grab some drinks.”

A group from a nearby family gathering offered one of their own to sing and play the guitar for them just as Sarah was beginning to lose faith.

The couple accepted, and while wedding guests shined their phone flashlights at them in the dark, professional singer Jack Jones sang a cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.”

Sarah recalled the peculiar scene for such a significant occasion—a group of strangers approaching them to inquire as to whether they had experienced their first dance.

They mentioned that one of their relatives was a professional singer and that they had offered to have him sing our first dance.

Anyone from the Schilke wedding, we’re doing a first dance!” I was shouting as I went around. Alex narrated.

“Sarah was moving in the opposite direction, allowing us to cover as much ground as possible.” It was almost like walking through stars as I entered a sea of flashlights.

Sarah was standing in the center of a group of people, and she appeared to be rather nervous. After an hour and a half, everyone was allowed to exit the tornado shelter.

After all that, Alex says, “we were really surprised that about 75% of our guests wanted to continue the party.”

“We ultimately carried on with the reception, eventually started the speeches, and had a couple more dances in the evening.”