How a bride's wedding day was saved by five total strangers after her bridesmaids cancelled

A bride was left scrambling to save her wedding from disaster when four of her five bridesmaids suddenly pulled out not long before the ceremony.

Josh and Lillian Beaman were set to tie the knot in early July in Missouri, USA, when the bride's wedding party suddenly and unexpectedly became a lot smaller.

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"I had five, so all except one kind of just dipped out on me for their own personal reasons," Lillian told KMOV.

Desperate to find replacement bridesmaids, the young bride turned to Facebook with a plea for anyone to help.

Posting on a wedding page, Lillian asked if any women around the same age of her original bridesmaids would be willing to come to her wedding and stand beside her.

That's where Tessa Kick's mother, an ordained minister, saw the post and showed it to her daughter.

Tessa felt terrible for Lillian and immediately wanted to help out, so she responded to the post saying she'd happily stand at Lillian's side on her big day.

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As did McKayla Andrews, and three other women who had never met Lillian before.

Recalling Lillian's post, Andrews said it read along the lines of: "All you have to do is be between this age and this age – because she is a younger bride – have a maroon dress, cowboy boots and a strong liver."

Five women in total responded to Lillian's call for help, and when her wedding day arrived they each drove between two and four hours each way to attend.

Though it sounds odd to be a bridesmaid to someone you've never met, Kick said everything went smoothly.

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"We walked in, we said 'Hi, I'm so-and-so, and here we are'," she said of the bridesmaids all meeting Lillian on her wedding day. "She was so thankful."

Above & Beyond Photography captured photos of the touching ceremony, showing the bride positively beaming as she stands surrounded by her last-minute bridesmaids.

As for Lillian, she had a perfect wedding day and said she'd totally return the favour for any one of her bridesmaids.