Local bride’s chance meeting leads to multiplatinum country artist performing at wedding

Grow up a rodeo girl and country music almost certainly is what fills your CD player.

For Cassidy Mutchler, it was the songs of Neal McCoy whose hits played on repeat in the late 1990s and early 2000s as she grew up in Whitewood and went to school in Sturgis.

But even when she learned earlier this month that their paths might actually entwine, never did she imagine the soundtrack to her childhood would become part of her wedding day.

“It was very, very special,” said Mutchler, now Cassidy Peery. “It’s already like a perfect day because you’re marrying the love of your life, but it really was just a perfect week.”

Peery met her future husband, Jack, about five years ago while she was touring apartments in Sioux Falls with a friend and he was the property manager. Her career in health care brought her here while Jack, a Sioux Falls native, was beginning his career.

“It was his first week on the job, and he had his little booklet of notes, like highlights for the apartments, and we were just picking on him the whole time because it was hilarious and adorable,” she said. “I felt like we hit it off then, and then I found him on a dating app a week or two later, and I just knew it was him, and then the rest is history. We went on a date and basically have been together ever since.”

For his part, “I was trying act professional,” he remembers. “And these girls were harassing me.”

He since has transitioned from property management into medical sales — but that initial tour proved to be a turning point.

Jack and Cassidy started dating in May 2020 and got engaged at their home between Lennox and Chancellor in late 2023. It’s near where she now owns Saddle Up Espresso, a mobile coffee shop based in Lennox.

Early in their relationship, they talked about how they liked the idea of a destination wedding, which led them to Secrets Playa Blanca, an all-inclusive resort north of Cancun, Mexico.

As it happened, Neal McCoy had a rare four-day stretch off from touring and used it for a brief getaway with his wife and friends from their home in Texas.

Cassidy was tipped off by a former co-worker who had seen that the country star might be staying at the resort.

“I texted my family and said: ‘Keep your eyes out. Neal McCoy’s going to be here,'” she said.

The day before the wedding, she took a break from the pool and walked into a resort restaurant.

“We got sat right next to his table,” she said. “I said: ‘I know you’re on vacation. I’m so sorry to bother you. But I grew up on ’90s country and rodeo’ed all over the place … and we listened to the radio a lot, and I just remember ‘The Shake’ being my absolutely favorite song. Being a little girl, I remember standing on the backseat of the pickup, and my dad yelling: ‘I can’t see anything. You need to sit down!'”

As she posed for a photo with McCoy, she threw the idea out there.

“He said, ‘You’re getting married tomorrow?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we’re getting married tomorrow at 5 p.m. on the roof. If you want to come, we’ll save a place for you.”

McCoy mentioned that he’d never crashed a wedding before, but “I just brushed it off,” she said. “There’s no way Neal McCoy’s going to come to my wedding on his vacation. It’s just silly.”

It turned out, McCoy planned one better.

“I just started talking to my wife and our friends and thought it would be pretty cool if I could get up there and sing,” he said.

His road manager sent him the track he requested: Martina McBride’s “In My Daughter’s Eyes.”

While it took a bit of convincing the wedding planners to improvise the ceremony, McCoy took the microphone as Cassidy began to walk down the aisle — never realizing what was about to happen.

“It went off pretty smooth,” McCoy said. “It was pretty danged neat, and I could tell it was affecting the dad. You’re happy-sad on that day.”

At the end of the aisle, the groom was clued in at the last minute.

“I didn’t know until literally as we were lining up. Her cousin comes up and says, ‘So Neal McCoy is actually going to sing Cassi in,” Jack said. “You’d never think someone is going to do that. I just said, ‘Oh gosh, she is going to freak out.’ It was crazy, surreal.”

Cassidy remembers the music starting, “and I was looking around and was like, ‘That’s not my music,’ and then I heard his voice and looked at my dad and was like, ‘Oh my goodness, this is the best surprise ever.'”

McCoy even streamed it live on his Facebook page — where it since has grown to hundreds of thousands of views.

“I’ve been around a long time and done a lot of cool things, but I don’t know what I’ve ever done anything quite that cool,” he said. “I really enjoyed it. It was neat surprising her and being able to be there in that moment.”

The moment overtook the couple enough that they even forgot a key element of the ceremony.

“We got pronounced and walked down the aisle, and we got so excited about the whole thing we’d forgotten to exchange rings, so we had to go back up,” she laughed.

After the ceremony concluded, McCoy treated the crowd to a rendition of his classic “The Shake.”

“That is the song I knew the family would recognize and would bring back great memories,” he said. “I thought it would be fun for a lot of people to see.”

And while it might have brought back memories, it created an unforgettable new one.

“One of your childhood heroes shows up to your wedding,” Cassidy said. “It’s just wild how much trouble he went to. He’s one of the kindest, most down-to-earth celebrities ever. Just a really nice, genuine guy.”

They continued to run into each other during their mutual stay at the resort and, in another fateful twist, McCoy’s tour this month brought him to South Dakota.

“Sure enough, two and three weeks after the wedding, we are in their towns,” he said.

He played for the first time in Sturgis recently and was able to see members of Cassidy’s family and friends.

This Friday, he’ll play in Sioux Falls at The District and plans to see the Peerys and their family and friends. For tickets to the show, click here.

“He (said), ‘I saw you, and now you’ve got to come see me,'” Cassidy said. “I was like, done deal, tickets are already bought.”

While fans like Cassidy still approach him, recognition largely depends on someone’s era and preferred genre. Those who grew up with 1990s country tend to know McCoy, and he enjoys connecting with them, he said.

“I always take the time and always have for everyone who comes up,” he said. “Even when we were really hot in the ’90s, I always took time. That’s how you make a career. You’re a nice person first, and then when you get a chance, you put on a great show.”