Country Singer Gabrielle Mooney Marries in Sunset Ceremony Months After Near-Death Experience (Exclusive)

Gabrielle Mooney has never been the kind of girl who flips through wedding magazines and dreams about her wedding. But that all changed on Valentine’s Day this year when she had a near-death experience.

“I remember feeling this complete and utter peace,” Mooney, 35, told PEOPLE about the incident. “I’m almost a little envious of the peace and complete carefreeness you feel. It was almost like God was pushing me back down and saying ‘Not yet’.”

On that fateful day, Mooney, a country singer who is the sister of Dan + Shay’s Shay Mooney, drove from where she lived in Nashville to her childhood home in Natural Dam, Arkansas. She had a bad headache and thought about sleeping through the night, but the next morning she wanted to wake up in her own bed. The decision saved her life.

Mooney made it home before she started throwing up. Her mother, Cindy Mooney, was awake doing laundry at 3 a.m. when she heard her daughter in the bathroom. The singer says she doesn’t remember anything after her mother asked her what was wrong. She woke up in the hospital two weeks later to learn that she had hydrocephalus and a brain cyst that was taking such a toll on her body that her heart stopped.

Mooney underwent emergency surgery to relieve pressure on her brain, leaving the right side of her face paralyzed. She was unconscious, but her right eye wouldn’t close. When she heard her boyfriend, Graylan Stone, reach out and close her eye, she knew he was “the one.”

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Graylan Stone and Gabrielle Mooney.

Kristi Boatright of Story Photos

She married him on the family farm in Arkansas on November 4.

“No one could stay with you like that and pray with your family that they don’t love you,” Mooney says, explaining that Stone is a triplet and that his brother even came to the hospital to support him.

“When I woke up, the first thing I remember is Shay was at the bottom of my bed, rubbing my foot and saying, ‘Hey, Sissy.’ And I knew it was bad from that moment on. Little brothers aren’t so cute.”

She continues, “After that, Graylan and I were like, ‘OK, if we can survive something like this, I want to be with you forever.’ This was a big test for our relationship.”

Mooney wrote her new song “I Din’t Know Cowboys Had Tattoos” for her groom. Although she is from the South and he grew up in the Northeast, their values ​​coincided. She was surprised.

“I just thought, ‘You’re not from the South,'” she says. “‘You don’t know our ways or anything, but you love Jesus and have the same values ​​and morals as I do, which is pretty rare these days.’ It was like his heart was right from Texas, even though he was from the north. And I’ll be honest with you, I had a little prejudice about the boys from the north.”

The couple met at the gym in 2021. Mooney wouldn’t give Stone her phone number, but shared her Instagram account. He DMed her and asked her out. She refused, but told him he could go to church with her – not thinking he would show up. They agreed to meet at a cafe near the service, and Mooney forgot to stop. He sent her a message, and she turned and went to meet him. They have been together ever since.

“He’s so genuine, such a good person,” she says of Stone. “He loves my family. With Shay in public, it’s hard because people want to date me. I’m just sitting here being naive, and then they start being like, ‘By the way, I have this song that I wrote.'”

Graylan Stone and Gabrielle Mooney kiss on their wedding day.

Kristi Boatright of Story Photos

The couple got engaged over Mother’s Day weekend on the porch of Mooney’s grandparents — the same grandparents who inspired Dan + Shay’s hit “From the Ground Up.” Stone proposed with Mooney’s grandmother’s engagement ring. She described herself as a “puddle” of emotion when he popped the question.

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“I didn’t need a big, huge ring,” she notes. “I’m a very sentimental person, more than anything physical. Right now it’s just a new season of what God is bringing us into. Me and Shay and [sister] Eric and [sister-in-law] Hannah, we were talking about this the other day. We said, it’s nice to have things, sure. But what we have as a family is so special.”

Gabrielle Mooney and Graylan Stone celebrate their wedding.

Kristi Boatright of Story Photos

After a health scare, Mooney moved her home base from Nashville back to Arkansas, and Stone went with her. Their faith inspired them to live in separate houses – with Mooney in her childhood home – until they married. Stone began working with her father, Rick Mooney, in construction.

“I’m telling you, something like this really brings you back to reality and what’s truly important,” she tells PEOPLE of her health scare. “You can write country music anywhere in the country.”

Mooney’s recovery from the cyst and brain surgery was a challenge, as she worked to get the right side of her face moving again. While she focused on getting better, Mooney left the wedding planning duties to a family friend. She said she wanted neutral, fall colors and fresh flowers.

Gabrielle Mooney wears a vintage-inspired lace dress to her wedding.

Kristi Boatright of Story Photos

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Mooney went wedding dress shopping in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and fell in love with the fourth dress she tried on—a vintage gown with long lace sleeves and a cathedral veil. She paired her dress with knee-high cream cowboy boots and arrived at the ceremony riding a side-saddle horse.

The couple tied the knot at sunset, with Shay singing “From the Ground Up” at the reception.

“Spending a day with family and friends celebrating the life that Graylan and I have started was amazing,” Mooney says of the wedding. “I couldn’t imagine a more perfect day! I can’t believe I’m Mrs. Stone now. I couldn’t be happier to be his wife, and I can’t wait to write a million more songs about him.”

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Source: HIS Education