Yesterday we shared the wedding via surprise party by the bride & groom. Today we’re looking at surprising the supposed bride & groom.

The second type of surprise wedding, for the bride & groom, well, I pulled that one off myself. With a lot of help from family & friends! You see, my parents wanted to renew their vows. I don’t really recall now if it was after their 20th or 25th wedding anniversary that they started talking about it for the 30th. I do remember them talking for a number of years about how much it would mean to them. They even started tentative planning for a trip and a vow renewal ceremony.

Then, Life, as it is prone to do, threw them a curve. They decided for monetary reasons, it would have to wait until another anniversary. (I’m not sure where along the line people decided the 0’s & 5’s were more important numbers than the say 1’s and 7’s, but hey, what do I know? I’m just a writer!) I was disappointed for them. I knew how much it meant – an affirmation of their incredible bond. Not that they needed to announce it. It is beautifully obvious to most people who’ve met them that theirs was truly a heaven-made match.

Then, Life, as it is prone to do, threw me a curve – in the form of a small monetary influx. No, not the lotto! I should be so lucky! But it certainly was enough to make a version of their wish come true. As I was trying to come up with a way to broach it, tell them I’d pay, but I realized that being the parents they are, they’d just refuse. They’d insist I do something for myself, pay bills, invest, something! So being the daughter I am, I got sneaky and decided to surprise them.

I began my secret campaign, recruited family & friends, and tried to keep my rather large secret. When it came down to it, I wound up having to get them to agree to a weekend getaway and said I’d handle the arrangements. The day before W-day I called and said get ready for a dressy brunch tomorrow but wouldn’t say any more. They laughed and indulged me. I know they were thinking I just wanted to take them someplace nice.

Now, between that check arrival and the big day, I had managed via recruitment, cajolery, bribery, desperation and prayer, to do all the things that normally are needed including the church reservations, the cake, the clothing, etc.

And we pulled it off! Although, Mom figured it out when I was playing chauffer to the church. We were a few block away when she said “Oh, we’re going to the church! Aren’t we?!” And she got teary on me. Mother’s intuition!

A few notable sentimental things we did:

• Secretly snatched the cake topper from their wedding from Mom’s storage place and had it touched up and ready to top the new cake.
• Grabbed, borrowed, gathered as many family pictures as we could – had them set to music and made a video – which we played at the “reception” afterwards.
• Invited some lifelong friends and some far away family who were at the wedding to join us. Surprise guests at the surprise wedding! (Note: Made the “bride” cry – suggest many more boxes of Kleenex than I had on hand.)

To this day and for the rest of my life, I will cherish that day as one of the best in my life. Mom and Dad tell me they agree.

Want some help organizing your own surprise wedding? Get planning with My Wedding Hero - online wedding planning software.