More and more couples are tossing tradition aside and catching their guests off guard – and sometimes even each other by pulling off a surprise wedding ceremony.

Sometimes, it's far more practical to plan their wedding ceremony and celebration without the knowledge or involvement of some, most, or all of the other participants and guests. Most often the surprise event is disguised as a birthday party, engagement party, cocktail party, or some other type of celebration function.

While everyone has there own reasons for doing so, usually it amounts to not wanting the uninformed to make unnecessary expenses and use of their time and focus. The bride and groom actually get to plan their own “wedding” in peace because it does eliminate all of the family member feedback.

Moreover, some family members are known to get too worked up just before a wedding and their stress gets amplified all around. By inviting them to another type of party and then revealing the true nature of it, in due course, it circumvents lots of issues.

We have seen them done in prestige Ottawa locations like the National Gallery, the NAC, at restaurants, in homes, beside the river, and at cottages. You don't have to have a big fancy expensive wedding to do it right in the Ottawa area.

Some of the best weddings in which we have participated have been these surprises in which most attendees were caught totally off guard. Usually, it's the two of them who want to surprise all of their guests and sometimes it's the Bride who's in on it and others times, it's the Groom.

While there are lots of variations on this, the shock effect is spectacular and the cost for some can be ridiculously low. Whether it's a pig roast in your backyard, a reception at the cottage, a mid-afternoon special, atop some panoramic hill, down by the river, or on a boat, we can attest that all of these venues can deliver spectacular results for the couple and and leave you in full control.

Some of our recent surprise ceremonies included:

• at a New Year's Eve Stage and Doe for the couple;
• at the 90th birthday party of the groom who at the end of the birthday celebration speeches, then announced his intention to mary his partner of 42 years, right then;
• at a meeting of international airline pilots when the Australian rep and his partner arranged for a "performance" for the other reps and spouses;
• at a house warming party
• at a New Year's Eve house party;
• at a Canada Day house party;
• at a Labour Day cottage party.

Imagine having invited everyone to a house-warming party, as the couple above did, and then anouncing on your 7th anniversary of having met that everyone attending was invited to their upcoming wedding. "When", someone asked? "Well about in one minute!" The shock and surprise was calculated and the response of their guests (and parents) exceeded their expectations.

We have helped design numerous surprise ceremonies and all of their experience is available to you. They will work with you to adapt all aspects of your ceremony so that that it aligns with your vision of how the day and event should evolve. While we can't guarantee the weather for you, our track record to date has actually been been spectacular!

The major downside risk of a surprise wedding is that some of the invited guests might not attend or make the effort to attend if the weather or something else gave them reason to take a pass on it since they think that it's just another party.

You might need to to share the secret and have them sworn to maintain it especially if there is any significant travel required.

Another thing to do is to have a photographer and even a videographer capturing everything so that you can create a recoding of the event and then make it availablelater to everyone who missed the surprise.

Having helped execute so many surprise wedding ceremonies, we really know how to help you plan it and make it one of the best memories that your guests will ever have. Contact us (Lynne or Keith) using the automated form or by phone at (613) 831-7555 to discuss the possibilities.