Bride Stuns Wedding Guests by Revealing She's Already Married

A bride has described the "wave of positive feedback" she received from guests at her wedding after revealing she was already married.

Allison Sneath of Portland, Oregon, told Newsweek she waited until after she and her husband had exchanged their vows before revealing the truth.

Her friends and family were ecstatic. After all, Sneath hadn't committed bigamy. She and her husband had eloped in Las Vegas a year earlier and spent the next 12 months living secretly as husband and wife.

They then had a wedding day with friends and family. Except it wasn't a wedding day but more of a celebration of their love and life together, which was warmly received by those in attendance.

"We are high school sweethearts and have spent the last nine years sharing our relationship with everyone around us," Sneath said. "So we decided to spend a year just to ourselves with our surprise."

Elopement appears to be an increasingly popular option for some couples. In 2022, a survey of over 1,000 U.S.-based couples conducted on behalf of Helzberg Diamonds found that 62 percent were open to an elopement. The proportion was even higher among women, with 69 percent of the women surveyed open to the idea.

Sneath and her husband did things a little differently, though, opting for something that gave them the best of both worlds.

According to the bride, their "love story" began with the trip to Nevada. "We went to Vegas with my mom and drove down to the Little White Chapel and had a super fun time getting married in the Cadillac," Sneath said. "And then we actually celebrated my mom's birthday, which was the next day."

A year later, they enjoyed what she described as "the most epic "one-year wedding anniversary" with a disco wedding. "We had 150 of our closest family and friends celebrate with us. And we treated that day identical to a normal wedding, just with a small announcement at the end of our ceremony."

The reveal was welcomed by those gathered. "We got a wave of positive feedback," Sneath said. "Our family and friends are the most supportive people and realize this is our love story and we wrote it the way we wanted to write it."

The way the couple sees it, Sneath said, they got "two weddings" that they will cherish forever. "One we got to share as just the two of us and one we got to share with our family and friends."

Sneath revealed her wedding experience to the world in a TikTok video that has been viewed over 1.1 million times. Many viewers commented on how they would also be open to an elopement.

"OMG doing the pink cadillac in December," one viewer wrote. Another remarked: "Dreaming of a Vegas elopement."

A third said: "That's actually smart. If it lasts a year let everyone know with a wedding. If not, no one will ever know."

Sneath has been heartened by the response to the clip, though she would make one slight change if she could go back and do it all again.

"I would include immediate family at the elopement so it doesn't come as a total surprise," she said. "We only had one person who knew, and that was hard for some people."

Despite this, she would encourage others to follow their hearts. "Write your love story the way you want to write it without anyone else's opinion."

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