When Michael followed his best friend into Penarth Pier on the evening of his own wedding just before 5pm he told his friend: “Oh s***, there’s a wedding going on.” But it didn’t take him long to realise it was his own wedding he’d walked into.
A woman whose partner was so stressed by the thought of a conventional wedding that he wanted to elope decided to throw him a surprise wedding instead. Carina Henriques’s now husband Michael arrived at Penarth Pier in the town where the couple live believing he was going to an awards ceremony as a plus one with his friend, but was stunned when he realised he’d actually turned up to his own wedding day.
“I was relieved to see he was smiling,” Carina, 36, laughed, recalling the story to WalesOnline. “I was a little bit nervous whether he’d be annoyed about it. So many people told me not to do it because Michael would kill me, but we only get one life so why not make it fun?”
Stressed about their wedding plans, Michael, 35, had wanted to elope and have a very private wedding – just the two of them. “But as much as I loved that stress-free idea I couldn’t help feel guilty that our parents would miss us get married,” Carina said. “I randomly decided to hire the pier, fill it with candles and surprise him with a small wedding. There were about 30 people there.”
Carina had six weeks to pull it off which involved a truck full of “white lies” which even led to accusations she was cheating on Michael. And yet she still managed to keep quiet enough about the big day for Michael to not have a clue what was actually happening.
“It was the most stressful six weeks of my life,” she laughed. “I asked his best friend to make up a story to get him to the pier dressed in a suit. I did feel a bit bad encouraging so many of his friends and family to lie to him but it was all for a good cause.”
Carina, who runs a cleaning company with her family, said she was initially concerned the registry office would not allow her to legally throw a real surprise wedding for her partner, but they did because the pair had been engaged for a couple of years prior to the surprise wedding and just hadn’t fully agreed on a way to get married yet.
“I had to hide my wedding dress and hundreds of LED candle lights in my daughter’s swimming school at Splash Central,” she recalled. “A week before the wedding Michael had a phone call from his friend saying he thought I was having an affair with his cousin because he saw me in a room with him with the door closed.
“I had to tell him another white lie to that and say I was there with his cousin because I was trying to organise his cousin to book Everton FC tickets, but what I was actually doing was giving him the rings and talking him through the big day.”
Carina said electrician Michael thought something was out of the ordinary on the day of the surprise wedding but he couldn’t put his finger on it. “The morning of the wedding I kissed him like I do every morning before he goes to work but this time I grabbed him and hugged him. He asked me why I was being weird but I just said ‘I love you’. Little did he know by the end of the day, we’d be husband and wife.
“As I watched him drive off I raced to do the school run, came back to fill up the car and then headed over to the Airbnb to get ready. My wedding shoes hadn’t arrived so I had to put a message on the school mum’s Whatsapp group for an emergency pair of white wedding shoes.
“At the school gates I had about seven pairs thrown at me to try on and the lovely Anna Phelps had a beautifully matching one for me to walk down the aisle in.
“At 3pm Michael called me so I shouted at the bridal party to turn the music off and no-one was allowed to say a word. I answered casually and he asked me: ‘Where is the steamer?’
“I was dying inside as I had taken it for the dresses but he also needed it for his suit for the event he thought he was going to that night. Luckily there was an ironing board in the house.
“Just before he hung up he asked me where I was. I was a pro at white lies at this point so just mumbled something out and then hung up.”
When Michael followed his best friend into Penarth Pier on the evening of his own wedding just before 5pm he told his friend: “Oh s***, there’s a wedding going on.” But it didn’t take him long to realise it was his own wedding.
Carina remembered: “I was in the Airbnb opposite the road watching him walk in, my heart pounding and me wondering whether he was just going to jump off the pier. With the pianist playing in the background Michael read a three-page letter from me talking about how Penarth is a special place for us and especially being by the water and this needed to be the place where we start our next chapter.
“I walked down the aisle, my cheeks were hurting so much from smiling because of his reaction. He was completely stunned that this was happening. He knew I was mad but this was another level.
“The timing was perfect, he was due to arrive at 4.30pm and that would give him enough time to get his head round what was happening. Guests arrived at 4.45pm and had strict instructions not to turn up a second earlier. And then it was showtime.
“At 5pm we were married. It was a gorgeous, intimate ceremony and then we took 30 of our friends and family to Home in Penarth for a meal.”
Carina took Michael to west Wales for a couple of days after the wedding to calm him down. “He can get quite nervous and he hates attention. But I think in hindsight the surprise wedding was probably the best scenario. He said afterwards: ‘I loved it. I had to do no planning, no thinking, I was just finished work and got married and it was done.’
“We are so glad we did it. It’s lovely that we’ve got a story to tell the kids. It’s something lovely and funny to think back to.”
Carina has since had a plaque for them put on the pier to mark where they were married which is about halfway down the pier and reads: “#secretwedding.”
Carina added: “The funniest part was when Michael’s friend picked him up he was wearing the same suit as Michael, and Michael said to Dan: ‘Why are you wearing the same suit as me? We are going to look like idiots.'”