A marriage between a Melbourne couple has been annulled after the bride told the court she thought the wedding was a social media prank.
According to the family court judgment published earlier this week, the bride “believed she was acting in a social media event” when she tied the knot in December 2023.
The couple matched on a dating app in September 2023 before going on a date at a church the following day.
After keeping in contact for the next three months, the woman — then in her mid-20s — was invited to a “white party” in Sydney in December by the man in his late-30s.
However, when she arrived at the venue in Sydney, she realised she was the only person in white and was “shocked” to discover it was not only a wedding, but was *her* wedding.
“When I got there, and I didn’t see anybody in white, I asked him, ‘What’s happening?’” she told the family court.
“He told me that he’s organising a prank wedding for his social media. To be precise, Instagram, because he wants to boost his content and wants to start monetising his Instagram page.”
According to court documents, the bride also claims the man “refused to give details to her of the white party they were to attend”.
In her cross-examination, she emphasised that the dress she was wearing was clearly not a wedding dress. She also noted that the celebrant did not ask her any questions before the ceremony, which she feels confirmed her belief that the wedding was a prank.
The bride participated in the ceremony because “we had to act to make it look real”, and didn’t even realise the whole ceremony was legitimate until after she was legally wed.
Following the nuptials, the groom “pleaded” with her to add his name to her permanent residency application.
Upon finding out she was legally married, the woman was reportedly “furious”.
“I’m not furious about him being a permanent resident or not,” the bride said during cross-examination.
“I’m furious with the fact that I didn’t know that that was a real marriage, and the fact that he also lied from the beginning, and the fact that he also wanted me to add him in my application.”
The groom told the court that he proposed the day prior to the wedding, which was not included in the bride’s affidavit — though she did not deny it in court.
While the groom claimed that they “both agreed to these circumstances”, he could not provide details on any specifics — such as discussing religious requirements the bride may have had for a wedding, family attendance, or even where the couple would live after marriage.
However, the judge still questioned the legitimacy of the ceremony — during which nobody from the bride’s family was present.
“The applicant did not have a single family member or friend present at the alleged wedding ceremony. She was religious,” the judge said.
“Precisely why she would participate in a civil marriage and not in a church marriage ceremony went unexplored. It made no sense to me that she would.”
The court also heard the groom had signed an intention to marry notice on November 20 — more than a month before the ceremony — but he could not provide information on “who completed the notice of intended marriage document and why the date 20 November 2023 appeared on it”.
When asked in court, the bride denied ever speaking to the groom about marriage prior to December 2023, and denied having signed — or even seen — the notice of intended marriage.
The judge ultimately concluded that “it is more probable than not that the applicant believed she was acting in a social media event on the day of the alleged ceremony, rather than freely participating at a legally sanctioned wedding ceremony” and ruled that it was not a legally valid marriage ceremony.
The post Melbourne Woman Has Marriage Annulled, Claiming The Groom Tricked Her Into A Social Media Prank appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
