Couple put ad on Gumtree looking for wedding guests

When Sarah Marantelli and her fiancé, Jez, found themselves two people short for their wedding in May 2014, they sourced guests in a very unusual way.

While some people might invite an old aunt or simply let their guests have more room at the table, Sarah and Jez put an ad on Gumtree to find the most awesome wedding crashers out there.

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With a minimum spend on their venue, they decided to sift through over 600 responses looking for “fun and outgoing” people to share their day with them.

Speaking to Be, Sarah - who is now a mum to two little girls - said the ad clearly stated they were looking for drinkers, non-vegans and people who had no violent criminal history in the past ten years.

“We did get a lot of responses just people ticking off the points that we had listed in the ad,” she said.

“We also got a lot of people who weren’t applying to come but they still took the time to email us and say ‘I think you guys are awesome for doing this, I wish you all the best’ or ‘I wish I would have thought of this for my wedding’."

In the end, Sarah and Jez picked five people from Gumtree to join them on their day, due to the overwhelming responses.

“We were having so much fun with it we started getting so many replies it was really hard to narrow it down just to two so we thought, let’s have a bit more fun with it,” she said.

“We ended up choosing five and paying even more to have the extra people come.”

Sarah and Jez didn’t actually meet their wedding crashers until after the ceremony and mid-way through the reception.

“Once the reception started everyone got stuck in and had a good time,” she said.

“We split them up amongst everyone else because we didn’t want them to be stuck talking to each other all night.

“It was like they were part of the family really.”

Sarah and Jez are still in contact with four of their wedding crashers and one has moved back to Canada.

Now they use Gumtree to find like-minded people who love to go fishing and camping and have made lifelong friends.

“It was a really positive experience and we got a lot of really good feedback from it we’re happy we did it was one of the best things about our wedding,” she said.

These photos were supplied by Fable & Fuss Photography

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