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A young couple are all ready for the [[Wedding Day|big day]]. Only the bride isn't who the groom thinks she is. Maybe it's an [[Arranged Marriage]], and someone else is impersonating the bride he's never seen. Maybe a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifting alien]] has taken her place. Or maybe she's simply using a wedding veil as a convenient disguise.
 
The wedding rarely if ever goes through, with the real bride (or groom, in gender-flipped examples) [[Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace|bursting in at the last moment]]. Very occasionally, the groom may fall in love with the "fake" bride and marry her for real. Legal trickery may establish that the false bride can be treated as the true bride's proxy, and so he really did marry the true bride. In many [[Fairy Tales]], the false bride is executed for her attack on the true bride -- sometimesbride—sometimes substantially after the wedding took place -- asplace—as a complication in the heroine's [[Rags to Royalty]] rise. (This is often a case of [[Sibling Triangle]].)
 
Note that many of these rules are reversed if it's a villain who's trying to marry our plucky heroine for devious and evil reasons. In these cases, the villain often does end up married to the fake bride, usually for the sake of invoking some comedic comeuppance.
 
Compare [[Bed Trick]], which is the less G-Rated version of this trope.
{{examples|Examples:}}
 
== Ballads ==
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== [[Fairy Tales]] ==
* [http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm089.html The Goose Girl] is actually the princess, whose servant has usurped her place as the bride.
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20130718153150/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/goosegirl/stories/twocakes.html The Two Cakes], the heroine is pushed overboard so that her sister can take her place.
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20140405140235/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/135whiteblackbride.html The White Bride and the Black One], the [[Wicked Stepmother]] pushes the heroine out of the coach into the water to substitute her own child.
* In [http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/430.htm Maiden Bright-eye] the stepsister pushes the heroine overboard to take her place as the king's bride.
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20130313074524/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/asbjornsenmoe/bushybride.html Bushy Bride], the heroine is tricked into jumping overboard so her stepsister can take her place.
* In ''[http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/pt2/pt235.htm The Sharp Grey Sheep]'', the stepsister cut off part of her foot to fit the shoe.
* In [[The Brothers Grimm (Creatorcreator)|The Brothers Grimm]]'s ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130824062133/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/stories/german.html Ashenputtal]'', the stepsisters cut off part of their feet to fit the shoe.
* In ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131104152714/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/stories/birch.html The Wonderful Birch]'', the witch whittles her daughter into shape to wear the heroine's things.
* In ''[httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/20140703164900/http://surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/198maidmaleen.html Maid Maleen]'', the princess, working as [[Scullery Maid]] is asked to substitute herself for the bride by the bride herself, who either wants to hide her ugliness or her pregnancy. Alas for the bride, this means that Maid Maleen can reveal that she's the prince's old love, not actually dead.
 
== [[Film]] -- Animated ==
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* In the [[Chivalric Romance]] ''Roswall and Lillian'', Roswall is forced by a servant to allow the servant to pass himself off as Roswall and never reveal the truth to any human. The servant uses this to woo a princess. But some magical knights reveal the truth.
* [http://gracelivingstonhill.com Grace Livingstone Hill] must have loved this trope, because she used it in two separate novels: ''Exit Betty'' (Betty is nearly tricked into marrying the cousin she hates instead of the one she tolerates) and ''Dawn of the Morning'' (where the substitute husband is far better than the original).
* Towards the end of [[Sheri S Tepper|Sheri S. Tepper]]'s ''The Companions'', main character Jewel does this to her ex-husband, who is still infatuated with her. She has the identity of the fake bride concealed by telling him that veiling the bride until the wedding night is a tradition of the planet she now lives on. On the wedding night itself, she uses [[Applied Phlebotinum|scent-language shenanigans]] to de-infatuate him with herself and re-infatuate him with his new bride. He doesn't mind, but his mother is not amused. That is to say, she opens fire.
* In the [[The Dresden Files|Dresden Files]] short story "Something Borrowed", this trope is invoked when {{spoiler|Jenny Greenteeth}} takes the bride's place at {{spoiler|Georgia and Billy's}} wedding.
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* One of the '''many''' [[Gambit Pileup|Gambit Pileups]]s in ''[['Allo 'Allo (TV)!|Allo Allo]]'' had Rene due to marry the leader of the Communist resistance, who was replaced by his waitress Yvette, who was then replaced by his wife Edith (although Rene at that point was playing his own twin brother). The vicar had also been secretly replaced by Officer Crabtree, so we aren't sure exactly whether ''anyone'' had managed to get married.
* One time on ''[[The Andy Griffith Show]]'', [[Full -Name Basis|Ernest T. Bass]] tried to steal a bride away from her wedding but it turned out to be Barney Fife under the veil.
{{quote| '''Ernest T:''' I'm a little mean, but I make up for it by bein' real healthy. Say you'll be mine. Say you'll be my beloved!<br />
'''Barney:''' ''(lifts veil)'' I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth! }}
* In ''[[Power Rangers RPM (TV)|Power Rangers RPM]]'', the good guys do this, the bride to be {{spoiler|Summer, the Yellow Ranger}} is replaced by {{spoiler|Dr. K}} after the bride realises that not only does she really not want to go through with her [[Arranged Marriage]] but that she needs a diversion because the enemy has attacked the wedding.
** This happens again in ''[[Power Rangers Samurai]]'', when Mia and {{spoiler|Emily}} pull a [[Batman Gambit]] on Dayu, who has been kidnapping brides from their weddings.
* On ''[[Charmed (TV)|Charmed]],'' Paige's old friend/on-and-off boyfriend is getting married, and having been turned insane by some sort of magic (as usual), she winds up trying to get rid of the bride and turns herself into a copy. Thankfully Leo rescues the real bride and sets everything straight just in time.
* There was a [[Lifetime Movie of the Week]] called ''What Matters Most''. At the end of the movie, there is a wedding. The viewers are led to believe that the boy is going to marry an [[Alpha Bitch]], per his father's wishes. However, when the bride arrives at the altar, she is revealed to be his [[High School Sweetheart]] who is also the mother of his child. The couple marries after the boy's father reluctanly gives his blessing to the young family. Just before the credits roll, his best friend narrates in a voice-over that the [[Alpha Bitch]] and her [[Girl Posse]] along with the boy's mother arranged the whole thing.
 
== Religion and Mythology ==
* [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]] gives us the story of Jacob, who labored for seven years without pay for the right to marry the woman he loved, Rachel. The next morning he discovered that his bride was Rachel's older sister Leah, and that the deception was orchestrated by their father Laban because he thought it was improper for the younger daughter to be married before the elder. He did end up with Rachel, after working ''another'' seven years for her.
** This, incidentally, is supposed to be the origin of the whole "lifting the veil" tradition. (Presumably Leah's wasn't see-through.)
** The retelling of this story in ''[[The Red Tent]]'' suggests that this was a deliberate Bride and Switch on the part of the two daughters.
*** [[The Talmud (Literature)|The Talmud]], IIRC, says that Rachel suspected Laban might try this and arranged for her and Jacob to give each other subtle cues at the altar so he would know whom he was really marrying. However, right before the wedding Rachel realized that Leah would be humiliated if Jacob called the wedding off and revealed the signs to her.
* In [[Norse Mythology]], the giant Thrymr steals Mjollnir in order to demand Freya as his bride; after Freya refuses, Loki comes up with the cunning plan to dress Thor in women's clothing and a veil. It works, albeit with some fast talking from Loki as Bridesmaid. The giants hand the "bride" Mjollnir, and Thor throws off his veil and kills them all.
 
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* Done in [[Multiple Endings|three of the four prologues]] of ''[[Aveyond (Video Game)|Aveyond]]: The Lost Orb'', where Lydia magically disguises herself as the girl Edward intends to marry. Unfortunately for him and his real bride, Mel reveals the deception too late, and the marriage is considered legally binding.
* Near the end of ''[[The Secret of Monkey Island]]'', [[Big Bad|LeChuck]] is about to marry governor Elaine Marley when pirate-wannabe Guybrush Threepwood burst into church to stop the wedding. Unbeknowst to both villain and hero, Elaine escaped much earlier and the bride is actually two monkeys in a dress armed with a ghost-destroying seltzer bottle, ready to strike at the right moment. Guybrush naturally [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|manages to mess that up]].
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Erstwhile]]'', [https://web.archive.org/web/20131004074436/http://www.erstwhiletales.com/maidmaleen-18/#.T296UNm6SuI the bride orders Maid Maleen to take her place.]
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* An episode of ''[[Dudley Do -Right]]'' had him pull this trick on Snidely Whiplash, who was trying to marry Nell, by replacing Nell with his ''horse''. (It worked!)
* On ''[[Adventure Time (Animation)|Adventure Time]],'' Finn and Jake keep the Ice King from [[And Now You Must Marry Me|forcing a princess to marry him]] by switching her with Jake's finger just before <s>the kiss</s> the beard-touching makes it official. Unsurprisingly, the marriage doesn't last long.
* On ''[[Space Stars]]'', in the ''[[Teen Force]]'' short "Trojan Teen Force", Uglor was about to marry Princess Keena, but it was actually Moleculad in disguise.
* In the second season finale of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', the bride-to-be, Princess Cadence, is replaced by a shape-shifting imposter.
* In one episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', “Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words,” Homer gets a job helping people break up. For one of his assignments, he disguises himself as the bride at a wedding and lets the groom down easy.
** In their retelling of the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Huck (Nelson) is forced to marry Becky (Lisa) at gun point. Huck escapes his dire situation by substituting a pig in a suit for himself.
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[[Category:Fairy Tale Tropes]]
[[Category:The Plan]]
[[Category:Bride Andand Switch]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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