A hired bridegroom in Vinh Long Province ran away from a fake wedding party which was held to conceal that the bride was a lesbian.
Fake groom and bride on the wedding day
The bizarre event happened on October 23 in An Luong Hamlet in Long Ho District’s Phu Duc Commune. All the jewellery at the event were fake too.
The unprecedented wedding was organised for Nguyen Be T, a 21-year-old girl, and Pham Hoang N in the presence of 150 guests.
After the groom presented the jewellery to the bride, the guests sat down for the meal. The drama had not been uncovered until the bridesmaid discovered that the jewellery was fake.
Pham Thi Diem Phan, the bride’s mother, said, “Recently, father and adoptive mother of the groom proposed the wedding. We decided to organise the party with the agreement of my daughter. We had doubts when on the wedding day both of them did not come and were replaced by a man who claimed to be head of the family as well as some other people.”
According to Phan, their doubts increased when the groom’s family did not follow the local tradition to offer the bride’s family VND10 million (USD479.15), a sum needed to prepare the party. They almost covered the betrothal gifts and the ceremony to grant the dowry was conducted very hastily.
When jewellery was discovered to be fake, the groom ran away from the party, leaving his representatives. The bride’s family decided to call the police.
Pham Dang Khoa, head of Thanh My 2 Hamlet said, “the family of Quang, the bride’s father, is rather poor. They mainly make a living working as hired labourers. The bride is the second in her family. She works at a cafe near her house. This is the first time Quang has held a wedding for his children and it all turned out unexpectedly.”
Neighbours said despite the incident, the party continued until 8pm. The bride was so drunk that she could not appear to speak to the police.
Nguyen Thi Nam, 75, who lives in the same area said, “I’ve never heard such a story before. The head of the groom’s family, groom and betrothal gifts are fake.”
Local people said the groom’s family only has six people meet the bride, including the fake groom, the family head and three lesbians.
Nguyen Van Nam, master of ceremonies in the wedding, who lives in Hamlet 5 in Vinh Long City’s Ward 4, said that he was hired to attend the wedding. He did not run away as he an artificial leg while the other people in his group all fled.
Tran Dang Khoa said that the groom who attended the wedding was a fake. The real “groom” was one of lesbians who joined the group.
The bride admitted she knew her lesbian friend for over two months when she worked at a cafe in Vinh Long City. The bride and her lover hired a groom and representatives of the groom’s family and held the wedding to conceal their relationship.
The police are continuing to investigate, but it remains unclear as to what laws may have been broken.
