Exclusive:
A real-life wedding crasher has shared her experience after finding a wedding on Eventbrite and deciding to RSVP. Shaneisha, from the US, was looking for a free event but came across something better
After spotting a wedding on the global self-service ticketing platform Eventbrite, a woman has revealed how she decided to RSVP – even though she didn’t know the bride, groom, or any of the guests.
Shaneisha, a doctoral student and intern living in Los Angeles, stumbled upon the wedding of Eric and Janeeka McDowell while looking for events on Eventbrite and decided to RSVP.
Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, she said: “I was looking for random events to go to and after I filtered my results to ‘free events only’, I came across Eric and Janeeka's wedding. I thought to myself, ‘hmm, that's interesting’ because I had never seen a wedding on Eventbrite.”
Deciding to go for it and RSVP to the event, Shaneisha fully expected to receive an email requesting her not to attend as it was just for family and friends. However, as the wedding date got closer and no such memo came, she began to plan her outfit.
Read More: 'I was uninvited from a wedding because the bride worried my beauty would outshine hers'
She said: “I saw that the attire listed was ‘co*cktail’ so I did a brief Google search to get an idea of what would be appropriate for attire. I had a few dresses in mind but ultimately settled on the dress I wore because I thought that out of all the options I had, that dress made me feel the most confident, considering that I was going off to do something so awkward.”
On the day of the wedding, Shaneisha dressed in her floor-length off-the-shoulder red dress, and admits she felt “nervous, excited, scared, awkward”. She said: “I was a mixed bag of emotions honestly, but ultimately determined to follow through.”
Arriving at the venue, Shaneisha began chatting with the other guests who she describes all as “gorgeous” and friendly. Feeling apprehensive about telling people why she was there, she said she decided to take charge and explain the situation.
However, it soon became clear that everybody at the wedding thought it was a brilliant idea and were delighted Shaneisha had come along to celebrate Eric and Janeeka.
She said: “People who I was sitting at the table during the reception asked how I knew the bride or groom, and I was just honest and explained to them that I found the wedding on Eventbrite and thought it would be nice to celebrate their love.
“I told the bride when each table was instructed to take a photo with the bride and groom. I told her how I found their wedding, that I thought it would be really awesome to celebrate them, and that I brought a gift, which was just a card with a little bit of money in it.”
She continued: “Everyone was kind, but more importantly, they were having a great time because the bride and groom really put on an amazing celebration. The vibes were immaculate. Everyone was there to celebrate the love and union of Eric and Janeeka, myself included!”
She went on: “I had only really told my sisters and they thought it was funny, but not really out of the ordinary for me to do something so random. I’ve never [done something like this before]. I'm an introvert who once had really bad social anxiety as a kid and through undergrad.
“When I go to events, I pretty much chill to myself and by myself, while enjoying and appreciating the energy. When I do something random, it's usually enrolling in some course to learn something or traveling or me and my bestie go out to eat or to an amusem*nt park!
“The response on social media has been mostly positive. A lot of people have found joy in my adventure and I'm happy that I could bring a little bit of joy to people's lives!”
Shaneisha shared the experience in real time on social media and her post quickly blew up with even the bride and groom commenting too.
In response to their post, one user wrote: “Omg this is the best thing ever! I’m just trying to imagine them doing the seating chart and being like “who’s Shaneisa?” And they just kinda look at each other like - ‘is that Auntie Edna’s kid?’ ‘Ohhhh, yeah, must be’ and just putting you at the table with Auntie Edna.”
Eric and Janeeka later shared a video on TikTok after Shaneisha's Thread's post went viral to make it clear they had loved having them there and were delighted with the response. Janeeka said: "You seemed so sweet and beautiful and I just thought 'why not?', more love!"
Have you ever crashed a wedding? What would you do if someone crashed your nuptials? Let us know in the comments below.
Do you have a story to share? Email eve.wagstaff@reachplc.com
