History Main / BrideAndSwitch

** Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Theatre/{{Falstaff}]'', based on this play, has a slightly different variation. Here, [[AdaptationalNameChange Nannetta]] is the daughter of Master and Mistress Ford, and her mother supports her choice of Fenton as her husband. Her father arranges for her to marry his preferred candidate, Dr. Caius, in a pantomime of "the Fairy Queen's Wedding." But Nannetta and Fenton disguise themselves as "an unknown couple" in masks, who ask to join the ceremony and be married as well, while [[DisguisedInDrag Bardolph]] secretly takes Nannetta's place in the Fairy Queen's gown and veil.

** Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Thheatre/{{Falstaff}]'', based on this play, has a slightly different variation. Here, [[AdaptationalNameChange Nannetta]] is the daughter of Master and Mistress Ford, and her mother supports her choice of Fenton as her husband. Her father arranges for her to marry his preferred candidate, Dr. Caius, in a pantomime of "the Fairy Queen's Wedding." But Nannetta and Fenton disguise themselves as "an unknown couple" in masks, who ask to join the ceremony and be married as well, while [[DisguisedInDrag Bardolph]] secretly takes Nannetta's place in the Fairy Queen's gown and veil.

* A ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'' has a rather unusual example involving the title character: as part of his current plan, Diabolik has disguised himself as Ginko, who is invited to a wedding, and when the wedding gets bombed Ginko's fiancee Altea, who has been wounded, has 'Ginko' marry her. The story ends with Diabolik explaining his lover Eva that [[StatusQuoIsGod neither he nor Ginko is legally married to Altea, as Benglait's laws don't allow for a stand-in and he was there under a false identity]], with a later story making things even stranger by revealing that [[spoiler: Altea's late husband actually [[FakingTheDead faked his own death]] to prevent being discovered as a terrorist leader ([[StatusQuoIsGod Diabolik kills him for real by the end of the story]])]].
* In ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' #300, Johnny Storm marries Alicia Masters, but a later {{retcon}} made the Alicia he married really a Skrull shapeshifter.
* ''Franchise/TheFlash'' #165 (1966), "One Bridegroom Too Many": At his wedding to Iris West, Barry Allen is replaced at the altar by his EvilCounterpart, Professor Zoom, who uses future technology to disguise himself as Barry. Luckily, Barry is able to stop the wedding in time and defeat Zoom.
* Loki from ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'' obtained his wife Sigyn by arranging the death of her fiancé at the hands of trolls and using his shapeshifting to take his place at the wedding. Odin temporarily banished Loki for his deception. Sigyn for duty's sake stayed married to Loki, making her the goddess of fidelity. Surprisingly, Loki came to somewhat care for her and when one of his schemes put her in danger, he freed Thor to save her.
* ''ComicBook/SubMariner'' #36 (1970s): Llyra tricks the Sub-Mariner into marrying her instead of Dorma, who's been kidnapped. It turns out that Atlantean marriage laws let you use a substitute at your wedding--he is considered to have married Dorma anyway. The official had put Dorma's name down on the wedding document, which is what made Llyra just a stand-in.

* ''Literature/TheGooseGirl'' is actually the princess, whose servant has usurped her place as the bride.

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* ''ComicBook/SubMariner'' #36 (1970s): Llyra tricks the Sub-Mariner into marrying her instead of Dorma, who's been kidnapped. It turns out that Atlantean marriage laws let you use a substitute at your wedding—he is considered to have married Dorma anyway. The official had put Dorma's name down on the wedding document, which is what made Llyra just a stand-in.

* A ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'' has a rather unusual example involving the title character: as part of his current plan, Diabolik has disguised himself as Ginko, who is invited to a wedding, and when the wedding gets bombed Ginko's fiancee Altea, who has been wounded, has 'Ginko' marry her. The story ends with Diabolik explaining his lover Eva that [[StatusQuoIsGod neither he nor Ginko is legally married to Altea, as Benglait's laws don't allow for a stand-in and he was there under a false identity]], with a later story making things even stranger by revealing that [[spoiler: Altea's late husband actually [[FakingTheDead faked his own death]] to prevent being discovered as a terrorist leader ([[StatusQuoIsGod Diabolik kills him for real by the end of the story]])]].

* Literature/TheGooseGirl is actually the princess, whose servant has usurped her place as the bride.
* In [[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 [[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/135whiteblackbride.html The White Bride and the Black One]], the WickedStepmother 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 [[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 ''[[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 "Literature/MaidMaleen", the princess, working as SculleryMaid 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.

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/hindinwood.html The Hind in the Wood]]'', the evil lady-in-waiting Long-Thorn and her mother cut open Desiree's carriage, which turns Desiree into a white doe. Long-Thorn then takes Desiree's place as Prince Warrior's bride, though her disguise does not fool the prince.

* Played with in ''Literature/PrincessBelleEtoile''. The king's mother tries to convince him to annul his marriage to his wife Blondine and marry a young princess to produce an heir. When the king's three children and nephew arrive and tell their story, the king takes Blondine back. He gives the false bride some precious stones as a reward, and marries his daughter Belle-Etoile off to his nephew Chéri.

* At the climax of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', Prince Eric schedules a wedding with Vanessa, not knowing she is really the sea witch Ursula in disguise and wearing the voice that Ariel had given up.
* When Prince Charming overcomes a mind-wipe to wed Cinderella in ''WesternAnimation/CinderellaIIIATwistInTime'', Lady Tremaine magically disguises Anastasia as Cinderella instead and sends the real one far away with a cursed coach.

* The ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'' movie features this trope at the climax, with Lyle trying to forcibly marry Ursula when they enter a dark tunnel. Upon exiting the tunnel he learns that he actually married an amorous gorilla instead.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''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).

* In ''Literature/ThornInMyHeart'', Rose and Leona's father, Logan, pulls one on Rose's intended husband, switching Leona in. A storm prevented Rose from reaching her own wedding, so Leona stands in as her proxy. That night, Logan persuades Leona to visit Jamie in his bed-chamber, convincing her that Jamie actually desires her rather than Rose. Leona goes to Jamie and they have sex. Unfortunately, Jamie was three sheets to the wind and thought she was Rose, which Leona doesn't realize until after it's too late. Later, but before Rose arrives home, Logan goes to the Church Council and convinces them that Jamie had changed his mind about which sister he wanted to marry and was simply too impatient to wait for new wedding banns, persuading them to declare him legally married to Leona rather than Rose.
* In ''Literature/OnFairyStories'', Creator/JRRTolkien discusses the use of this in terms of ''Literature/TheGooseGirl'' and Bertha the mother of Charlemagne -- and points out that without evidence to the contrary or fantastic elements, you can't disprove it of Bertha by showing it's a widespread story.
* ''Literature/MarcusDidiusFalco'' pulls this to stop a forced marriage involving his LoveInterest Helena Justina. The villain says he can just get the marriage annulled, whereupon Marcus grins and points out that he won't live long enough to do so (as he's bleeding from a fatal wound and Marcus is preventing him from getting help).
* ''Literature/TheRedTent'' has a variation - Leah stands in for her sister Rachel on her wedding day because Rachel is young and afraid of the whole sex-and-babies obligation. The groom is well aware of the switch but pretends not to be because he is equally attracted to Leah.
* A variant in ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Bastion]]''. [[ArrangedMarriage Marriages had been arranged]] between two sets of twins, but one brother fell in love with his brother's intended wife (and vice versa). Since the four of them were getting a double wedding, they arranged for the grooms to switch brides without their parents finding out until afterwards. Mags is the child of one couple, Bey is the child of the other.

* In ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'', 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 ArrangedMarriage but that she needs a diversion because the enemy has infiltrated the wedding.
** This happens again in ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' when Mia and [[spoiler:Emily]] pull a BatmanGambit on Dayu, who has been kidnapping brides from their weddings.

* There was a LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek 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 AlphaBitch, per his father's wishes. However, when the bride arrives at the altar, she is revealed to be his {{High School Sweetheart|s}} who is also the mother of his child. The couple marries after the boy's father reluctantly gives his blessing to the young family. Just before the credits roll, his best friend narrates in a voice-over that the AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse along with the boy's mother arranged the whole thing.
* In ''Series/TheATeam'' episode "[[Recap/TheATeamS1E12TillDeathDoUsPart Till Death Do Us Part]]", the team is hired to get the bride out of the shotgun wedding she's being forced into. To get the bride out, they put Murdock in her wedding dress. During the ceremony, when asked, "Do you take this man ...", he pulls back the veil and says, "I didn't go through all this just to see how I'd look in white!"
* Happens in ''{{Series/Spellbinder}}'', when [[DarkActionGirl Ashka]] is convinced (with some difficulty) to take the place of the princess whom the barbarian leader is forcing to marry him in order to legitimize his takeover of TheEmpire. Just as the bride is expected to say "I do", Ashka lifts the veil and tells the shocked barbarian that she'd rather marry his horse.
* In ''Series/LoisAndClark'', Clark Kent thinks that he has married Lois Lane the first time they try to marry, only that it turns out he married a frog-eating clone of Lois. The real Lois was kidnapped by Lex Luthor and then for a time lost her memory and was made to believe she was in love with someone else.

* ''The Ugly Duckling'' by A.A. Milne (not to be confused with the fairy tale by Creator/HansChristianAndersen) has a double version of this. The beautiful lady-in-waiting is recruited to woo the visiting prince, but the intended bride, the plain princess, will be married in heavy veils. Meanwhile, the prince plots the same thing with his dashing footman and a suit of ceremonial armor. [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage Fortunately]], the prince and princess meet on their own and fall in love.
* Inverted in ''Theatre/MuchAdoAboutNothing''. Claudio has been led to believe that Hero has died of grief over his accusations of sluttery, and to atone he has promised to marry her cousin sight unseen. But it turns out that it really is Hero.

** Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Falstaff'', based on this play, has a slightly different variation. Here, [[AdaptationalNameChange Nannetta]] is the daughter of Master and Mistress Ford, and her mother supports her choice of Fenton as her husband. Her father arranges for her to marry his preferred candidate, Dr. Caius, in a pantomime of "the Fairy Queen's Wedding." But Nannetta and Fenton disguise themselves as "an unknown couple" in masks, who ask to join the ceremony and be married as well, while [[DisguisedInDrag Bardolph]] secretly takes Nannetta's place in the Fairy Queen's gown and veil.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/DudleyDoRight'' had him pull this trick on Snidely Whiplash, who was trying to marry Nell, by replacing Nell with his ''horse''. (It worked!)

* On ''WesternAnimation/SpaceStars'', 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 ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', the bride-to-be, Princess Cadence, is replaced by a shape-shifting imposter. (Plus a little brainwashing to make sure the groom doesn't notice his bride-to-be isn't quite herself.)

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheSeries'', Jasmine finds herself forcibly betrothed to a demon due to an enchanted necklace that Aladdin gave her. During the climax, he whisks her away into his dimension...only to find that it's Genie in disguise.

* A throwaway gag in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' has the Professor about to marry Ms Bellum, who is revealed to be Mojo in disguise.