History Main / BrideAndSwitch

** This, incidentally, is supposed to be the origin of the whole "lifting the veil" tradition. (Presumably, Leah's wasn't see-through.) The [[UsefulNotes/JewishLifeEvents Jewish wedding ceremony]] specifically alludes to this deception, in that both parties are offered opportunity to verify the identity of the other person present to their satisfaction, before finally committing.

* Literature/TheBible

** This, incidentally, is supposed to be the origin of the whole "lifting the veil" tradition. (Presumably Leah's wasn't see-through.). The Jewish wedding ceremony specifically alludes to this deception, in that both parties are offered opportunity to verify the identity of the other person present to their satisfaction, before finally committing.

* In Myth/NorseMythology, 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 to explain “Freya’s” unwomanly gluttony and terrifying DeathGlare during the wedding feast. The giants hand the "bride" Mjollnir, and Thor throws off his veil and kills them all.

* Literature/TheBible 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 get to marry Rachel too the next week, but then he had to work ''another'' seven years for her retroactively.

** Literature/TheTalmud, 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.

* A throwaway gag in ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls(1995)'' has the Professor about to marry Ms Bellum, who is revealed to be Mojo in disguise.

* The ''Series/{{iCarly| 2021}}'' {{revival}} did an unusual version. Nevel invites Carly and friends to his wedding, but Prunella, the supposed bride, is actually an actress; the real bride is actually [[{{Now You Must Marry Me}} Carly]]. (At least until Prunella announces she fell in love with Nevel for real, and then Nevel realises he feels the same way).

* In ''Literature/TheLoveOfThreeOranges'', a slave turns the bride into a bird and then claims to be her and the victim of a ForcedTransfomation herself.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSwanPrincess'' has Derek proclaim a vow of everlasting love to Odette, because those are the terms that will break Odette's [[ForcedTransfomation swan curse]]. However, the Odette that Derek proposes to is really Rothbart's minion in disguise, meaning that since Derek swore his love to another, the real Odette would die.

* In ''Literature/TheLoveOfThreeOranges'', a slave turns the bride into a bird and then claims to be her and the victim of a BalefulPolymorph herself.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSwanPrincess'' has Derek proclaim a vow of everlasting love to Odette, because those are the terms that will break Odette's [[BalefulPolymorph swan curse]]. However, the Odette that Derek proposes to is really Rothbart's minion in disguise, meaning that since Derek swore his love to another, the real Odette would die.

* Played with in ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/1892/princessbelleetoile.html Princess Belle-Etoile]]''. 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.

The wedding rarely if ever goes through, with the real bride (or groom, in gender-flipped examples) [[SpeakNowOrForeverHoldYourPeace 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 FairyTales, the false bride is executed for her attack on the true bride -- sometimes substantially after the wedding took place -- as a complication in the heroine's RagsToRoyalty rise. (This is often a case of SiblingTriangle.)

* In Myth/NorseMythology, 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.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Erstwhile}}'', [[http://www.erstwhiletales.com/maidmaleen-18/#.T296UNm6SuI the bride orders Maid Maleen to take her place.]]

* 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 reluctanly 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.

* 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 HighSchoolSweetheart 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 AlphaBitch and her GirlPosse along with the boy's mother arranged the whole thing.

* 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.

* In ''[[http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/grimms/198maidmaleen.html Maid Maleen]]'', 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.

* ''ComicBook/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.

* In the Literature/{{Child Ballad|s}} "Literature/{{The Lord of Lorn|and the False Steward}}" , the young lord has his position stolen by a treacherous servant. Fortunately, although [[ThePromise he promised]] to never tell any human, [[ExactWords he can tell a horse.]]

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

* 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 him nor Ginko are 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]])]].

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[[folder:{{Film}} -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

* 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 bedchamber, 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.

* ''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.

[[folder: LiveActionTV]]

** This happens again in ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'', when Mia and [[spoiler:Emily]] pull a BatmanGambit on Dayu, who has been kidnapping brides from their weddings.

* 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!"

* Literature/TheBible 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 get to marry Rachel too the next week, but then he had to work ''another'' seven years for her retroactively.

** Literature/TheTalmud, 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.

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[[folder:VideoGames]]

* Near the end of ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'', [[BigBad 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 [[TotemPoleTrench 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 [[NiceJobBreakingItHero manages to mess that up]].

[[folder:WebComics]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', “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.

A young couple are all ready for the [[WeddingDay big day]]. Only the bride isn't who the groom thinks she is. Maybe it's an ArrangedMarriage, and someone else is impersonating the bride he's never seen. Maybe a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting alien]] has taken her place. Or maybe she's simply using a wedding veil as a convenient disguise.

* At the climax of ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', 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.

* In the [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles 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.

* In ''Literature/MagnusChaseAndTheGodsOfAsgard'' The Hammer of Thor, Sam gets engaged to Thrymr III, who has the eponymous hammer. [[spoiler:Alex pretends to be Sam,]] which is fortunate because Thrymr III learned from his grandfather's mistakes and magically checked the heritage of his bride-to-be to ensure he's marrying [[spoiler:Loki's daughter.]]

* On ''Series/{{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.

* In the 1934 version of ''Film/BabesInToyland'', Little Bo Peep agrees to marry Barnaby so that he'll settle the mortgage on Mother Peep's shoe house. However, he's tricked into marrying Stanley Dum, who had dressed up as the bride and hidden his face with the veil.