A MUCH-LOVED wedding celebrant has helped officiate a surprise wedding live on prime time TV.
Michelle Taylor, who is also Manningtree mayor, was asked to help out with the ceremony for Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.
The show returned to screens this weekend with Ant and Dec throwing a dream wedding for one of the guests in the studio.
Vicky, an unsuspecting expectant mum, was pulled from the audience to explain how she and her partner Nick had to postpone their wedding three times because of the pandemic, losing £28,000 on the previous venue that went bust.
But in true Saturday Night Takeaway fashion, there was more to the story than it meets the eye.
Nick, who Vicky thought was on a business trip in Miami, was suddenly brought onto the screen bending on one knee asking Vicky to marry him.
He had in fact gathered all their friends and family in a glitzy venue in London waiting for his loved one to marry him.
And the person who officiated their wedding on live TV was Michelle.
Michelle, who has been a wedding celebrant for the past 12 years, said: “It was just brilliant being part of this secret.
“There were a hundred guest there and I was just talking to the couple and you kind of forget there are millions of people actually watching live until afterwards.”
Planning the secret wedding was definitely a challenge but Michelle eagerly jumped at the opportunity.
Even if that meant driving to London just one day after Storm Eunice swiped across the UK.
She added: “I had an email from one of the producers of the show at the beginning of January and they were looking for a celebrant for a live TV show on February 19 and asked if I would be interested.
“I spoke to the groom on Zoom to get a bit of information from him but I couldn’t make it as personal as I would normally make a ceremony simply because we didn’t have the time to do it.
“ It was still nice and personal within the time constraints that we had.
“It was brilliant and I really loved it.”
You can watch the episode of Saturday Night Takeaway on ITV Hub.
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