Bride 'dies' during her wedding toast and then came the ultimate reveal: 'Nobody move'

People have all kinds of ideas on how to make their wedding a little different, choreographing everything down to the last detail, but one bride decided to script something else entirely — dramatic, unexpected, and a little bit deadly. The video, shared by Alesia of @alesiafilms on Instagram, shows how a carefully staged moment turned an elegant evening into something no one at the table saw coming.

In the video, the bride, Alexandra Lahde (@alexandralahde), turned her rehearsal dinner at the Fairmont Banff in Canada into a full-scale murder mystery. She began her toast while standing at the bar holding a wine glass, saying, "I just wanted to take a second and thank you all so much for coming here." But her speech quickly unraveled. "We — I’m so sorry — grateful to have you here this evening. I’m so there’s — something stuck in my throat," she trailed off before coughing, once, then again, clutching the counter, another cough, then a final one, just for effect. Seconds later, she said, "Oh my God," and dropped to the floor as someone yelled, "She’s dead. She's DEAD'!!" Her husband immediately went over to 'rescue' her, but before he or anyone could panic, a man in a detective costume burst into the room, flashing a badge and declaring the start of the evening’s main event. 

"Nobody move! My name is Bert Hamon from the Banff Police Department. I’ve been told there’s a—yeah, of course," he said, looking at the 'dead' body of Alexandra. According to the caption, the bride had planned the entire theme herself. "Our bride’s surprise murder mystery was one for the history books, and of course, she planned her entire rehearsal dinner theme around detective decor with a typewriter welcome sign, magnifying glass name tags, and moody florals and candles at the stunning @fairmontbanff in Banff, Canada. Her acting though? 10 out of 10!!!!" Alesia explained in the caption.

Viewers couldn’t get enough of her commitment and commended the whole act in the comments. @kymarie_813 said, "See, THIS is planned so well. The fact that the detective was virtually immediate to signal that she was okay and it was a game is the PERFECT way to pull this off!" @tomatillo88 wrote, "I love anyone who’s confidently dramatic enough to say 'She’s dead! SHE’S DEAD!' the second someone faints with literally zero verification." @lifewithannajoy added, "Wait, why is this something I never knew I wanted at my wedding until now?" @candb_photo shared, "This is pure gold! We started watching this before reading your caption and just thought, what an odd clip of coughing to post. This is amazing!"

@b.leaf.able shared, "Oh my God, I had this same idea three exes ago (thank God we never went through with it). I’m so happy somebody did it!" @ripplebr00k chimed in, "Love this! I especially love how it’s obvious they made sure to have people ready to reveal the surprise immediately, not keep the groom in suspense. Green flag!" @debxvl added, "Her husband knows her so well, he knew something was up." @aliesharochelle, "How awkward that 'she's dead!' would have been if the detective hadn't come in right away."

You can follow Alesia (@alesiafilms) on Instagram for more wedding content.