Bride spent 4 years tracking a stranger in her wedding photos — the truth was even wilder than she imagined
The reveal had Michelle and her family laughing in relief.
When Michelle and John Wylie tied the knot at the Carlton Hotel in Prestwick, Scotland, in November 2021, they thought they knew every person there. But when their wedding photos came back, they saw a complete stranger, tall man in a dark suit kept appearing in the background. Neither Michelle nor John recognized him, and no one else seemed to either. "It wasn't until I got the first few photos back from the photographer and my husband and I were looking at them that we went 'who's that?'," Michelle told the BBC.
The mystery deepened when they asked around. "We started asking our parents first of all, then going through my aunties and the rest of the family, then my friends. Absolutely no-one knew who he was. Then we got on to the Carlton Hotel if they had an idea, but nope. We wondered if this was someone who had been helping bring the register down, but not a single person knew who he was," she explained. The couple also posted on Facebook asking about the man, but got no answers. "It would come into my head and I'd be like, 'Someone must know who this guy is,'" Michelle admitted.
Earlier this month, she decided to try again and asked Scottish content creator Dazza to share their photos. "Need your help finding this man," he wrote on Facebook. "A follower called Michelle messaged me saying 4 years ago a random stranger came to her wedding but they didn’t realise till after they got the wedding pictures back. After 4 years, she wants to find out who it is. Share this everywhere to see if we can find him and figure out what the hell happened." Within two hours, the man stepped forward — his name was Andrew Hillhouse, and he had been waiting years for this moment. "LMFAO, THATS ME!!! I always wondered if this would ever make its way back to me," he wrote.
Hillhouse explained that he had been on his way to another wedding that afternoon. His partner was in the bridal party, but he’d been given the wrong venue. "I see a piper outside playing a tune and a bunch of well-dressed people slowly making their way inside and I remember thinking to myself, 'Cool, this is obviously the right place,'" he said. Everything seemed normal until the bride appeared, as Hillhouse explained, "OMG that's not Michaela who the F is that? I was at the wrong wedding!'" He added, "You can't exactly stand up and walk out of a wedding mid-ceremony so I just had to commit to this act and spent the next 20 minutes awkwardly sitting there trying to be as inconspicuous as my 6ft 2 a** could be."
He even got pulled into a group photo before slipping out. "Rushed outside, made some phone calls and made my way to the correct wedding where I was almost as popular as the actual bride and groom and spent most of the night retelling that story to people," he recalled. For Michelle, finally knowing who he was felt like closing a loop that had been open for years. "I could not stop laughing. We can't believe we've found out who he is after almost four years," she said. Hillhouse was just as amused, adding, "It was much easier to crash a wedding than I'd have thought — I was in and out like an assassin, even if I only got a bottle of cola for it all!"
More on Scoop Upworthy
Woman going through wedding photos realizes her best friend features more than her husband
Share on Facebook
