Michelle Hardwick and Kate Brooks’ only wedding guests were a "hotel maintenance guy" and his mother.
The ‘Emmerdale’ actress and her partner – one of the soap’s producers – tied the knot at the late, great Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee, last month, and the loved-up couple had an unexpected guest after bumping into a hotel worker called John while trying to find their suite.
Recalling the hilarious turn of events, Michelle told ITV’s ‘This Morning’: "He said, ‘Tuesday’s my day off, I’d love to come and watch and bring my momma!’
"We’ve just come out us two, not brought a soul with us, but we were so nice, like ‘That’s fine, yeah’, thinking it’s a few days away, he’s never gonna turn up in a million years.
"Cut to Kate and I getting out of our lovely Cadillac that took us to Graceland. We got out and Erica, the wedding coordinator, and she was like ‘Girls, lovely to meet you, you look beautiful. Two of your friends are here.’ "
Michelle, 43, admitted at first she thought some friends or family had flown out to surprise them for the nuptials at the Chapel in the Woods, before she quickly realised the maintenance man wasn’t bluffing when he had asked for an invite.
She added: "I’m thinking it’s people from work, maybe family. She goes, ‘He’s called John, and his mom.’ They’re sat there, he sobbed the whole way through the vows. His mam – because I don’t think she could hear properly – was talking all the way through. It was brilliant!"
Michelle – who plays Vanessa Woodfield in the ITV soap – wore a white jumpsuit for the occasion, and Kate donned a white dress.
The happy couple then travelled for more than 200 miles to Nashville for their honeymoon, where they checked into the Hutton Hotel and were delighted to be upgraded.
Michelle previously tweeted: "Thank you so much for our bubbly and upgrade to a suite @HuttonHotel… All your staff have been delightful (sic)"