In their seventh year of dating, Shawn Lippert secretly collected every last detail of his girlfriend’s dream wedding, planned the whole eve...
This is not an urban myth.
Lippert, 37, proposed to Colleen Freker, 32, on Saturday morning, outside On the Beach Bar & Grill in tiny Tecumseh, Ont., just a few minutes from their home in Windsor. He was dressed in a tux. So were the five groomsmen waiting inside the restaurant along with Colleen’s bridesmaids and their friends and family.
The couple had planned to elope in Las Vegas in September, a simple ceremony for laid-back couple.
See the photo gallery of the surprise proposal and wedding
Freker had already purchased a dress and shoes. But Lippert spent the last year asking questions about the perfect wedding cake, midnight snack and first song. Little did she know, he used her answers to plan the $12,000 secret ceremony, all the time worried someone would let the cat out of the bag.
“We live in a pretty small area and there were a lot of people that knew,” says Lippert, head coach of the University of Windsor men’s volleyball team.
The groom called each of their 207 guests so there would be no paper trail of invitations to spoil the surprise, snuck over to the bridal shop to pick up her dress and brought the contents of her entire bedroom to the restaurant — furniture included — so the bride had everything she could possibly need to get ready for the ceremony .
“Guys do little things here and there, but generally they’re kind of clueless so to pull something like this off is amazing,” says Freker, owner of two day spas in the Windsor area. “I don’t need him to do anything else.”
A video of the proposal and ceremony, which Lippert dubbed Operation White Cake, has been viewed 100,000 times on YouTube.
It shows Freker arriving at On the Beach with a friend who told her she was going to a retirement party.
Freker can’t believe what she hears when Lippert proposes, then welcomes her to her own wedding immediately.
“Like, my dress is here?” Freker asks.
“You are crazy,” she says to him after walking down the aisle in an off-white, spaghetti-strap gown with black sash, her father at her side.
Lippert says he plans to milk his current status as “most romantic guy in the world” for as long as he can. But he hasn’t always been such a smooth operator. Operation White Cake began just over a year ago when Lippert botched a proposal.
He recalls Freker coming home to the house they’ve shared since 2004. He was playing video games and she said she wanted to get married.
He replied with a version of, “Sure, honey, whatever you want.”
She wasn’t impressed. They fought. So he devised a plan to redeem himself.
It worked.
It's in the details
The special details Lippert got exactly right:
The ring He smuggled Freker’s engagement ring out of the house Saturday morning. The ring, a flower shape encrusted with tiny diamonds, was her grandmother’s. He had casually slipped it onto her finger during that first proposal.
The decorations White Martha Stewart paper lanterns
The centrepieces Mason jars with giant tea lights graced every table
The meal A midnight snack of tacos because she loves Taco Bell
The first song “Only You” by Joshua Radin
The cake Cherry chip cupcakes, which Freker likes. She hates having to pick the fondant off fancy wedding cakes.
The bridesmaids Her best friend and three sisters
