A couple went viral on TikTok for filming their surprise wedding like an episode of 'The Office'
April Pinto Photography
- Justin Dowling and Ann Claire Crawford had a surprise wedding on March 3, 2023.
- They documented the event with a video that was filmed like an episode of "The Office."
- A trailer of the video went viral on TikTok.
Justin Dowling and Ann Claire Crawford never imagined getting married after they met online and fell in love in 2017.
As Crawford told Insider, both she and Dowling had been married before they met, so they didn't think it would be right for them. But when the pandemic hit, the Texas-based couple started rethinking things.
"We started talking more about entertaining the idea of getting married just in case we need to make medical decisions," Crawford said.
Over brunch on a trip to St. Louis in April 2021, they decided they would get married, but Crawford had one caveat: She wanted the wedding to be a surprise.
April Pinto Photography
"Justin was immediately in love with the idea. We decided on a date right there in the restaurant," Crawford said.
They planned their surprise wedding for March 3, 2023, telling their loved ones they would be getting married at the courthouse on March 23 and inviting them to their "engagement party" on their actual wedding date.
Only their closest friend John Moore, who would officiate the wedding, and their friend Tye Shirley, who hosted the wedding at her venue Towering Oaks Event and Retreat Center, knew what would really happen.
YouTube/VirtuReel
"Our families didn't know, the wedding party didn't know, and the guests especially didn't know," Crawford said.
After they welcomed everyone to the event, Crawford quickly changed into a wedding dress, and the couple surprised their guests with their wedding ceremony.
They even managed to have a wedding party, providing aprons with prints of dresses and suits on them to make the group look uniform. Crawford said her maid of honor uses it daily to cook.
April Pinto Photography
Although the event was a surprise to their guests, Dowling and Crawford had planned it painstakingly with the help of CM Promotions. They also hired April Pinto Photography, Babe's Chicken, Andy's Floral Events, Picture This DFW, and Dallas Event Audio to make the wedding happen.
They also tapped VirtuReel's Michael Perez and Rachael Burleson to document the surprise wedding, though they didn't want a traditional wedding video.
To go along with the fun energy of the day, Dowling and Crawford requested VirtuReel film a mockumentary-style wedding video inspired by "The Office."
"'The Office' is our favorite TV series. Justin and I have a tradition that every Christmas day we watch every Christmas episode of 'The Office,'" Crawford said. "We are constantly quoting it, and our absolute favorite episode of the series is Jim and Pam's wedding."
Crawford thought it would be fun to create their own wedding mockumentary, and Dowling loved the idea.
VirtuReel released a trailer of the full episode, which includes clips of the couple talking directly to the camera, a montage of scenes of the wedding set to "The Office" theme song, and clips of their wedding party wearing their aprons.
During the event, Dowling and Crawford were also given awards for being the best actor and best actress at a surprise wedding, nodding to the Dundie Awards on "The Office."
"Justin, John, and I gave them a list of questions to ask the guests and they interviewed them throughout the night," Crawford said of how they helped VirtuReel create the mockumentary video. "We filmed scenes before the guests arrived for the episode."
VirtuReel had never taken on a project like this before Dowling and Crawford's wedding, the videographers told Insider.
April Pinto Photography
"They explained their vision, and we were honestly pretty nervous to attempt filming this way," Perez and Burleson told Insider.
"Luckily for us, Ann Claire and Justin absolutely delivered on the first scene we put together," they told Insider. "That set the tone for the day, and we knew then that this might actually work — and their video might actually be hilarious."
The teaser of the wedding video VirtuReel shared on TikTok on Friday has already amassed over 1 million views, to Crawford and Dowling's shock.
"I never even dreamed our surprise 'Office'-style wedding would go viral," Crawford said. "We had so much fun planning and partying with our family and friends. We just wanted everyone to be surprised and have a great time."
Perez and Burleson said they plan to release the full episode on Dowling and Crawford's wedding on the VirtuReel social-media channels once it's finished.