Celebrity weddings are usually remembered for sweeping gowns, grand venues and lavish details, but the wedding of fashion designer Johnnie Boden’s eldest daughter, Anna, drew attention for a very different reason: what appeared to be a spectacular cake disaster.
Images shared by Boden, the founder of the much-loved British label worn by figures including the Princess of Wales and Michelle Obama, seemed to show members of the catering team dropping a three-tier wedding cake as it was being brought out for Anna and her financier husband, Ollie Hext.
The apparent mishap prompted a wave of sympathy online, with fans expressing horror for the “poor waiter” in the comments. The scene became even more chaotic in a follow-up image, where the family’s Welsh terrier, Janet, was seen enthusiastically licking icing from the fallen cake.
But the father of the bride has since revealed that the dramatic moment was not quite what it seemed. In a follow-up post on Instagram, Boden admitted: “I have a terrible confession to make,” before confirming that the “cake drop was staged.”
He explained that the waiters involved were in fact “brilliant actors,” and that the whole scene had been “rehearsed to within an inch of its life.” Boden also reassured followers that “no one was hurt” and that Janet, the Welsh terrier, only managed “one small mouthful.”
“Above all, everyone was fooled, although a couple of fibbers claimed they knew it was a prank,” he wrote in the statement.
Boden also shared a video of the staged performance, showing the pair carefully making their way up a set of rustic stone steps while carrying the elaborately decorated three-tier cake. Moments later, they appear to lose control of it, sending it tumbling to the ground.
The twist quickly became clear when the duo, dressed in pink and red striped aprons, pulled out microphones and began singing, prompting the wedding crowd to burst into cheers and applause.
Oh crumbs! Anna Boden and her new husband Ollie Hext appeared to suffer a wedding cake disaster judging by images shared following their wedding this weekend
However, the father of the bride has now admitted the ‘cake drop was staged’ in a follow-up Instagram post
The story generated so much interest that Jeremy Vine later interviewed one of the singers who pulled off the ‘cake drop’ during a segment on his Radio 2 show yesterday.
Hannah Clift told the broadcaster she is part of Singers Secreto, a wedding entertainment company that specialises in creating fake scenarios for a fun musical act.
‘It’s a really nice way of transitioning from the emotional speeches into party time,’ Hannah, who is an actor from Bristol, explained.
Reflecting on the Boden wedding ‘disaster’, she added: ‘On the Instagram post that the Bodens shared, they haven’t given any context to the cake being dropped, which just makes it so much funnier.
‘It was an absolutely brilliant moment, it was so funny, and everyone was so shocked, but yes, unfortunately, it was entirely on purpose.’
Singers working with the firm dress up as members of staff or guests to pull off wedding pranks such as ‘The Falling Waiter’ or, indeed, ‘The Cake Drop’ before bursting into song.
The standard package of a 30-minute interactive show with six songs starts at £495, while the premium variant, including a 45-minute show with nine songs, costs £795 upwards depending on the location of the wedding.
According to the website, Singers Secreto works with over 150 performers across the UK and Ireland who have been in West End musicals, show tours and ‘even toured with Adele’.
Singers choose which songs to sing from a ‘tried and tested playlist’ after assessing the ‘atmosphere in the room’, including hits like Can’t Take My Eyes Off You and Sweet Caroline.
The Boden entrepreneur, who founded the brand in 1991, changed out of his morning suit in favour of a colourful pink-and-red candy-cane striped suit, paired with Adidas trainers, for the wedding reception
The groom punching the air after the couple said ‘I do’
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Would a stunt like this make your wedding more memorable, or would it be taking things too far?
Anna’s wedding was the first time Hannah and her duet partner Brendan Casey had successfully pulled off ‘The Cake Drop’, as she said she was shocked to discover the Bodens had provided a three-tiered ‘beautiful cake they were willing for us to drop’.
‘I think we did fool pretty much everyone and then we pulled the microphones out of our pockets and started singing,’ she said.
The setlist for the wedding included Give Me a Man After Midnight and Sweet Caroline at the reception, believed to have taken place at the Boden family’s 500-acre country estate in Dorset.
Former Etonian Boden, 65, announced that the eldest of his three daughters, Anna, who teaches science in a west London school, had married her wealth manager beau Ollie in an emotive Instagram post last week.
He wrote: ‘My daughter Anna’s wedding to her new husband Ollie was a wonderful celebration… Lots of joyful tears were shed, not least by me.’
The bride wore an elegant fitted satin bridal gown with sheer puffed sleeves, with her hair teased back from her face and held in place by a tiara and flowing veil.
Her father, meanwhile, swapped the morning suit he wore to walk his daughter down the aisle for an ensemble that reflected the characterful entrepreneur’s more playful side.
The 65-year-old is seen sporting a candy-cane striped suit in on-trend pink and red in one of the photos, paired with Adidas trainers.
The ‘caterers’ who let the wedding cake slip from their grasp were also wearing aprons cut in the same fabric – as were the couple’s young bridesmaids.
Bags in the same striped material are currently being promoted by the company in a different Instagram post.
The British company started life as a mail-order start-up, but has since become a global brand and made a fortune for the man who started it.
Boden founded the clothing company in 1991, after ditching his career as a stockbroker in favour of the world of fashion.
In the decades since, the company has become a go-to for busy middle-income women, with plenty of famous faces big fans of Boden’s ability to put stylish, well-made, no-fuss styling front and centre of its collections.
Last year, the company opened its first physical store on US shores, in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Michelle Obama, Holly Willoughby, Samantha Cameron and Helena Christensen have all been spotted wearing garments by Boden in recent years, with Kate Middleton also a certified admirer of the brand’s clothes.
