This Couple Had Puppets Officiate Their Wedding And It Was Amazing

"By the power vested in me by the state of California, and by the puppeteer's hand up my butt..."

When Tammy Caplan and Joe Gold were planning their April 2015 wedding, they decided to surprise their guests with something completely unexpected: a puppet officiant.

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And they didn't stop with one puppet officiant... their ceremony featured six puppets, including a rabbi, a judge, a ring bear (get it?), and a ship’s captain. There was even a sing-along!

See how it all went down here:

Adam Finlay, Skyline Videography / Via youtube.com

"We grew up watching Sesame Street and were huge fans of The Muppets," Caplan told BuzzFeed Life.

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Caplan and Gold — who are both actors, writers, and independent filmmakers — have been together for years, and discussed all kinds of ways to make their wedding feel unique.

"Finally," Caplan said, "we came up with the fun idea of being married by a puppet."

The California couple started the process by writing the ceremony script together.

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"We’ve written several scripts together, but this was one of the most fun writing projects," Caplan said. "Writing for puppets was very interesting."

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She told BuzzFeed Life that the puppets could say things that would be inappropriate for a regular person to say at a wedding... but they also had to keep the puppets' physical limitations in mind when they were writing.

"After that, Joe got in contact with the L.A. Puppet School," Caplan said. "They were so enthusiastic about the idea of a puppet wedding."

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They worked with the school's director to build the puppets, create the costumes, and audition puppeteers. "They brought such a happy energetic vibe to the whole wedding planning," Caplan said.

And puppeteer Sam Kirkpatrick got ordained online for his role as the main officiant.

The bride and groom didn't share their puppet idea with any of their loved ones during the wedding planning process.

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"Even our parents and the wedding party didn't know until the day before," Caplan said. "They kept asking us, 'Who's the officiant?' and we said, 'It's a secret.'"

Caplan and Gold were a little nervous their guests wouldn't like the idea... but it turned out to be a big hit.

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The puppeteers walked around with the puppets and interacted with the guests during cocktail hour. And the breakfast reception included a make-your-own-pupppet station (organized by the L.A. Puppet School) and a puppet dance at the end.

"The guests had so much fun, which was exactly what we wanted!" Caplan said.

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H/t A Practical Wedding