Four people have been arrested at Disneyland Paris after authorities discovered that a group of individuals were staging a “mock wedding,” with a 9-year-old girl as the bride. Despite both the groom, a 22-year-old man from Britain, and the young girl’s mother insisting that the event was staged, there are still growing concerns around the child’s welfare.

According to The Independent, the park had been privately hired by the group for the morning of Saturday 21 June 2025, before the grounds were later made open to the public.

It wasn’t until staff saw the young 9-year-old girl in a wedding dress that they alerted the authorities, who swiftly arrived and arrested the girl’s mother, a 41-year-old Ukrainian woman. Two, believed to be Latvian nationals, are still being questioned on suspicion of money-laundering and fraud.

Meanwhile, the 22-year-old man from Britain, who was also due to be the groom, is thought to have organised the event.

Alexandre Verney, assistant prosecutor for the Seine-et-Marne département, told news outlets: “It wasn’t a wedding but a staged wedding that was to be filmed with a hundred extras. They had privately hired Disneyland, claiming that it was a real marriage.”

UPDATE: The story gets more bizarre.

The four individuals arrested are reported to be a 22-year-old British national, believed to have been the groom, the child’s 41-year-old Ukrainian mother, and two Latvian nationals.

A police source told Le Parisien that the groom insists it…

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The advert, which had been published online and described as a call-out looking for guests for a “wedding rehearsal” at Disneyland, sought to hire 200 adults and 100 children aged between five and 15.

Le Parisien, a French publication which reported on the incident in detail, referred to the young bride as a “scared little girl” with “heels taped to her feet.”

Providing greater insight, the outlet reported that it was just a few weeks ago that a young Irish man, living in Germany, approached the park with the intention of hiring it out for his wedding. He ended up paying a whopping €130,000 to secure the location.

Guests were carted in on buses and told to “enter the room, sit down, stand up, applaud, and participate naturally and elegantly in this event filmed in a festive and classy atmosphere.” Moreover, those attending were reminded time and time that this event was “strictly private” and “not for broadcast.”

The publication further stated that one of the Latvian men now in custody had been paid €12,000 by the groom to pretend to be the young girl’s father.

Once the four kingpins behind this event were faced with police, the ‘Irish groom’ allegedly revealed himself to be an English man and the director of a production company. The mother of the young girl insisted that the groom was a dear friend and that she’d pursued this idea in order to gift her daughter a “princess day.”

According to officials, on Saturday evening, the custody of the girl’s mother and the child’s fake father was lifted. It is believed that the groom is still in custody.

Additionally, following medical examinations, it was confirmed that the 9-year-old had not suffered any “violent or coercive acts.”