(NEXSTAR) – Nothing inspires creativity like a jerky ex-boyfriend.
Sarah Vilard, 24, has recently gone viral on TikTok after claiming to have faked her own wedding for the purpose of getting revenge on an ex who “was toxic and used to stalk me,” she says.
In the now-viral post, Vilard alleges that she staged a photo shoot — complete with a dress and a stand-in “groom” — to really sell the idea. Vilard even included a few of the photos in her TikTok post, which showed her embracing her new “husband” at what appears to be a fancy wedding venue.
“Yup I’m crazy,” she wrote in a caption that accompanied the post, which has since been viewed over 2.4 million times on TikTok.
Vilard, an aspiring fitness influencer on Instagram who currently lives in Frankfurt, Germany, says she and her friends originally hatched the plan as a means to finally end Vilard’s relationship with her ex — an ex she still loved, but knew she shouldn’t be with.
“This was back in 2019,” Vilard says. “I knew if I [didn’t] do it, I might go back with him… I thought the only way to stop this was to make him think I got married.”
It worked, too. After posting some of her fake wedding photos to one of her social media accounts, Vilard’s boyfriend allegedly reached out in disbelief. She says he also accused her of cheating on him with the “groom” during their relationship, which had only ended three months before.
“I deleted the wedding pictures right after he saw them and blocked him everywhere,” she says. “He stalked me and came up to my house for the next few weeks but then finally moved on and even left the country.”
After finally sharing her secret on last week, Vilard claims she was initially criticized for her actions. But she’s also earned plenty of fans on TikTok, some of whom claim they “love the pettiness,” or would do something similar if they were faced with the same situation.
“Of course I got hate but I know there are also people that respect what I did as long as it was good for my own amusement or mental health, or even just felt right to me,” Vilard says.
One thing she’s not ready to share, however, is the cost of her lavish “wedding” photographs.
“I don’t want to talk about how much I spent on the fake wedding,” Vilard says.