Wedding Officiant Reveals that Bride and Groom Married in Secret 1 Year Ago: 'Jaws Were on the Floor' (Exclusive)

• During Zahné and Arek Zabierek's wedding ceremony in Mexico on Feb. 23, the officiant revealed that the couple secretly eloped in Las Vegas exactly one year prior
• Wedding guests were in shock and "everyone’s jaws were on the floor"
• "We thought that eloping and keeping it to ourselves would allow us to keep the beginning of our marriage for just us without any outside noise," the bride tells PEOPLE

Wedding guests were in shock after the officiant made a surprise announcement.

Zahné Zabierek (née Theron) and Arek Zabierek tied the knot at Villa la Joya in Mexico on Feb. 23 — but little did guests know, it was their second time getting married. During their wedding ceremony, the couple's friend and officiant, Nicky Boggio, revealed that the pair secretly eloped exactly one year prior in Las Vegas.

"As you can imagine, everyone’s jaws were on the floor!" Zahné tells PEOPLE. "My husband’s twin brother thought we were joking. It was definitely a moment to remember."

Footage from the announcement, captured by content creator Andrea Ton, was recently posted by the bride on TikTok. The video quickly gained more than 700,000 views because of guests' stunned reactions. 

Most notably, Taylor, the bride's sister-in-law and bridesmaid, leaned forward and opened her mouth so wide that couldn't open any further. Migne, the bride's sister and maid of honor, was just as gobsmacked.

"With how much those two stalk my location, they were definitely the hardest to keep the secret from," the bride says.

Zahné and Arek — who got engaged on March 12, 2023 — were "so excited" to share their elopement news.

"We continuously talked about how it will be weird for everyone to know we have been married but after a year of keeping it just for us, we were ready to shout it from the rooftops," Zahné says. "When the moment was happening, we were looking at each other and around at our guests to see when they would start to understand what was going on. It was such a cute moment I will remember forever."

Only a handful of people knew that the duo discreetly got married, including their wedding vendors and planner from Fresa Weddings, as well as Zahné's older brother, who served as the couple's elopement witness and photographer. 

"I told my wax and nail girls I see monthly — I needed SOMEONE to talk to about it!!" Zahné admits.

Zahné explains that the decision to get married before the destination wedding was a practical one.

"We had to get married legally before our wedding in Mexico due to the complicated and lengthy process to get legally married in Mexico," she says. "As much as I always wanted the big wedding, I also loved the idea of an elopement and thought Vegas would be so fun."

Keeping the union secret also allowed for Zahné and Arek to have some time to enjoy their marriage just the two of them.

"Something I struggled with a lot when we got engaged was knowing that yes a wedding is for us, but it definitely opens up for others to have opinions and insert themselves into something that should just be for us two," Zahné continues. "We thought that eloping and keeping it to ourselves would allow us to keep the beginning of our marriage for just us without any outside noise." 

Plus, having the wedding exactly one year after the elopement allowed there to be only one wedding anniversary to celebrate.

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Some commenters on TikTok said that they'd feel "betrayed" if their loved ones kept their marriage a secret from them, to which Zahné responded: "It's not about you."

Zahné has no regrets and would "definitely recommend" eloping in secret.

"It allows you to have that intimate moment and memory just for you two and time after your wedding to soak in the post-married bliss without any outside noise," she tells PEOPLE. "We also found it made planning the wedding ceremony so much less stressful! We weren’t nervous or stressed out when planning the big day. We really got the best of both worlds."