Well this is a new one... absent groomsman

thisismynickname2

http://wgntv.com/2015/11/13/best-man-deployed-before-friends-wedding-replaced-by-cardboard-cutout/

A couple made a cardboard cutout of the best man to include in pictures and even recorded his speech to play at the wedding, because he was deployed before the wedding and couldn't attend. 

Obviously being in the Middle East is not a joke, but I love the humor displayed here so someone who is very important to the couple could still be "involved."  

monkeysip

That is sweet.  Someone I knew who got married had a cardboard cutout of her sister made.  Her sister was joining a convent and making her final vows, so she couldn't be there.  It made for some great photos.

madamerwin

That's cute! 

When my dad and stepmom got married, my sister and husband (bf at the time) were teaching English in South Korea. They had my mom (who was also invited to the wedding) make little cutouts of their heads on sticks, which she placed on two front row seats at the ceremony. My dad didn't know about it until the ceremony started, at which point he, and everyone else, started cracking up. It was pretty great, and I am fairly certain that he still has the cutouts on his fridge ten years later.

kimmiinthemitten

I love the pic of him being carried down the aisle!  That's too great.

And how nice for the Best Man to know he was so loved and so missed that they went to those lengths to have him there in spirit.