Chinese fiancée discovers more than 200 of groom's wedding guests were paid $16 each to be there

When two people decide to spend the rest of their lives together, they want to start that journey on the right foot.

Unfortunately for one woman, she caught her husband-to-be in a lie when she found out that more than 200 of his 'friends and relatives' did not even know who he was.

Two women who turned up at the large-scale banquet in Xi'an, China confessed to a local news reporter that they did not know who the groom was and that they had been promised 80 yuan ($16) just for showing up.

These fake relatives and friends had gotten to know about this groom's need for wedding attendees through WeChat and word of mouth.

According to Shanghaiist, a pedicab driver said that when he heard about the offer of free food and 80 yuan, he brought five more people from his village.

The groom surnamed Wang managed to gather over 200 'friends' who were mostly migrant workers and students hoping to make easy money.

However, his bride-to-be, surnamed Liu, eventually caught on to the lie.

She had talked to some of the guests and realised that none of them were family members.

They all claimed that they were 'friends' of the groom but did not provide further explanation.

She also became suspicious when there was no sign of the groom's parents.

He kept telling his bride that they were on the way but eventually his web of lies collapsed and the bride's family called the police who took Wang away on suspicion of fraud.

Wang defended his actions saying that his parents did not approve of him marrying Liu as she was from out of town.

However, Liu claimed that they had been dating for years and that issue never came up once.

She now suspects that the couple she met on previous occasions were paid actors and not her fiance's actual parents.

When reporters asked Liu why she wasn't familiar with any of her fiance's friends, she said that they kept their lives separate and had a different circle of friends.