Scout put her wedding rings in a stranger's hand and said 'hide them' hours before the ceremony

On the morning of Scout and Cameron Stevens' wedding they gave their rings to a total stranger and ordered him to hide them.It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but that risk led to one of the best moments of their nuptials when Scout's best friend discovered the rings hidden under her chair.READ MORE: Kate's long absence proves women are monarchy's backbone"I think it started as a joke, like, 'Let's just put [the rings] under a random seat,'" Scout tells 9honey."Then we were like, 'Actually, let's do it'. We had no idea whose seat they would be under, we just asked the venue to pick."It was a beautiful surprise when they revealed the scheme during the ceremony and Scout's best friend stood up to walk the rings down the aisle.And it wasn't the only time Scout and Cameron bucked tradition at their destination wedding in Tuscany, Italy. Watch the video above.They invited just 30 guests and chose not to have a wedding party, rehearsed the ceremony in their swimmers, and did a group cooking class instead of a rehearsal dinner.The Stevenses aren't the only newlyweds choosing for forego tradition according to Darcy Allen, Senior Wedding Planner at Easy Weddings, who says non-traditional nuptials are on the rise in Australia."Everyone is looking to do something a little bit different. They don't want to do the norm. They don't want the cookie-cutter wedding," she tells 9honey.Allen's seen a spike in couples opting not to have a traditional wedding cake, having someone other than the father walk the bride down the aisle, and doing a last dance instead of a first dance."I've had a few couples do no wedding speeches [...] they're trying to reduce the formalities because at the end of the day, everyone just wants the big party."Many couples stay together on the wedding night, breaking away from centuries of wedding tradition that has become "obsolete" in an era where most couples live together before tying the knot.That was actually the one tradition Scout and Cameron stuck to, though they opted to have a 'first look' before the ceremony on their wedding day.READ MORE: Duke and Duchess of Westminster top social power list"Lots of couples are opting for a first look so that they can have those gorgeous portraits together and then once they're married, they can party with their guests and not need to worry about going off and having the traditional photos," Allen explains.Scout and Cameron also came up with creative ways to cut costs for their wedding, like designing their own invites for free on Canva and only paying for raw video of the wedding, not a full edit."We didn't have a videographer in our budget, but as we got closer to the day we couldn't stop thinking about how sad it would be not to have the ceremony or speeches captured," Scout explains.An edited wedding video can cost thousands of dollars, so they opted to go without and just get the raw files even though friends in the industry said it was "crazy"."When I think about my options budget-wise, it's a no-brainer," Scout says."If you care more about capturing the day than the end result of that two or three minute video, I'd say it's a great option to save some costs."Allen confirms plenty of Aussie couples are also opting for small, non-traditional weddings just to save some cash amid the ongoing cost of living crisis.Couples are ditching fresh florals because prices have skyrocketed and DIY-ing their wedding decor, sending email invites instead of paper ones, and even getting married in the middle of the week to avoid blowing their budget.For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.Weddings are also getting smaller, with the average number of guests at Aussie ceremonies dropping from 100-110 down to 89 this year."Guest numbers have significantly dropped across the average Aussie wedding, however the spend has remained roughly the same," Allen reveals.But the biggest tradition Scout bucked actually came after her wedding ceremony, when she decided to sell her stunning wedding dress to recoup some cash.Watch the video below.The Vagabond Bridal gown was created by combining parts of two existing dresses ("it was a bit of a Frankenstein situation"), making it the most expensive clothing item Scout's ever purchased.Scout racked up over 1.8 million views when she showed it off on TikTok, and the last thing she wanted was for it to sit in a closet gathering dust after the wedding."I really wanted it to have a second life!" she says."I thought it might make another bride happy to get to wear it [...] and it's so much money to spend on a dress, so it felt really good to be able to recoup a significant portion of the costs."READ MORE: Hidden detail in Camilla's glamorous State Banquet lookWhile she knows it was a controversial move, Scout doesn't regret selling her dress one bit.In the current financial climate couples like the Stevens' are skipping costly wedding traditions in favour of fun, unique ceremonies that fit their budget and personalities; and while some traditionalists may turn up their noses, these newlyweds wouldn't change a thing."The entire experience was just so wonderful that I can't bring myself to think of changing it," Scout says of her own nuptials.FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. 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