Couple Has 8 A.M. Chuck E. Cheese Wedding for $800: 'One of the Happiest Places on Earth to Me' (Exclusive)

• Leilani Trautman Simeon and Quilee Simeon got married at Chuck E. Cheese in Everett, Massachusetts, on Jan. 11

• Even though Chuck E. Cheese promoted wedding packages as an April Fool's joke, the couple was able to book their wedding as a birthday party. The nuptials took place between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., and only cost $800

• After playing arcade games with unlimited passes, guests got their party favor by trading their tickets in for prizes at the Chuck E. Cheese counter

After Chuck E. Cheese joked it would start hosting weddings, a couple took them up on the offer.

The family entertainment pizza joint created a "Chuck E. Cheese Weddings" website page in 2023 that detailed how to "throw the nuptial party of your childhood dreams … where a mouse can make you a spouse." But the site's listings of "wedding packages for grown-ups who are young at heart" and offerings of a Chuck E. Cheese prenup plan, four-tiered pizza cake and cotton candy bouquet were all actually an April Fool's joke.

Despite the chain clarifying that its Chuck E. Cheese wedding bookings beginning on the nonexistent April 31, 2023 "should not be taken seriously," couple Quilee Simeon, 26, and Leilani Trautman Simeon (née Trautman), 24, decided to book their local Chuck E. Cheese in Everett, Massachusetts, as their Jan. 11 wedding venue anyway.

"It is one of the happiest places on Earth to me," Leilani tells PEOPLE.

Because the bride wanted to have a "fun" wedding that "didn't break the bank," she started looking for local pizza restaurants that could host around 25 guests, but everything exceeded her budget.

"I thought it didn't make sense to spend thousands on a pizza dinner so I tried to think outside the box and come up with a venue that would be more fun but still on the cheaper side," she says.

Because Leilani has an "extensive childhood history with Chuck E. Cheese," she googled "Chuck E. Cheese wedding" and found the fake page.

"I was getting so excited scrolling through the pictures and watching the wedding package video, so I started looking for a link to book, but I kept getting 404 errors," she says. "That's when I scrolled to the bottom of the page and realized it was an April Fool's joke … But it was too late because I already had my heart set on a Chuck E. Cheese wedding."

"I just can't remember ever having a bad time there," she adds.

When Leilani called her local Chuck E. Cheese about struggling to book their wedding package, the employee was "pretty confused."

"I was hoping the CEC employee would find the site and not realize it was an April Fool's joke," Leilani notes.

After "a loooong hold," the employee told Leilani to book her wedding as a birthday party package online.

The next step was convincing Quilee, who had never been to a Chuck E. Cheese before, to have their wedding there.

"At first I think he was a bit hesitant about our wedding happening while children ran around us screaming but we were able to book a 'VIP Early Access' party which meant that we had the whole place to ourselves at 8 a.m. before doors opened to the public," Leilani says. "Once he realized we wouldn't have to worry about looking crazy and/or creepy in front of children and their families, I think he got on board because he saw how excited I was and how happy it made me."

She continues: "I'm certainly very grateful to have a husband who goes along with my sometimes crazy plans!"

On their wedding day, the bride and groom — who met during their sophomore year at MIT — trekked through snow to party not at the adult casino nearby but at the kid arcade with a mouse mascot.

Leilani says that her wedding "went above and beyond expectations." After their friend officiated the ceremony, Quilee and Leilani had a romantic first dance, which was hilariously interrupted by a loud ticket blaster machine. They then shared slices of unevenly cut pizza and birthday cake, and gave everyone "All You Can Play" passes.

Two of the newlyweds' favorite memories include riding in a mini car with a "Just Married" sign on the back and watching Chuck E. Cheese breakdance.

The bride — who used to go to Chuck E. Cheese with her mother, aunt and older brother "all the time growing up" — turned one of her childhood sketch photo booth photos into a wedding picture by photoshopping out her brother and replacing him with a childhood picture of the groom.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"Best (and most affordable) wedding I've ever been to," WBZ NewsRadio's Matt Shearer wrote on social media. The reporter was invited to the wedding when he asked to interview the bride after seeing her Facebook post requesting any leftover wedding decorations for her Chuck E. Cheese celebration.

Shearer tells PEOPLE that it was "funny" how the company had gone through the motions of a birthday party package, which included having Chuck E. Cheese party hats and playing a birthday show. In the birthday performance, Chuck E. Cheese comes out and sings a "Happy Birthday" song. Instead of singing along "Happy Birthday!" Quilee, Leilani and their guests would shout "Happy Wedding!"

"It was just so nice to see everybody just smiling and having fun. No alcohol in sight," Shearer tells PEOPLE. "It was just everyone having a blast and smiling. Granted that happens a lot at weddings, people having fun and smiling, but not like this. This is going to be the kind of thing that people talk about for years to come."

For party favors, guests redeemed their tickets for prizes at the counter. The bride scored the most tickets.

Even after all of their add-ons, the wedding totaled only $800. It was only about two hours long though because Chuck E. Cheese opened up to the public at 10 a.m.

"We truly mean it when we say you can celebrate ANY milestone with us!!" the official Chuck E. Cheese account commented on Shearer's Instagram video of the wedding. "Congrats to Leilani and Quilee! ❤️"

Leilani notes that her Chuck E. Cheese wedding might not have been that out of the ordinary, considering a worker told her that she had witnessed other unusual celebrations, including anniversaries and a funeral.

Read the original article on People