Bridesmaid Contract Becomes National Prank

May 28, 2007 — -- Bride-to-be Katie Masters swears she isn't crazy.

Sure, she asked her bridesmaids to sign a contract saying they wouldn't gain weight or change their hair, but that was supposed to be a little joke between her and her girls.

That all changed when the contract got on the Internet and complete strangers began calling Masters the B-word: Bridezilla.

Masters admits the contract looked drastic. Her seven bridesmaids had to agree to specific terms, including:

______ I will not change my hair color without first consulting Katie and providing a sample photo or hair swatch for consideration.

______ I will not gain more than 4 pounds from the weight I was when I was asked to be a bridesmaid.

______ I swear to attend all showers ... to arrive in a timely manner and do everything in my power to support and "be there" for the bride.

But Masters said it was all in good fun. She came up with the idea when she found a tongue-in-cheek contract on a wedding Web site.

"I did it for a little bit of humor between me and my girls," she said on "Good Morning America." "Wedding planning is stressful enough! I sent it to them right before we were going to meet to try on dresses."

From Inside Joke to National Prank

One of the terms stipulated that the bridesmaids could not actively get pregnant. Masters' sister, Kara Cimabue, was trying to get pregnant and forwarded the contract to her husband. He sent it to his best friend, setting in motion an e-mail chain that soon distributed the contract to many more inboxes than Masters had originally intended.

"I got an e-mail from a 'concerned stranger' sent anonymously. It just said, 'Your bridesmaids are mad at you. You shouldn't do this.' I thought it was my bridesmaids joking back with me," she said. "And then got another e-mail from someone posing as a bridal consultant who said he'd help me out with my requests."

Masters' older sister, Amy Grady, thought the contract was bizarre but believed it anyway. When she e-mailed Masters to ask if it was real and didn't hear back, she assumed the bride-to-be meant business.

"I thought, 'She's gone Bridezilla,'" Grady said. "I didn't think it was funny, but that's just me. Especially since I'd just had a baby. I knew I weighed more than 4 pounds more than when she'd asked me to be a bridesmaid."

Masters fessed up a few days after sending the contract. Cimabue said once she found out it was a joke, she jumped back on the bridesmaid bandwagon.

"I'm still going to be a bridesmaid," she said. "Everything's fine with my sisters. The only rule we're really following now is 'no more forwarding!'"

The saga has added to Masters' wedding stress, but she's trying to put it all behind her and get ready for the big day. If nothing else, the contract will be something for Masters and her fiancé, Robert Parker, to talk about when they're an old married couple.

"I didn't think people cared this much about somebody they don't even know. It was a joke meant for my bridesmaids," she said. "My fiancé was really upset at first, but now he thinks it's hysterical that I tried to prank seven of my friends and ended up pranking the entire country."