Details emerge on Christina El Moussa's surprise wedding: How they shocked their guests

One easy way to avoid pre-wedding drama? Just don't tell anyone the wedding is even happening.

Christina El Moussa and her new husband, Ant Anstead, not only kept their three-month engagement under wraps -- the entire wedding was a secret until the moment it happened, the two revealed to People.

The HGTV star, who shares her home renovation show with ex-husband Tarek El Moussa, invited about 70 people over to their Newport Beach home on Dec. 22 to watch a holiday boat parade. But when the guests arrived, they were greeted with unmistakeable "neatly arranged white chairs leading to a flower-covered arch in the yard," People reports.

"Got ya!" Anstead reportedly said to family and friends before a string quartet began playing "Stand By Me."

As El Moussa, who recently filmed her HGTV spin-off "Christina on The Coast," walked down the aisle, she said, "Surprise! We're getting married!"

Heavily incorporated into the wedding were their children: “We wanted to make it about the kids,” Anstead previously said of the ceremony. “It’s the six of us. We are a blended family so it was really important for them to be a part of it."

Both parents have a son and a daughter from their previous marriages: El Moussa's daughter is 8 and son is 3, while Anston has a 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son.

Four days after his ex's surprise wedding, Tarek El Moussa took the kids on a Colorado vacation with some of his family members.

The former couple announced their separation in May 2016 and the divorced was finalized in January 2018.