San Francisco's Viral T. Rex Newlyweds Break Their Silence: 'We Had No Idea Someone Was Recording Us'
At San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco County, California, a couple posing for wedding photos on the grand staircase in inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex costumes on October 8 were filmed by a passerby, and the video has since topped 4.3 million views. The pair did not go public at the time. They have now identified themselves in an exclusive PEOPLE interview: the groom is José Contreras, 34, and the bride is Gabriela Hernández, 37.
According to PEOPLE, both work as auto finance consultants and have been together for five years. Wearing dinosaur costumes was Hernández's idea, because she loves dinosaurs and dressing up; the couple ordered the two inflatable T. rex suits from Amazon in advance. In the photos, the bride's high heels poke out beneath her costume, and she wears a veil and carries a bouquet, while the groom's T. rex wears a white bow tie.
Contreras clarified to PEOPLE that the couple did not actually say their vows in the costumes: the inflatable suits were too difficult to get married in, especially on a particularly hot day, so they held their ceremony in regular wedding attire and changed into the dinosaur costumes afterward for photos. He said several strangers at City Hall were amused and took photos of them as well.
The video went viral entirely by chance. According to PEOPLE and the New York Post, San Francisco resident Río De Léon had simply stopped by City Hall that day to admire the architecture. Filming from the top floor, he panned right and spotted the newlyweds in dinosaur costumes waiting on the grand staircase. He posted the clip to Instagram the same day, captioning it that he had "casually witnessed two dinosaurs getting married at city hall in San Francisco." PEOPLE reports the video has now amassed more than 4.3 million views and 475,000 likes; when the New York Post first reported it on October 10, the video had about 283,000 likes.
Commenters quickly identified the wedding photographer, Kate Rasskazova. She posted her own video of the couple the next day, which drew about 280,000 views, writing that they really did wear dinosaur costumes to their San Francisco City Hall wedding and that the bride wore heels. At the time, she kept the couple's identity private.
The couple had eloped without telling their families and planned to keep the wedding secret until a Halloween party, where they intended to show a reveal video of themselves taking off the dinosaur costumes. Seeing the clip spread online came as a complete shock, Contreras said: "We had no idea someone was recording us!"
In a further twist, some relatives forwarded the viral video to the couple without realizing it was them, saying it looked like something the two would do at their wedding. The newlyweds told PEOPLE that the warm wishes from people all over the world have been amazing to read, and that the episode "turned out to be such a fun and memorable experience." (Source: PEOPLE)
Source: PEOPLE
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 旧金山市政厅圆形大厅与大楼梯资料图（T meltzer摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons；非当事人照片）
