LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) — A Fort Myers couple’s wedding took an unexpected turn when three uninvited guests crashed their ceremony.
Fabiola Jauregi and her now-husband, Austin, were about to exchange vows at a Tennessee mountain venue when a mama bear and two cubs appeared. They arrived just in time, standing in the back and turning heads among the wedding guests.
“I was trying to be in the moment,” Jauregi said. “I said, ‘I’m not gonna have anxiety. We’re gonna enjoy every single moment.'”
Jauregi has photographed hundreds of Southwest Florida weddings as a vendor. She wanted something a little different, choosing an out-of-state location.
Jauregi got a little more than she bargained for. The bears stood about 20 feet away from the guests, Jauregi said, until the venue owner shooed away the mother. All three bears wandered away safely, allowing the wedding to continue. The whole thing was captured on video.
The couple’s photographer later used artificial intelligence to create a picture-perfect moment with the bears digitally added next to the bride and groom.
The video of the encounter was posted to Instagram, where it has gotten more than 15,000 likes.
“It’s definitely been fun, and we’ll probably rewatch it till our last days,” Jauregi said.