A sudden change in Covid-19 testing regulations forced one groom in China to watch the beginning of his own wedding being live-streamed as he sat outside the venue on Apr 26.
Instead of being sad, however, the groom, who has been identified as a Mr Deng, can be seen grinning widely at his bride walking down the aisle as he watches on his mobile phone, sitting on a kerb outside the hotel where they had booked their wedding.
Neither is he lonely, as he seemed to be surrounded by friends who were taking photos and videos of him and laughing.
“The wedding has started but the groom is outside,” one of the people who were with the groom can be heard saying.
The nine-second video of Mr Deng has gone viral on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, where it’s been viewed over 210 million times, according to a story on insider.com.
The video carried the hashtag “the groom did not get a Covid test and squatted outside to watch wedding live stream,” the story added.
On Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, the bride and groom themselves clarified what happened on their wedding day.
“We were told that we only needed to have a negative Covid PCR test result done within four days to enter the venue. But at 12 noon on April 26, the hotel told us that everyone had to have a negative test result that was done within 48 hours,” he said.
Since his test had lapsed by then, he suddenly had to rush to the nearest clinic to get another one done, along with around 20 guests who were also not allowed to enter the hotel as their PCR tests were outdated by the time the wedding began.
Hence the need to wait outside the venue until Mr Deng’s results arrived.
Nevertheless, the wedding schedule got delayed, and because the guests were getting impatient, he and his bride, Ms Xiaojie, opted for her to walk down the aisle escorted by her parents.
Breaking tradition, the wedding began with a banquet so that guests would not have to go hungry. Ms Xiaojie’s parents also told the guests what was going on and made their thank-you speeches while waiting for the groom’s results.
Mr Deng was finally allowed into the hotel at 4:43 pm, and the couple tied the knot at 6:00 pm, four hours after the scheduled start of the ceremony.
/TISG