As a general rule of thumb, nobody likes a wedding crasher. But the president of the United States isn’t typically the one showing up uninvited on your big day.
President Barack Obama was finishing a game of golf at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego on Sunday night around the time Brian and Stephanie Tobe’s wedding was set to start.
The Tobes were busy making their final preparations to say “I do” when their photographers saw Obama shaking hands nearby, according to a report from NBC San Diego. The bride-to-be wasted no time in picking up her wedding gown, hopping in an elevator, and running onto the lawn – her husband at her heels.
"Honestly, I'm normally a pretty shy person, but man, yesterday, for the wedding day and in that moment, I didn't care about anything,” she told the station.
A crowd of onlookers hoping to meet the president stepped aside, and after a security check, President Obama greeted the couple, embraced the bride, and posed for photos with the lucky couple, according to "NBC Nightly News".
"When I was running up to him, I just started crying,” the bride said. “I was in a state of complete shock."
President Obama and the groom discussed his work as a doctor at the local VA, as well as their mutual love for the University of Chicago. According to Stephanie Tobes, the president was warm, listened attentively, and also offered the couple a piece of advice.
A lace train was affixed to her gown, and “he specifically told my husband Brian not to step on my dress,” she said.
While the ceremony started late, the couple ultimately credited the president’s pep talk with taking “the edge off the rest of the wedding,” wrote NBC San Diego.