A bride was "shocked" when Tom Hanks crashed her bridal party's photoshoot outside of the Fairmont Hotel in Pittsburgh.
Recounting the moment Hanks walked up to the group on Saturday and asked for a photo, Grace Gwaltney, the bride, told KCRA that she immediately froze and had no idea what to do or say.
"He was like, 'Hey! I'm Tom Hanks. I would love to get a photo with you,' and I immediately froze and was just looking around. I didn't know what to do," she said.
"We all lost it," Gwaltney's wedding photographer, Rachel Rowland, added. "The bridesmaids shuffled out of the limo, and he posed with photos and congratulated everyone, and then as fast as he popped in, he was gone. It was just so sweet and fun!"
Gwaltney admitted she recognized Hanks as soon as he started speaking. She knew by his voice that it was the "Toy Story" star.
"You see him, and then he starts speaking, and he was like, 'You look so beautiful. I'm so happy for you.' He was talking in my ear," she told KCRA. "I was thinking of 'Toy Story.' "
Gwaltney was so excited about the encounter that she could not wait to tell her soon-to-be-husband Luke before they got married at Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh.
"We had a moment before the ceremony and we prayed, and we were holding hands and going back-to-back so we wouldn't see each other," she revealed. " 'Luke, I just met Tom Hanks.' I had to sneak that in there."
Hanks is known as a bit of a wedding crasher. In October last year, he stunned a couple when he showed up while the newlyweds were having photos taken on the beach by the Santa Monica Pier to congratulate them.
"We were so in our own moment, so for him to walk up, it was shocking and took a second for us to realize. It was the cherry on top for our big day," Diciembre Farries told Today shortly after, recalling how Hanks spent several minutes speaking with them and their guests before asking them for a photo.
In another incident in 2016, Hanks was out for a run in Central Park when he noticed newlyweds having their photos taken, so he stopped to greet them and pose for a few selfies. Meg Miller, the New York-based photographer responsible for taking the couple's official wedding photos, recounted the incident to BBC.
"We were photographing the bride and groom in Central Park and a guy on a jog started to slow down near the couple, he leaned in close as he took off his hat and sunglasses and said, 'Hi, I am Tom Hanks' while reaching out to shake the groom's hand," she said. "He asked their names and wished them congratulations, and before he left he asked to take a selfie with them. He posted it within minutes to his Instagram, Twitter and Facebook."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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