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T-Rex Bride

Emma Helleur has married 31 couples in Nelson since October, but one bride took the cake.

The wedding celebrant and MC was gobsmacked by one creative bride who chose to spice things up by walking down the aisle in an inflatable T-Rex costume, saying it was the most unique entrance she’s seen in her career.

The outdoor venue, Nelson’s Playhouse Theatre & Cafe, has a secluded pathway hidden by bushes that lead to the aisle. The bride had a friend meet her there, and dress her in the dinosaur costume.

The groom Jason Rako and Helleur had their backs to the aisle, but could hear all their guests breaking into laughter.

“[The groom] was side-eyeing me, because he had no idea what was happening” Helleur said, “and then he turned around was just cry-laughing. All the guests thought it was hilarious. It was very her.”

The bride, Myo Thein, lives with her now-husband, and had made her wedding dress at home.

“He’d seen the dress from idea to creation, the whole thing,” Helleur said. “So she decided to have a bit of a surprise arranged for him.”

Helleur filmed Thein’s big entrance, and posted the video to TikTok where it’s been viewed more than 430,000 times. “If I’d known it was going to blow up, I would’ve done my hair and makeup,” she said.

Thein, the bride, said she was “quite a socially awkward person.

“I don’t really do costumes. But I always wanted to wear a dinosaur.

“I thought, this is the day I could actually do it. I don’t have any secrets from my partner, so I had to hide it in the bush.

“I’m from Burma, so initially people thought I had worn something cultural. Then they saw the head bobbing.

She walked halfway down the aisle to where the groom’s dad was waiting to walk her down the rest, and had the same friend help her take the costume off, to reveal the wedding dress.

The tulle wedding gown was big. “It was quite hard to get my wedding dress in there, there was lots of it,” Thein said.

“I’ve got a weird sense of humour that [my husband] says he loves. Because I do random things.”

“While obviously she took the marriage seriously. She was so excited,” Helleur said. “She’s just a fun person, someone who doesn’t know how to take life too seriously.”

For a wedding to be legal in New Zealand, there are only a few requirements, Helleur said: birth certificates, the witnesses, signing the paperwork, and the ‘I dos’.

“It’s 2022, so much of that old traditional stuff isn’t required anymore. Why not have fun with it?”

She’s also had one couple pick out their two witnesses with raffle tickets, and some Dungeons and Dragons fans give their vows with an oversized dice.

Story originally published on Stuff.co.nz