A newlywed couple was arrested Saturday night, following an incident at a downtown bar, and a photo taken of the aftermath of that incident is going viral.

Witnesses said a wedding party arrived at Denizen Hall at about 10 p.m. Saturday night – and they appeared to be intoxicated.

The group was reportedly kicked out by bar staff a short time later and two witnesses told CTV News they didn’t leave without a fight.

“The doors just explode open and bodies just started piling out,” Matt Machado said in an interview with CTV News.

Ryan, the Twitter user who posted the infamous photo of the bride in handcuffs, told CTV News what happened next.

“There was a melee on the sidewalk, and then we realized it involved the wedding party,” he said. “You could see all these guys in tuxedos.”

“As we were watching, we just kind of see this girl in a wedding dress right in the middle of it.”

“The bride is just swinging, and the melee ends up on the sidewalk,” Machado said.

It was about at this point when Ryan snapped the viral photo, capturing the bride standing in handcuffs afterwards, with a police officer who appeared to be speaking with her.

“It was just kind of like the perfect photo,” Ryan said.

 

 

Since the incident, the image has been shared hundreds of times on social media, and has appeared in news reports as far away as the United Kingdom, even inspiring an idea for a wedding cake topper.

“I knew it was a funny photo, but I didn’t really think it would catch on,” Ryan said.

“It was just absolutely ridiculous and absolutely absurd,” Machado said. “This is playing out in front of everybody and the whole bar catches on, and they’re watching from this big bay window, this train wreck of a wedding!”

EPS confirmed Tuesday that the bride and groom, aged 36 and 37-years-old respectively, had been arrested and charged. She has been charged with assault, he with mischief.

Nobody was seriously hurt in the incident, witnesses credited bar staff with handling the situation before it got worse.

“I do have to say that I thought the staff handled it really well,” Ryan said.

“I thought the bar staff was 100 percent professional about it,” Machado said.

Machado said this incident and the viral photo could serve as a reminder that just about anything in public, can reach a much larger audience in the age of social media.

“When you’re doing the wrong thing in the wrong place, you now become the face for examples of what not to do.”

With files from Bill Fortier