A wedding day can be full of surprises, but that doesn’t often include a brief appearance by Tom Hanks. So, imagine bride Grace Gwaltney’s shock when the iconic actor wanted a photo with her on her big day. The unexpected encounter happened when the bride and her party were en route from a downtown Pittsburgh hotel to the ceremony. Captured by wedding photographer Rachel Rowland, the women were shocked and elated to be meeting Hanks; everyone was all smiles as they posed together on the streets of Steel City.
Hanks was in town filming a movie titled A Man Called Otto, and he saw the group as they were exiting the Fairmont Hotel. Just as Gwaltney was about to enter the limo, he came up behind them. “So we were all walking from the hotel to the limo, and out of nowhere, he pops up and just says, ‘My name is Tom Hanks! Can I take a photo with the bride?’” Rowland says. “We all started screaming and were pretty much in shock.”
The actor was just as charming as his famous persona suggests. His wife, Rita Wilson, was also there and appeared in some of Rowland’s candid photos. Hanks and Wilson ended their encounter by wishing them luck and being on their way. “And we were all just there with our jaws on the floor,” they admit.
This isn’t the first time that Hanks has surprised someone on their wedding day. In 2016, the actor strolled up to a couple of newlyweds while they were in the middle of their wedding portraits at Central Park.
Actor Tom Hanks surprised bride Grace Gwaltney as she and her bridesmaids were en route to her wedding ceremony. He wanted a photo!
Hanks’ wife, Rita Wilson, was also there. With a little convincing, she got in the photos, too.
