San Francisco City Hall hosts weddings nearly every day, and couples posing on its grand staircase are a familiar sight. In October, a video of two inflatable T. rexes posing there in a veil and bow tie went viral on Instagram. The couple inside the costumes, José Contreras, 34, and Gabriela Hernández, 37, told People the photos were part of a wedding they had kept secret from their families.
The pair, who work as auto finance consultants, had been together for five years before they married at City Hall on Thursday, Oct. 8. They eloped without telling relatives, and the plan was to keep it quiet until a Halloween party. The costume idea came from Hernández, who loves dinosaurs and dressing up, and the couple ordered the inflatable T. rex suits from Amazon ahead of the ceremony.
They didn’t actually say their vows as dinosaurs. Contreras explained that getting married in the inflatable suits would have been too difficult, especially on a hot day, so they wore regular wedding attire for the ceremony. Afterward, they climbed into the costumes for photos on the grand staircase, with Hernández still wearing her veil, heels, and bouquet, and Contreras sporting a white bow tie.
The couple says they had no idea a stranger was filming them from above
The moment only became public because of a passerby. Río De Léon, who had stopped by to admire the architecture, was recording from the building’s top floor when he spotted the dinosaur newlyweds waiting on the staircase. He shared the clip on Instagram the same day as @riothegemini, writing that he “casually witnessed two dinosaurs getting married at city hall in San Francisco,” and tagged San Francisco’s city government account.
The reel has since racked up over two million views, and the couple said seeing it online came as a complete shock. “We had no idea someone was recording us,” the newlyweds told the outlet. Some relatives even forwarded the viral clip to them without realizing the dinosaurs on the staircase were the newlyweds themselves, according to the couple.
The video also pulled their wedding photographer into the spotlight. Commenters identified Kate Rasskazova as the person shooting the portraits, and she posted her own reel the next day confirming the pair really did wear the costumes for their City Hall wedding. Rasskazova said no couple had asked her for anything like it before, and noted that her son has been fascinated by dinosaurs for over two years.
The T. rex photos joined a string of unconventional ceremonies that spread online this year, including a robot wedding turning heads over the summer. The difference here, however, is that the couple only wanted the dinosaur photos for themselves and their families, and the viral attention came from a stranger’s camera on the top floor, not their own.
The couple’s original reveal plan was built around the costumes, too. Contreras came up with the idea of filming a video of the two of them taking off the dinosaur suits, which they intended to show loved ones at their Halloween party. However, the viral reel meant some family members saw the dinosaurs before the couple had a chance to explain who was inside them.
The couple hasn’t said whether they’ll post the reveal video publicly, which would show the City Hall dinosaurs stepping out of their T. rex suits on camera for the first time.
Published: Nov 3, 2026 05:30 am