A groom was forced to watch his own wedding livestreamed on his phone outside of the hotel venue after a sudden change in Covid rules

• A sudden change in Covid regulations left a groom watching his own wedding over a livestream.
• Viral videos show him sitting outside the hotel as his bride walks down the aisle.

A groom in China was forced to watch his own wedding livestreamed on his mobile phone because of a sudden change in Covid testing rules.

In videos circulating on social media, a man in a wedding suit can be seen sitting outdoors on the curb while watching a live broadcast of his bride walking down the aisle.

"The wedding has started but the groom is outside," the person filming the video said before bursting out in laughter, per news outlet The Cover.

The story has gone viral, with the hashtag "the groom did not get a Covid test and squatted outside to watch wedding livestream" getting more than 210 million views on China's Twitter-like platform, Weibo.

On Thursday, the Xinjiang-based groom, identified as Mr. Deng, took to Douyin — China's TikTok — to explain what happened. (Spoiler: the happy couple managed to tie the knot in the end.)

"We were told that we only needed to have a negative Covid PCR test result done within four days to enter the venue. But at 12 noon on [the wedding day] April 26, the hotel told us that everyone had to have a negative test result that was done within 48 hours," he said.

"Mine was outdated by then so I had to rush to the nearest clinic to get another one," he said, noting that 20 other guests were also stopped from entering the venue for the same reason.

Mr. Deng had no choice but to sit outside and wait for his test results to come back.

As the guests inside were getting impatient, the couple decided that his bride, nicknamed Xiaojie, would walk down the aisle first alongside the couple's parents.

"They gave thank you speeches and explained the situation to everyone. Then, they started the banquet so that the guests could fill their stomachs in the meantime," Mr. Deng said of the proceedings, which he could only watch over his phone.

The wedding was supposed to start at 2 p.m. but he was allowed entry only at 4.43 p.m., he said. The couple finally got married at 6 p.m. "That was the real start of the wedding, and it was beautiful," he said in his video.

Mr. Deng did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.