Couple's First Dance at Wedding Is Interrupted by Wedding Crasher, Who Then Gets Arrested

Sadie and Adam Dajka were shocked when they looked over to see a stranger dancing with them at their wedding

wedding crasher

One newlywed couple’s special day had to be put on pause when a wedding crasher tried to steal their thunder as they shared the dance floor for the first time as husband and wife.

According to ABC News, Sadie and Adam Dajka were slow-dancing together at their May 20 wedding in St. Pete Beach, Florida, when they noticed someone trying to bust some moves along with them.

“I heard my little sister, my matron of honor say, ‘What are you doing?’ And then he was dancing next to us,” Sadie told the news station.

That’s when wedding photographer Val Ritter began taking snapshots of the man and soon realized the couple and their guests had no idea who he was.

“It was the first dance, and I was taking pictures of my bride and groom. I feel [someone] behind me doing some kind of dance or touching me and trying to get my attention,” Ritter recalled to Fox affiliate WTVT. “I’ve had wedding crashers, but they’ve never been that aggressive.”

Guest Jan Vanpolen told NBC affiliate WFLA that she noticed the man was getting drinks and dancing with bridesmaids and the groom’s mother earlier at the reception.

wedding crasher
The wedding crasher.

“The bride thought it was hilarious. The groom did not,” Vanpolen said. “Neither did any of the groomsmen.”

With no sign of the stranger settling down, the bride’s father and her brothers threw the man out of the party.

But the wedding crasher wasn’t done crashing just yet.

A short time after being escorted out, the man — later identified as Mark Saunderson, 37 — allegedly snuck back in through a side door, according to Yahoo. He was taken out of the reception once again, but this time he was arrested for disorderly conduct by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

Saunderson did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

wedding crasher
VR Vision Photography

“I just started laughing. I mean, what else can you do in that situation?” Sadie told ABC of the ordeal.

“I started laughing soon too,” her husband, Adam, added. “I was mostly worried about her reaction.”

The uninvited guest was bailed out the next morning, and both Adam and Sadie told WTVT they’re ready to move on and won’t hold a grudge against him.

Ritter, too, also found a way to embrace the absurdity of it all.

“When weddings go bad,” she told the outlet, “it just becomes part of your wedding and story.”

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