weddings

Sorry everyone, but no, you can't get married by a bear.

If you’ve clicked on this story, your day is about to be ruined.

A bear cannot officiate your wedding.

Last year, The Daily Mail along with Cosmopolitan and The Mirror published many stories about images that surfaced showing a bear officiating a wedding in Russia.

The Daily Mail were SHOCKED; The Mirror were concerned about the bear’s weight; Cosmopolitan grew angry the bear couldn’t offer 21 tips for a mind-blowing orgasm.

It was, however, fake news.

via GIPHY

According to Gizmodo, Buzzfeed did a little digging into the alleged wedding.

They managed to track down the bear who couldn’t help with the investigation, because he was a bear.

It turned out however, that the photographer, Olga Barantseva, had done a number of photoshoots with a tame bear in the past; the bride and groom weren’t connected on social media; the bride was listed as ‘single’ on her Facebook page; the bride lived nowhere near Moscow, where the wedding took place.

Also bears cannot hold rings, become ordained, or speak English.

For any media agency, the 24hr news cycle can make fake news hard to spot. Heck even we have run stories that have turned out to be a little bit false.

But if we’re honest, they probably should’ve seen this one coming.

Mamamia acknowledges the rights to these images are owned by Caters News Agency.

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Stepan (yes, Stepan) is a 213cm tall, 135 kilogram house-bear from Russia. House-bear is a word we’ve created just for Stepan, who is a bear and also happens to live in a house.

He is a “tame Bear”; an utterly ridiculous statement which contradicts itself both in its essence and its entirety.

According to boredpanda, Stepan lives with a Russian couple who adopted him when he was 3-months-old (small bear).

He is now 23 (large bear).

His owner told boredpanda “We have never been bitten by Stepan,” which is good, considering he is a bear.

There probably won’t be #moretocome on this story, we just thought you should stay informed. #bearwatch.

You can follow the photographer, Olga Barantseva (her photos are stunning), on Instagram here.

Has a bear officiated your wedding? Let us know in the comments section below.