Pete Buttigieg Performs Impromptu Wedding Ceremony Before Couple's Baby Is Born

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg officiated a couple’s wedding on Monday, less than an hour before the birth of their baby.

The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, explained in a Facebook post how he was enjoying some “unstructured time” at around 8:15 a.m. when the young couple, Mary and Gabe, paid him a visit.

Buttigieg was “just the person” they wanted to see, they told him. He noted in his post that he “saw the rare few minutes of free time I had left vanishing” with their appearance.

But, after they explained they were headed to the hospital for a C-section appointment at 9 a.m. and “were hoping they could be married before she delivered,” Buttigieg said there was “only one answer to that question.”

Check out the Facebook post here:

Buttigieg rounded up staff members to act as witnesses and filled out the marriage paperwork as a colleague acquired some ribbon to use as the couple’s rings.

The newlyweds left Buttigieg’s office “with just enough time to get to the hospital,” the mayor said. They later sent a photograph of their newborn to one of Buttigieg’s staffers.

“It’s moments like this that I’ll miss when my term as mayor comes to an end,” Buttigieg concluded. “Congratulations to the newlyweds and new parents, and welcome, Jade, to this unlikely and lovely world!” 

The April 1 date of the marriage and birth led some folks online to speculate that Buttigieg’s post was an April Fools’ gag. However, Buttigieg never debunked his story, as pranksters often traditionally do if it’s intended to be an April Fool, and confirmed the story later on Twitter.

“If I just saw this I would think it was made up,” he wrote. “But this really is how the work day began this morning.”