Eleisa Rossel Aparicio decided to shoot her shot when she sent Thomas Lucas Wolter an Instagram DM in December 2022, four years after they had met in a hospital emergency room in greater Los Angeles, where both held entry-level jobs.
In October 2025, she decided to shoot her shot again when she and Mr. Wolter mailed their wedding invitation to Bad Bunny’s record label, Rimas Entertainment, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
By then engaged, the couple had about 15 extra invitations and decided to send them out to companies they liked, including In-N-Out Burger, Trader Joe’s, Sephora and Pokémon, in hopes of receiving some freebies. Also on the list was Bad Bunny, Mr. Wolter’s favorite artist, whom they bonded over on their first date. At best, maybe they would receive a signed postcard, they thought.
On Jan. 15, while thrifting for photo frames for their wedding, Ms. Aparicio received a call from a Puerto Rican phone number and assumed it was spam. But after rejecting the call, she received a text from the number saying that it was a member of Bad Bunny’s team. They talked on the phone, and the couple were told about a forthcoming offer that could not yet be revealed.
The couple were asked for their sneaker and apparel sizes. “We were like, ‘Oh my god, he’s going to give us a T-shirt or something,” Mr. Wolter recalled thinking. Then, they were asked if they had any travel restrictions, and they thought maybe they would be invited to a concert.
It turned out to be neither of those things. Over a Zoom call two days later with the artist’s team, the couple were told that Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, wanted them to get married at his Super Bowl LX halftime performance in Santa Clara, Calif.
“We both looked at each other — I’ll never forget the feeling,” Ms. Aparicio said. “They were like, ‘Benito wants to capture real people, real emotions, real love.’”
Her mind was swirling with questions about how it would all work, but the couple agreed. They didn’t yet know that Lady Gaga, coincidentally Ms. Aparicio’s favorite artist, would perform immediately after they were married onstage; or that Bad Bunny, Mr. Wolter’s favorite artist, would sign the marriage document as their witness.
They also did not anticipate the attention they would receive in the aftermath of the performance, they said in their first interview since. While viewers picked up on the Easter eggs and subtle details throughout the show, which was a joyful celebration of Latin culture, some noticed that the couple who were (yes, legally) married onstage appeared to be a real-life couple and were curious to learn more about them.
Their story began in 2018. Mr. Wolter was an emergency room technician, and Ms. Aparicio was a medical scribe.
“We would catch each other’s eyes,” Mr. Wolter said. “I always thought she was really cute.”
“There was something about him that intrigued me,” Ms. Aparicio said, including the handlebar mustache he sported at the time. “I thought it was so silly.”
A few years passed — and both went on to become registered nurses — but they kept up with each other on Instagram. “I always kind of had him in the back of my mind,” Ms. Aparicio said.
In December 2022, she messaged him, “Hey, how have you been?”
“With the blushy emoji,” Mr. Wolter added.
She sent the message, threw her phone on her bed, and disappeared from her room for hours out of anxiety. But he responded right away, making sure to use the same blushing emoji. (A screenshot of her initial text, and his response, now hangs framed in their living room.)
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In early 2023, they met for burgers. Mid-conversation, Ms. Aparicio noticed on his Apple Watch that he had been listening to Bad Bunny’s “Neverita” from his album “Un Verano Sin Ti” (“A Summer Without You”), which she had on repeat.
“You like Bad Bunny?” she asked. He said he had loved the artist, and Spanish music in general, since 2019, when the gym he went to almost exclusively played Reggaeton. Ms. Aparicio, who comes from an El Salvadoran background, grew up with the genre.
They met up three to four times a month, coordinating their schedules to see each other as often as they could despite their 12-hour shifts, whether it was going to the gym or Trader Joe’s (he had never been to the grocery chain, and she wanted to take him); sitting on the floor of a Barnes & Noble reading books; or sifting through vinyl at a record shop.
“She was making me feel a different way that I didn’t even know you could feel,” Mr. Wolter said.
About a month after their first date, he asked her on the phone: “Hypothetically speaking, how long should you date somebody before you put a label on it?” He was ready to make it official, but she needed more time.
On Feb. 23, 2023, at the end of a Disneyland date, they were sitting at a table when she said, “I’m ready now. You can ask me again,” Mr. Wolter recalled.
“I just couldn’t get him out of my brain,” Ms. Aparicio said. She decided to let him in.
They realized they loved each other when he went on a solo trip to New York for a week in March. “Everything I did, I was like, ‘I wish Elly was here,’” Mr. Wolter said.
When he returned home, she came over with soft-baked chocolate chip cookies (his favorite) that she made for him, and he got her roses and a velvet cropped coat that he thrifted for her in New York. (He had walked around all day to find a thrift store despite hurting his ankle, because he knew she liked vintage finds.) “That’s when that L-word was dropped,” he said.
In October 2024, Mr. Wolter, 32, proposed in Cannon Beach, Ore. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Ms. Aparicio, 29, earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from California State University, Fullerton, and a master’s degree in nursing from Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif.
The couple participated in two weeks of rehearsals: one week in Los Angeles and one week in Santa Clara. Their family and friends knew they were involved in the Super Bowl in some way, but did not know details — the couple had been joking that they’d be dancers. Mr. Wolter told his mother to “bring your magnifying glass. See if you can find us. We might be there somewhere.” Their families recorded themselves watching the performance live.
On the first day of rehearsals in Los Angeles, Ms. Aparicio tried on about six dresses from the designer Hayley Paige, ultimately selecting a strapless, corseted gown. She did her own makeup, and her hair was done by Mariah Montes.
Before the live performance, Bad Bunny signed their marriage certificate as the witness, and the three had a moment together. The couple gave the artist Pokémon cards, because he’s a fan too, and wrote him a card in Spanish.
The couple’s shining moment started about five minutes into the halftime show, after a classical group played the opening strings of “Monaco.” The camera shifted to the wedding ceremony, where the couple, dressed in white, held hands and looked straight at each other with wide smiles. When they were pronounced husband and wife by Antonio Reyes, a pastor at Project Church South Sacramento, they kissed.
“Just looking at him, it just took away all the nerves,” Ms. Aparicio said of Mr. Wolter. “I forgot that there were 70,000 people.”
“I was so locked in on her,” Mr. Wolter added.
The couple and the white-clad dancers parted to reveal Lady Gaga and the band Los Sobrinos, who performed a salsa rendition of “Die With a Smile.” “I almost passed out,” Ms. Aparicio said about finding out about the guest performance.
Bad Bunny then joined in and announced, “Mientras uno está vivo, uno debe amar lo más que pueda,” or, “While one is alive, one must love as much as one can.” They danced salsa to “Baile Inolvidable” in a scene reminiscent of a vibrant wedding reception. The couple took out a massive slice from a three-tier cake while a child slept on some chairs in a corner.
In a sort of first dance, Mr. Wolter twirled Ms. Aparicio around and they kissed to “Baile Inolvidable,” which they had planned to be their first dance song at their wedding reception. Later on in the show, a Jumbotron shared a message: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” What better way to exemplify that message than a wedding?
“There were a lot of cool things that happened,” Mr. Wolter said, but “the thing that I’m most excited for is that I have a wife now. A partner for life and a best friend for life.”
At their hotel afterward, the vignettes, or the characters in the show — including the women getting their nails done, the barber cutting hair, vendors of coco frío, tacos and piragua (all their real jobs) — watched the performance together for the first time once it was uploaded on YouTube, cheering one another on.
And at 9 a.m. the next day, the couple headed back home, back to their nursing shifts and regular lives.
On This Day
When Feb. 8, 2026
Where Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif.
After the Ceremony The newlyweds walked out of the arena while Bad Bunny was still performing and made their way to the compound where their belongings were. Their phones were blowing up with texts and missed calls, but the couple prioritized FaceTiming their mothers. “Emotions were high,” Mr. Wolter said.
Wedding Songs The couple considers both “Die with a Smile” and “Baile Inolvidable” to be their wedding songs — one performed live by each of their favorite artists. “It’s a gift from the universe,” Ms. Aparicio said.
No Crashers The couple will soon be hosting a celebration for family and friends, but asked to withhold details to maintain privacy. Bad Bunny will not be in attendance, Mr. Wolter said, “so there’s no point in trying to crash it.”
Sadiba Hasan reports on love and culture for the Styles section of The Times.
The post They Met in an E.R. and Were Married at the Super Bowl appeared first on New York Times.
