#Stranger captures couple’s Brooklyn Bridge wedding, tracks them down on Twitter

These newlyweds are lucky and in love — and now they have a picture to prove it.

A quick-thinking photographer captured the exact moment a bride and groom tied the knot on the Brooklyn Bridge, then used the collective power of social media to track down the mysterious couple and unite them with their one and only wedding photo.

“I realized there was no one else there — no family watching or photographer,” said Nevona Friedman, the 26-year-old New Yorker who captured the moment on Sunday while on a stroll with her boyfriend. “I really can’t imagine getting married with no photos.”

When she spotted the scene, she jumped out into the bike path to frame up the shot on her phone, romantic sunset and all. When she got home, she took to Twitter to try and identify the newlyweds and present them with the surprise pics.

“If you were getting married on the Brooklyn Bridge this evening, I’ve got some photos for you!” Friedman tweeted, racking up more than 132,000 likes.

Friedman, who works in tech, tagged reporters and posted the photos in various social media groups until she found a mutual friend who connected her to the lucky bride, Nikolina Kovalenko, a 32-year-old artist from Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

While weddings around the country are being canceled or reimagined, Kovalenko and her groom, Stefan Ponova, 30, planned theirs with the coronavirus in mind. After getting engaged last month, they decided to cut the guest list entirely in the name of social distancing.

“We knew we wouldn’t be able to have a wedding where all our friends and family could attend,” Kovalenko told The Post. They didn’t even hire a photographer in an effort to keep it low-key with as few people as possible.

The pair were married July 26, exactly one year after meeting while salsa dancing in Colombia. They had an “amazing connection” right away, Kovalenko said. When she had to leave the next morning to continue her travels throughout South America, she jokingly invited him to meet her at the bus stop, not thinking he’d ever show.

At 6 a.m. the next day, he was waiting for her.

Their relationship blossomed after a 10-hour bus journey and later while trekking through the glaciers of Patagonia and beach-hopping around Brazil. At the end of the months-long trip, Ponova returned to New York City with Kovalenko — at the start of the pandemic. The lockdown only brought them closer, though.

“We went from one exciting story, I guess, to a very interesting situation here,” Kovalenko said. “But we didn’t feel claustrophobic being locked down together. We just felt like we were connecting even more.”

Their wedding day was just as whirlwind as their relationship. It began at their favorite brunch spot, Cafe Zona Sur in Sunset Park. Then, they walked all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge to tie the knot with only an officiant they hired online.

“We started walking from one end together and thought it was a beautiful idea to meet the [officiant] in the middle and then come out on the other side of the bridge already married,” she said.

They concluded the day with Champagne, watching the sunset and plotting their future together. They were so caught up in the moment, they missed their dinner reservations — and the thoughtful bystander taking their picture, Kovalenko said. But neither minded their unexpected wedding crasher — or the fact that their intimate day was seen by thousands online.

“Friends and strangers alike were sharing their love and their good energy [in the comments] and somehow maybe this is exactly what they needed to see,” she said. “We felt like we were creating this bigger circle of love.”

— Melkorka Licea contributed to this report.