PITTSBURGH — A newlywed couple said they were drunk and joking around when they inadvertently started a fight with hotel guests who rushed to the aid of the bride because they thought she was being assaulted by the groom.

David and Christa Wielechowski said in an interview broadcast Monday on WPXI-TV that the headlines and media attention over the brawl has damaged their reputation and possibly even their fledgling dental practice; David Wielechowski is a dentist and his wife is one of his assistants.

The Wielechowskis are accused of assaulting other hotel guests and throwing metal planters in the lobby of a Holiday Inn in Ross Township on April 27. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 28.

The couple insist they are victims.

Christa Wielechowski said the fight began in the hallway outside their hotel room when she stuck out her backside and the drunken groom lightly tapped her rear with his foot. The bride said she also was intoxicated, tripped on her wedding gown and fell on her face. Her husband dropped four six-packs of beer on the floor.

Other hotel guests rushed over, thinking she had been assaulted and wanting to help, the bride said. She said she told them to leave her alone and that she was fine, but they exchanged profanities with the Wielechowskis.

A man then punched her husband in the face, she said, and the two sides erupted into an extended brawl, complete with kicking, biting, choking and stomping, that ended in the hotel lobby.

The Wielechowskis, who were legally married a month earlier and repeated their vows at a Pittsburgh reception hours before the fight, spent their wedding night in separate prison cells, the bride still in her gown.